2019 Nissan Pathfinder Rock Creek Review: Marketing 101

The Pathfinder name, for me, is one of the more flagrant misnomers in the industry. Not so in the model’s early years, when the SUV really was well-adapted to finding new paths away from the paved road. By 2012, however, it was struggling to find buyers as consumers largely abandoned bigger gas-guzzling utility models.

This led Nissan to transform the model, sacrificing its off-road abilities in favour of a format more apt to coddle families in everyday driving. Sales, which had slowed to a trickle, regained strength as a result.

It was a success born of good marketing and smart strategic thinking. The name had a cache, and Nissan held on to it and exploited it. But that was in 2013. As we head into 2020, the model today is pretty much the one offered seven years ago, and it’s starting to show its age.

This year, Nissan unveiled a spiced-up little number called the Rock Creek edition. More savvy marketing, because while it looks rough and ready and outdoorsy, substantively it’s much the same daily people-moving SUV as the regular Pathfinder.

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