​​TheDrive.com is Very Impressed With New Nissan Armada​

The Armada is new for 2025, with new styling, interior, and drivetrain. After a ride-and-drive, TheDrive.com found that it likes the new Armada quite a bit and signaled that anyone looking at this category should put it on their shipping list. Nissan of Rochester gives you the highlights. 

TheDrive.com leads off by pointing out that though the Armada has been around for some time, unlike Chevrolet, GMC, Ford, and recently, Jeep, Nissan simply hasn’t been top of mind for anyone looking for this size SUV. However, with this new Armada, they think it should be. 

They also point out that the Armada is more like the Patrol sold elsewhere in the world than ever before. Having done well in a country with bad roads, the Patrol has been a well-respected competitor to the Land Cruiser and other big off-roaders. While the Armada has always had some Patrol in it, the two models are now nearly identical.  

That means the old 5.6 V8 is out, replaced by a twin-turbo 3.5-liter V6, an engine configuration similar to what you find in the Toyota Sequoia and Ford Expedition. Neither of those engines has sports car cred, though, and Nissan is quick to tell you that this engine is a truck-based version of the VR mill found in the GT-R.  In this application, it produces 425 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque. That’s 25 hp and 103 lb-ft more than the previous V8, and the peak torque comes sooner in the rev band. It is mated to a 9-speed automatic, and every model is available in both rear-wheel drive with four-wheel drive being a $3,000 option except on the Pro-4X, which has 4WD standard. 

A Pro-4X was on hand with a 5,500-pound trailer attached, which is 3,000 under its total capacity, and it found that neither power nor braking was an issue.  

For those who want to take their big baby in the rough stuff, the Pro 4X has an air suspension that can give it 11.5 inches of ground clearance. In this mode, the Pro4X also raises the approach angle from 13.5 degrees on other Armadas to 33 degrees, with breakover and departure angles of 21.6 and 22 degrees, respectively. 

As seen in other newly designed Nissans, they have really raised their game on the interior, which genuinely looks flagship-worthy. SL and SV get 12.3-inch displays for the gauge cluster and infotainment touchscreen. These grow to 14.3 inches on the Pro-4X and Platinum models. As thedrive.com states: “That sounds like a lot, and maybe it’s a bit much, but they’re short and wide rather than tall, so they don’t protrude into your field of vision. Plus, there are real buttons for most controls underneath the screens, right where they should be.” 

The tester drove the Platinum Reserve on the road and found it to live up to its lofty $80K price tag. It features quilted leather, massaged seats, and a Klipsch audio system, about which he states: “The sound quality is better than any factory car I’ve heard, including the Bentley Bentayga’s outrageous Naim sound system, a $9,150 option.” 

The model also included Nissan’s recent ProPilot 2.1 featuring true hands-off driving on highways previously mapped by Nissan.  

TheDrive.com points out that with a starting price of $58,530, the SV model is available for less than its better-known rivals, though the low-priced model wasn’t on hand to sample. They also pointed out that the impressive Klipsch audio system did not require the top trims but was standard on the $64,800 SL trim. 

TheDrive.com is eager to try the lower models, but for now, it states that for those in the big 3-row SUV market, “…the Nissan Armada is legitimately worth looking into” and sees it as another example of Nissan producing exciting new products. As of this writing, the 2025 Armada has not yet arrived at Nissan of Rochester. You can keep checking our inventory or have one of our sales professionals contact you when the first models arrive.