Nissan Pathfinder Vs Honda Pilot: Which SUV is Right for You?

Nissan’s adventurous three-row mid-size crossover, the Pathfinder, is all-new for 2022.

It boasts dramatically reimagined styling and, perhaps most notably, a nice, conventional nine-speed automatic in place of the old continuously variable transmission. But apart from that, not all that much has really changed. It still rocks the same engine as the previous-generation model, and much of the same technology and features – although the packaging and distribution of that content may have changed.

Considering all this, is the 2022 Nissan Pathfinder sufficiently “new” to thrive in a contentious three-row mid-size SUV segment? How does it stack up against its direct competitors – like, say, the 2022 Honda Pilot?

Here, we’ve taken a good, long look as it’s the Nissan Pathfinder vs Honda Pilot to see which is truly the better of the two crossovers, paying keen attention to everything from powertrain and styling, to capacities and pricing.

Nissan Pathfinder: For 2022, the Nissan Pathfinder is rocking an all-new design with a more brawny, angular aesthetic. The new front fascia is taller and more upright, with a lot more presence and character lent by a bigger grille and unusual headlights. Gone are the gently rounded fender arches, replaced with hard, straight creases, and overall, the new look is blockier, stronger, and more truck-like.

Inside, the 2022 Pathfinder boasts a very attractive, well-laid-out dash, with a conspicuous floating infotainment screen dead-center and a sturdy-looking four-spoke steering wheel. A digital instrument panel is available, but sadly, only on the top-tier Platinum trim. The center console is broad and flat with an expansive armrest/storage bin cover, almost reminiscent of many modern pickup truck designs. Overall, from a design perspective, it’s the sort of cabin that would be very easy to spend numerous hours in.

Honda Pilot: The 2022 Honda Pilot is a bit more pedestrian in its design. It’s less sleek and modern, and could even be mistaken for a minivan were it not for the lack of sliding rear doors. The grille and headlights in particular are looking pretty dated, and the overall proportions lack a certain athleticism that many modern crossovers possess.

Climb inside the cabin and you’ll be welcomed by so many square feet of bland design. Granted, everything makes ergonomic sense; the infotainment screen, while not floating, is positioned high enough that you don’t have to take your eyes too far off the road to take a glance, and all the center stack controls are well segregated and smartly laid out. But ultimately, it looks and feels like a commuter vehicle. Whether or not that’s a good thing depends on your definition of “good.”

Bottom Line: Were it a question of design only, we would take the Nissan Pathfinder any day of the week. Everyone’s tastes differ, but we find the Nissan to be a sharper-looking, more attractive and visually interesting ride.

Nissan Pathfinder: Under the hood of the Nissan Pathfinder, you’ll find the same 3.5-liter direct-injected dual-cam V6 that powered the past generation, rated for up to 284 horsepower and 259 lb-ft of torque. It’s a solid engine that’s found a home in everything from the Altima and Maxima to the Frontier and 370Z. Backing this 3.5L mill for 2022 is a nine-speed automatic transmission, marking a departure from the continuously variable transmission (CVT) used on the previous-generation model. All-wheel drive is available on every trim, with front-wheel drive serving as the default.

Bottom Line: The powertrains in the 2022 Nissan Pathfinder and Honda Pilot are about as close together as they get. Both vehicles pack enough giddy-up-and-go that they can safely keep up with traffic and haul a cabin full of passengers without running out of breath, but no more. Yet weirdly, the tow ratings of the two model lines are markedly different. The Pathfinder is cleared to pull up to 6,000 pounds on the SV trim and above, with a 3,500-pound tow rating for the base S trim. The Pilot is rated for 3,500 pounds of towing on front-wheel-drive models, or 5,000 pounds with all-wheel drive. Ultimately, at the end of the day, we consider it a wash unless you need the Pathfinder’s extra 1,000 pounds of towing capacity.

Honda Pilot: With front-wheel drive equipped, the 2022 Honda Pilot achieves the same 23 mpg combined as the Pathfinder, according to the EPA, with 20 mpg city and 27 mpg highway. With AWD equipped, those figures drop to 19 city and 26 highway, for 22 mpg combined – unless you opt for the more capable Honda Pilot TrailSport model, in which case highway and combined fuel economy both take an additional 1 mpg penalty.

Bottom Line: A difference of 1 or 2 miles per gallon is huge at the regulatory level, but realistically, for consumers, it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference. Still, technically, we have to hand the win to the 2022 Nissan Pathfinder, which manages slightly better fuel economy ratings overall.

In addition, the Pathfinder boasts a full suite of standard active driver assistance features, including forward collision warning with automatic braking, pedestrian detection, lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, and a rear sonar system with reverse automatic braking. Higher trims get a 9-inch infotainment screen, and access to such niceties as door-to-door navigation with real-time traffic data, a head-up display, a fully digital instrument panel, Bose audio with 13 speakers including dual woofers, and Nissan’s ProPilot Assist, which leverages distance-pacing cruise control and automatic lane-centering to automate longer jaunts on the highway.

Honda Pilot: Similar to the Pathfinder, much of the 2022 Honda Pilot’s best equipment is standard even from the base trim. That includes the Honda Sensing suite of active driver assists, which encompasses technologies such as adaptive cruise control with traffic sign recognition, lane-keep assist, road-departure mitigation, and forward automatic braking. The Pilot also boasts standard blind spot monitoring with cross-traffic alert and automatic high-beams.

When it comes to entertainment, the Honda Pilot’s go-to sound system is a 215-Watt configuration with 7 speakers, including a subwoofer, while higher trims get a bumping 10-speaker, 590-Watt system. Across the board, you get an 8-inch infotainment touchscreen with standard Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, SiriusXM, HD Radio, and text messaging support.

Bottom Line: The contest of which vehicle offers the better technology and features is a draw between the 2022 Nissan Pathfinder and Honda Pilot. Both are very well equipped vehicles even at the entry level, each with an impressive list of standard active driver assistance features. They’re also both similarly well-equipped in the area of infotainment and audio, although here we have to give an nod to the Pathfinder’s available 13-speaker Bose sound system.

Nissan Pathfinder: The 2022 Nissan Pathfinder scores quite well in crashworthiness from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), earning top marks in six of seven categories. The only area where the Pathfinder lost points was for its head restraints and seats, which were rated “Acceptable.” As for its crash avoidance and mitigation measures, the Pathfinder ranks high in both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian crash avoidance, but has only Acceptable headlights, according to the IIHS.

Honda Pilot: The Honda Pilot has been using essentially the same design since 2016, making its crash structure quite a bit older than the Pathfinder’s. That helps explain its scores in two of the IIHS’s seven crashworthiness categories: small overlap front (passengers side), where the Pilot is merely rated “Acceptable,” and the updated side impact test, where the Honda gets a “Marginal” score. That shouldn’t necessarily taint your image of the Pilot; it’s still generally a very safe vehicle. But crashworthiness standards have grown more strict in recent years. The Pilot’s standard vehicle-to-vehicle crash prevention gets two points out of three, per the IIHS, but it gets no credit for standard vehicle-to-pedestrian crash prevention.

Bottom Line: Modern vehicles are, by and large, safe almost to the point of absurdity, and organizations like the IIHS and the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have had to ratchet up their testing standards year after year just to show where the differences in performance are. That is to say: we wouldn’t hesitate to climb aboard either the Nissan Pathfinder nor the Honda Pilot. Still, the Nissan is the clear winner here, with top marks in nearly all crashworthiness categories and a more highly rated vehicle-to-vehicle frontal crash prevention system.

Nissan Pathfinder: The 2022 Nissan Pathfinder serves up plenty of comfort, with an ample 42.3 inches of headroom in the front row, and 39.6 in the second row. Front-row legroom is similarly impressive at 44.3 inches, although the measurement drops to 35.5 inches and 28 inches for the second and third rows, respectively. Even hip room is impressive, with between 56 and 58 inches for the first two rows, and a respectable 46.7 inches in the third row.

Honda Pilot: The 2022 Honda Pilot is every bit as generous when it comes to the passenger quarters. The first two rows offer almost exactly 40 inches of headroom, while the third row manages 38.9 – an extra inch over the 2022 Pathfinder. Legroom for the first row is a bit less at 40.9 inches, but the second row is more comfortable for grown adults with an impressive 38.4 inches of legroom, and nearly 32 inches for the third row. Hip room is a bit more restricted for back-seat passengers, at 44.6 for the third row, but with slightly more than the Nissan for the first and second rows.

Bottom Line: We would call the category of cabin space a wash between the 2022 Pathfinder and 2022 Honda Pilot, but Honda has been a bit more thoughtful when it comes to how its cabin space is distributed, and as a result, it ends up with a third row that’s almost livable.

Honda Pilot: The Honda Pilot packs a reasonable 16.5 cubic feet behind the third row, with up to 46.8 cubic feet available by folding the rear seats, and 83.8 with the middle row down.

Bottom Line: Cargo capacity is a virtual tie between the 2022 Pathfinder and the 2022 Pilot. Both offer ample space with the third row folded, and a copious amount of cargo area with the middle row flat. The three extra cubic feet you get in the Pilot with both rows folded isn’t enough to make an appreciable difference when comparing the Nissan Pathfinder vs Honda Pilot.

Nissan Pathfinder: The 2022 Nissan Pathfinder starts at $34,640 for the basic front-wheel-drive S model, and an extra $1,900 gets you all-wheel drive. In fact, AWD costs a flat $1,900 extra no matter the trim, from the $37,460 SV to the $40,540 SL. At the top of the trim hierarchy is the Nissan Pathfinder Platinum, with a starting price of $47,140. By that point, you’re looking at a fully loaded vehicle; the only options aside from AWD are a few premium paint choices and some bolt-on accessories like running boards and roof rail cross bars.

Honda Pilot: The 2022 Honda Pilot starts significantly higher than the Nissan Pathfinder, with a starting MSRP of $38,080. Adding AWD into the mix costs an additional $2,000 regardless of trim, except on the TrailSport ($44,810), Elite ($50,370), and Black Edition ($51,870), which all come with AWD standard. That Black Edition represents the most loaded-up you can go, with every conceivable bell and whistle included in the purchase price. Premium paint options and a few bolt-on accessories are the only additional things that can be tacked on.

Bottom Line: Unlike Nissan, which has the big, body-on-frame Armada to serve as its flagship utility vehicle, the Pilot is Honda’s biggest, most prestigious SUV. That helps explain the starting MSRP, which is a full $3,440 higher than the Pathfinder’s. Even the very-well-equipped Pathfinder SL is substantially less-expensive than Honda’s mid-tier TrailSport and Touring trims, but the Pathfinder Platinum is such a leap up from that that it all but closes the gap. Still, if it’s a question of affordability, the 2022 Nissan Pathfinder takes it without a doubt.

By the specs, the battle of the 2022 Nissan Pathfinder vs Honda Pilot is just about dead even. They’re similarly sized, with equally capable 3.5L V6 engines and nine-speed automatic transmissions, similar active driver assist features, roughly the same passenger and cargo capacities, and roughly equivalent fuel economy. Yet in our opinion, the newer Nissan Pathfinder is the winner for two reasons. It has a more attractive price tag, and more attractive styling. There are those who will disagree with the latter assessment, but the former point is all-important; a $3,440 price gap at the entry level is significant, and it makes the Pathfinder a better overall value than the Honda it competes against.

Become an AutoGuide insider. Get the latest from the automotive world first by subscribing to our newsletter here.