Nissan wants no one to mistake the Pathfinder for anything but a tough-as-trail-gravel truck. The Pathfinder is intended to be a no-compromise, fully off-road-capable SUV, and its dimensions and styling make this imminently clear.

The Pathfinder features rugged body-on-frame construction using a ladder-type frame adapted from Nissan's full-size Armada SUV and Titan pickup. This is the type of construction best suited for heavy-duty towing, serious load-hauling, and ambitious bashing about in the backwoods.

Pathfinder's styling shares visual cues with the Armada and Titan, as well as the Frontier pickup. Up front, angular chrome grille bars vertically bracket the familiar Nissan logo. Crisply outlined headlight lenses fold around the edges of the fenders. A strong, chin-like bumper houses a wide, low air intake, with small, round sockets for the optional fog lights just inboard of the fender blister creases.

From the side, the fender blisters encircle substantial tires and lend presence to the mostly smooth body panels. Sloping C-pillars with high-mounted rear door handles are angled less severely than on the Armada, but still make Pathfinder's kinship clear. The roof line, mimicking the Armada's, bows slightly over the forward passenger compartment then flattens aft of the C-pillar. A vertical divide carried over from the previous generation splits the rear side door windows allowing the forward two-thirds of the glass to lower fully into the door, a nice feature. Short overhangs front and rear spotlight the new Pathfinder's off-road promise. Openings in the ends of the roof rails at first seem mere styling exercises, but actually offer convenient hand-holds when loading and offloading sport gear.

The rear bumper copies the Armada's, with a low lift-over between upturns at each end tying into the large taillights. The backlight's (rear windscreen's) bottom edge tracks the bumper's geometry as part of an elongated pentagonal outline, picking up on the geometric theme of the Xterra.