For folks who don’t know, the Nissan Armada, (and Infiniti QX80) are based on the Nissan Patrol, a vehicle that’s been produced since 1951. Now, a new one is coming!
I grabbed this image from a nice historic retrospective on the life of the Nissan Patrol, which was every bit as good (if not better) than the FJ/Land Cruiser – in many instances. The piece was written by the Nissan Motor Corporation, and it also shows the grill of the upcoming Nissan Patrol. That grill should be similar to the one on the upcoming Armada.
Despite the modern Patrol/Armada being a rather swarthy, modern vehicle, it still shares some of the original DNA. It still has a gas engine, and is going back to six cylinders. It’s still is a body-on-frame truck underneath, and it’s still a 4×4. Granted, the original Nissan Patrols had a large displacement I6 (4-liter) and a manual transmission. Over time, they were offered in dozens of configurations.
The new Nissan Armada, and Patrol will be going toe-to-toe with the Toyota Sequoia being the same size. While we don’t know the next Armada’s power numbers, I’m pretty sure it will have a similar VR35DDTT 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged engine that the new QX80 has. In that vehicle, it’s rated at 450 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque. The Nissan variant may get slightly less power. In addition, I’d be willing to bet that the next Armada and Patrol get that same nine-speed automatic transmission too.
A (potentially) big clue from that teased image.
If you look at the grill of the Nissan Pathfinder Rock Creek, or even the new Nissan Rogue Rock Creek, you’ll notice a unique grill on both. It’s supposed to look more rugged, and (perhaps) a bit macho. The snout has distinctive grill snouts and all share a similar design theme.
If you look at the main image, you’ll see a similar design – and that’s a new Armada grill. This quickly leads me to speculate that we could be looking at a Rock Creek, or other more rugged version of the next Nissan Armada. That could simply mean a tire, wheel and trim update, like the Rogue. Then again, maybe Nissan listened and decided to add proper off-road tires, beefier suspension and maybe even a locker in a version of the new Armada.
One can hope.
