Midsize crossover battle_ Jeep vs. Nissan _ 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee L vs. 2022 Nissan Pathfinder

The Nissan Pathfinder and the Jeep Grand Cherokee L are both brand new. They're way nicer on the outside. They're bigger and roomier inside. They're cushier. They've got more screens, more USB ports, more safety. They're more money, just like everything these days. But if you have to spend that money to fit a growing family, the Pathfinder and the Grand Cherokee L are two of many good choices out there. I'll show you the features you can't miss. We'll have some fun in the dirt. Have a good time. And stay tuned to the CarGurus YouTube channel because we make lots of comparison videos. We've done minivans, pickups, sports sedans, small SUVs, large luxury SUVs, and today these three-row midsize SUVs. Let's start with some basics. The Nissan Pathfinder seats eight people or seven with the captain's chairs. Meanwhile, the Jeep Grand Cherokee L seats seven to start and six with the captain's chairs. Both have naturally aspirated V6 engines making similar output, but in the Jeep you can also get a V8 and soon a plug-in hybrid. Fuel economy with the all-wheel drive versions here. They're both in the mid-20s combined, pretty similar. Towing capacity. The Pathfinder does 6,000 pounds, which is actually pretty impressive for this segment, but the Jeep does 7,200. That's over a half ton more. Now, what else? The all-wheel drive systems. The Pathfinder has a, what do you call it, a front-wheel drive system. It's not a true four-wheel drive like the Jeep, so it'll work in front-wheel drive until it senses slippage, whereas the Jeep, you get three different four-wheel drive systems, all of which can lock the torque, and this one has a low range transfer case. It's got a locking rear differential, an air suspension, and that's why the Jeep is $65,000 and the Nissan is 51 fully loaded. The Pathfinder is squarer than before and less of a minivan. Nissan tried toughening it up to make it look more like the 90s Pathfinder. Not so much, but it does look a whole lot nicer. The Pathfinder's script spelled out wide on the tailgate. The C-shaped headlights. The brake in the C-pillar. Good looking, handsome. This is the platinum trim with 20-inch wheels. The Jeep is crisper, more upright, not just against the Pathfinder, but against the older Grand Cherokee. There's an elegance to it that the Nissan can't match. More chiseled and classic. A seven-slot grille, U-shaped fenders, thin lights. This is the Overland trim with the 18-inch wheels and the off-road group package. And that's the thing about a Jeep with a trail-rated badge. It means what it says. So the Pathfinder's a pretty good car, but the Jeep, well, this is actually a dual-personality SUV. You've got the off-road capability when you want it. And most times you're not going to want it, but it's there. It's legit. 24 inches of water fording. Some really amazing approach and departure angles. It's pretty impressive, truly. What's noticeably better? Well, the chassis and the steering. There's almost no roll. It really drives like a car that's much, much smaller. Really, it's pretty impressive. The last Grand Cherokee is based on a Mercedes chassis. This one's not. Man, you can definitely tell it feels like a modern vehicle. Absolutely. And the brakes have just as much reassurance. Nothing bad I can say there. Now, so far, I've only driven the Grand Cherokee L with an air suspension. Now, granted, that's the really nice kind, right? Everybody loves an air suspension because it just gives you that great float, and then it can firm up when you need to. And this is right up there with the best. It's got five different height settings and five different driving modes. It always feels good. It never feels too pillowy. And if you want it to be a little firmer and kick it up into sport, it always feels like it's in control. This is the type of ride that you'd find in a Land Rover. And it's here in a Jeep. Jeep already had it before. But with this chassis that's notably stiffer, I don't know by how much, but from my seat right here, everything about it feels better. Not terribly sporty, but again, that chassis control is just so dialed in. That's not something you're getting in the Nissan. So yeah, you're paying more for a lot of the luxury and a lot of the technology. But even if you subtract a lot of those things, the core of this vehicle is more dual purpose. The engine is the weak point. It's 293 horsepower and 260 pound feet of torque. But as you can hear, you can hear a lot of it, too much of it. I think it's just coarse, gritty. And then also the eight speed automatic just doesn't really respond all that well when you put it into sport, which I'll do in a second. You definitely get some better responses off the line, but then the gears just hold for too long. It never quite settles when you just want to relax for a while. Put that back into auto. So I just think the programming could be better. And that's really where the Nissan shines. Again, these V6 engines have very similar output. The Nissan has one more gear, but it definitely behaves better than the Jeep. Oh, God, that's rough. Thankfully, if you pay a little bit more on most of the trims, you can get a 5.7 liter Hemi V8 357 horsepower. That'll do you pretty good. Or order the four by E, which is coming soon. That's a plug in hybrid powertrain. I tested it on the Wrangler four by E. Watch that video if you haven't explains the whole thing. But that one's also got a lot more power and a big battery, and that is coming soon to the Grand Cherokee L. So I get either of those two powertrains before I picked this V6. But if you do do the V6 and you save money, this Overland trim is the only way to get the electronic limited slip diff if you get the off-road group package. Otherwise, it's limited to the V8. So a little trick there. If you want the best in off-road, you've got to get this trim. So I'm raising my air suspension because it's fun to do that, really, for no other reason than to say that I have almost 11 inches of ground clearance. That's not even where the axles are. The axles are actually another inch above that. So this is pretty tall. You can clear a lot of obstacles in this vehicle. And the regular normal height is 8 and a half inches. So that's really the best knob to be using. All the drive modes, you can use them if you want to, but you're not really going to actually need them because the Jeep's four-wheel drive system can figure out most of that for you. The Jeep sells three different kinds, depending on what trim you get in the Grand Cherokee L. But what this has is four by four low. I have an electronic limited slip differential in the back and basically way too much capability than I'll ever use, than most anyone will ever use. And you'll see pictures and videos of this truck going over big rocks and boulders, and it can. It's just like Land Rover. They make these things. They over-engineer them to do stuff that most owners wouldn't do. But the name matters. A Jeep is just supposed to do Jeep things. The Nissan reacts and accelerates better than the Jeep. Three and a half liter V6, 284 horsepower, and 259 pound-feet of torque, and the nine-speed automatic transmission. Is it super sporty? Well, no. But on the road, it just generally works a bit better. And the sound quality is better. Just quieter. It's not as gritty. Nissan's had this V6 for a long time. This one works pretty well. And we like turbochargers. We like V8s. But for everyday driving, for the most part, I'm pretty happy with this car. I would like to see the Pathfinder hybrid return. What do you guys think? They used to have it. Not anymore. The steering is also much better than the older Pathfinder. It's certainly more direct. Not as nice as the Rogue, actually. The Rogue was a real surprising one for me at how really good that one was feeling. But not so much here. There's a little bit more kind of lightness to it. I don't feel as confident as I do in the Jeep. Certainly not around turns. You find yourself correcting it a little bit more. You can put it into a sport mode. It kind of firms it up a little bit. But in general, it's just not as good. The ride quality, however, is. It's pretty much plush at all times. Very quiet in here. If you haven't jumped in a new vehicle in some time, first thing you'll notice is what you hear, really what you don't hear. These cars are just really quiet nowadays. This is the sort of quiet that you only get in the really upper end of the luxury space where they put the extra thick glass in and all the insulation. But all the regular cars are coming out with that, really. For $50,000 or even less, Pathfinder starts a whole lot less. It feels like we're not even moving. Pretty impressive. What I don't like is some of the body roll. There's more pitch. There's more dive. This car feels just as big as it is. Yeah, I guess that's an obvious statement. It's a big three row SUV. But the more you drive vehicles that have better sorted suspensions like the Jeeps, Mercedes, BMWs, things of that caliber. Well, you realize that you can actually have it both ways. You can have good handling and good comfort together. And that does make a difference. So when you want to play off roads, Nissan has this nice little dial here with seven different driving modes. Looks just like a Land Rover, which is pretty interesting. So I can put this on snow, mud and rut, sand. What do I feel like doing today? Sport mode in the dirt to do that too. I can just leave it as it is, to be honest, because the automatic mode pretty much figures out the torque by itself. You just point and go. Most of these SUVs, including the Jeep, for all the capability they have, you don't really need to really be fiddling with it. Pathfinder is decent. I've taken one at a small off-road course before in some mud on these all-season tires. Oh, hear that. There's a clearance issue. You wouldn't have that happen in the Jeep because, well, it's another almost two inches higher. So even though it says Pathfinder, you're not going to be finding a ton of rough paths with this one. That's what the Jeep is for. Capability is a smaller part of the story. Space is king and you get a lot with both these vehicles. Jeep realized that squeezing three people back here would be a terrible idea. So they only have two. And if you're an adult like me or trying to be an adult, well, you'll thank them. Jeep doesn't claim like Nissan that they can fit it forward facing car seat in here while the seat is up. But as you can see, there's a ton of room to get back into this third row. Tilts forward. Very easy to slide back, but I actually have to do that. Not in one motion. However, once I'm here, heated seats. I got four-zone climate control here just because. Sunshades, lock controls, panoramic moonroof. There's tons of space. This is a really comfy ride. Up front, the Grand Cherokee L feels truly grand. The way the screen is set into these thin air vents flows into the polished black console. The way the wood, aluminum, and leather blend together. And that wood trim is real. The dials, the toggles, stalks, the stitching, the panel fit. It's several cuts above the Pathfinder. In the Jeep, you've got 12-way power front seats heated and cooled with five different massage settings. This one's called Rock Climb. It's kind of dancing up my back there. I'll tolerate it for now. There's also a thing called the FamCam, which has roof cameras so I can see what's in the second and third rows. No activity currently at the moment. Nice to check. And there's also a 19-speaker stereo by Macintosh. That's a famous brand known among audiophiles all over the world. It's the first time they've ever had a car stereo. It sounds pretty good. Uconnect 5 on this 10-inch screen looks very sharp. It works pretty fast. There's wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto. You can connect two phones at once and there's a semi-automated function for the highway. Plus, you can see the lane curves in the instrument panel, change the views, and activate night vision. It also shows pedestrians. The Pathfinder Platinum shows the best of Nissan, and it's a solid effort from a company that was making pretty bad interiors. Not anymore. Materials are much better. There's softer finishes. The fit is better. And there's attractive patterns on these two-tone seats. It's like a bigger Rogue, which is also a good thing. But next to the Grand Cherokee L, it looks like a much cheaper car, and it's not as nice as the Kia Telluride or Hyundai Palisade. But you still get a lot of car for $50K. The instrument panel has great functionality. Check out this insane view of the tach, but you can't show the map. ProPILOT Assist is a great semi-automated highway feature, and it works very well. Plus, Nissan puts more safety features in the Jeep. A front center airbag, side airbags for the second row, and reverse auto braking. The infotainment looks basic and rudimentary, but it has wireless Apple CarPlay and a decent Bose stereo. You can get a Grand Cherokee L for this price, but for $15K less than our test Jeep to match the Pathfinder, that Jeep still looks and feels better than it. But the Jeep can't do this. Press one button, and the rear latches come off. The seat slides and tilts. You can actually keep a forward-facing kid's car seat while it's in the seat. You don't have to take it out, and there's a ton of space for this third row. Not many SUVs have that. Put it back, you got heated seats, got shades, panoramic roof, separate climate, more USBs, plug, this whole center console comes out. It's nice, pretty versatile back here. Third row. For adults, it's certainly not as good as the Jeep's. And just think, I could have two other people right next to me. Cargo space, they're relatively the same. By the same, I mean you can fill these things up. Behind these third rows, 17 cubic feet for both. Behind the second rows, 45 for the Nissan and 47 for the Jeep. And when both those rows are folded, a little over 80 here, 85 here. Both vehicles start in the high 30s, but the Pathfinder is the better value. It delivers 70% of the Jeep's comfort, tech features, and it's got the better engine. But the Pathfinder stops where the Jeep is just getting started. If you want more amenities, you'll need the Infiniti QX60, which is also brand new and based off the Pathfinder. The Jeep, so much more car than either of them. But would you pay 10 or 15 grand more for it than this Pathfinder? That is the question. My money's on the Jeep. Style, quality, the off-road capability, superior handling, and more engine choices. Your family's going to be in for a real treat if you get one of these. Pathfinder is good. It's way better than it used to be, but it doesn't impress me in the same way as this Jeep, especially in the interior. But when you factor in the cost, remember, this is 50K fully loaded. You get a lot of car for that money. The technology's really good. And let's be honest, who is really off-roading in these cars, right? Maybe you are, maybe you're not. Tell us what you think. What car would you and what cars you want us to review next? Because CarGurus is coming out with videos every week, including a lot more comparison tests. Stick around. See you next time.