Nissan has had its fair share of difficulties trying to boost sales of some of its models that aren’t performing as well as they could. The Pathfinder, which hasn’t had as many problems as other models, has still been in a slump in recent years. With the new redesign of the 2022 Pathfinder, the brand hoped to shake things up. It worked?
What changed in the 2022 Nissan Pathfinder
With the new redesign, Nissan changed the exterior of the Pathfinder to make it look more like an off-road vehicle, according to cars.com. The brand changed the C-pillar giving it a more forward-leaning look. It also added a three-slot grille and boxy bodywork to make it look tougher. The length is shorter than the previous generation, but it is taller and wider than before.
The all-wheel drive version of the Pathfinder will come with a selectable terrain feature that will allow you to find a drive mode for whatever road surface you encounter. Nissan also got rid of the previous model’s continuously variable transmission and installed a nine-speed automatic in its place.
The brand designed the new generation of Nissan Pathfinder to be a good family vehicle with more interior space, especially in its cargo area. You get 16.6 cubic feet of storage behind the third-row seats. You’ll get about 80.5 cubic feet of space if you fold them up. You’ll also get about two cubic feet of underfloor storage for more storage.
With these changes, did the Pathfinder see more sales?
What do 2022 Nissan Pathfinder sales look like?
Sales of the 2022 Nissan Pathfinder model are on track, with a total of 37,582 units sold at the end of the third quarter. With three months left in the year, the three-row SUV is more than likely to surpass last year’s total sales figures, which were 41,324, according to GoodCarBadCar.
To meet the 2021 figure, Nissan would only need to sell 3,742 units. Looking at just the first quarter of this year, the Pathfinder made about 8,975 sales. If he repeats that, the brand will top last year’s total by around 5,000.
The second quarter of 2022 was the best this SUV had, with 15,302 sales. If the Pathfinder were to repeat this figure, it would top last year’s purchases by about 11,500.
How were the sales before?
We saw the start of the pandemic in early 2020. The first quarter of that year was strong for sales (18,000 total), but by the end of the second quarter, the Nissan Pathfinder dropped to 8,800, which is a difference of about 10,000. units. The numbers stayed relatively the same for the third quarter and increased a bit in the last, totaling 48,579 for the full year.
When 2021 rolled around, the first quarter was much lower, only selling 8,906. However, the second quarter was even worse. Nissan only sold 4,647 units. That year, from July to September there were some improvements, with just over 15,300 sales. The momentum stopped there, and sales began to fall in the last three months of the year.
The Pathfinder model’s best years for sales were from 2013 to 2017, which saw an average of 80,000 total sales a year. It started dropping around 20,000 units in 2018 and 2019. It seemed like its popularity was waning.
Nissan’s Pathfinder saw some pretty good sales since it debuted on the market, but it waned after a while. When the pandemic hit, purchases took a downward turn due to lockdowns and social distancing, which affected sales for a couple of years.
This year, however, it looks like the 2022 Pathfinder is making a bit of a comeback. Hopefully this will continue to increase with the new model design.