We ultimately decided we really still needed third row seating, but I'll put some notes below from the vehicles we drove for reference of those who care in order of how we drove them.
1. 2020 Nissan Murano SV AWD - This one was a top contender and really nice. It was kind of odd too though because it had cloth interior but had panoramic sunroof, heated seats, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, lane departure warning, intelligent cruise control, power lift gate, remote start and a ton of features you wouldn't expect with cloth interior. We enjoyed driving this one a lot and the CVT, while still not my favorite transmission by a long shot has come a long way for sure. The power delivery from the long in tooth VQ35 was pretty good for a family hauler and sounded good. Interior was roomy and appointed nicely, with plenty of legroom front and back and plenty of cargo space for a mid-size SUV. The exterior look was not bad at all either, especially with the right color selection and wheels. Overall we really liked this one and the only drawbacks was I did feel like the headroom was a little low for a tall guy like myself and it just wasn't enough room for us to use it more than a commuter for the wife. Still, solid vehicle overall and wouldn't mind owning one.
2. 2018 Mazda CX-9 AWD - These things look stunning for a big 7 seater SUV. This one was red and it looked great in the sun. First drawback was it was extremely difficult to attach car seat anchors to for our youngest childs car seat. I probably spent 5 minutes fiddling with it trying to reach the hooks to attach the anchors to. The interior was very nice though and spacious, with tons of leg room and finished in nice black leather. All of the controls and dash were laid out well. It really reminded me a lot of our CX-5 we had, but way more luxurious. Once we set off though it didn't take long for all of that to wear off. The engine was very buzzy and you could hear a lot of drivetrain and road noise right away. For it being a turbocharger 4 cylinder, it wasn't very impressive power wise. There was also some type of wheel noise we couldn't identify and the driving experience was pretty clunky overall. It felt like a big tired SUV, even though it had 50k miles on it and I was very disappointed overall with it considering how much I like Mazda. This one pretty much crossed these off the list, but Mazda redeemed itself later(as you'll see below). I think this one was just a poor example.
3. 2020 Ford Edge SEL AWD - Another great vehicle. This one had the 2.0L Ecoboost and wasn't bad for the size of vehicle. It had plenty of power and drove well, but was nothing super impressive. This one was finished in black leather, but was pretty basic overall with heated seats and your basic power features. It had plenty of room front and back, plus plenty of cargo space. It did have Apple Car Play / Android Auto built into the new Ford Sync 4 system, which is miles better than the former versions. The wife liked it, so we intended to seek out one with a nicer trim package the following day and honestly the Edge was topping the list after this drive. Unfortunately we realized after talking later that evening that SUV's the size of this and the Murano just didn't fit our needs well. I was kinda bummed because I found a sweet 2019 Edge ST with the 2.7L Twin Turbo Ecoboost we were going to look at the next day and would have likely bought, since it was loaded and was an awesome price. We were still going to drive it anyways, but the dealer that had it was a bit sketchy looking so we decided to move on.
4. 2019 Ford Explorer XLT 4x4 - I really loved this one and was completely sold on buying it. Tons of room, panoramic sunroof, heated and cooled seats, all the tech and features we wanted, towing package and these things have a pretty solid track record. This one had the non-turbo 3.5L V6, which is pretty bulletproof aside from water pump failures and occasionally a timing component issue. This thing drove great, looked great, had multiple off-road modes, and overall checked all of my boxes. It didn't quite check them all for the wife though and ultimately we crossed it off because of fuel economy because Ford hadn't quite sorted out how to get good fuel economy out of these. 16ish mpg city just wasn't going to cut it for her and I already daily drive an F-150, so we didn't need two gas guzzlers. I nearly bought one of these before my F-150 and they are really great SUV's. I haven't driven one of the new re-designed ones yet, but I've heard they're even better. Definitely recommend if you can live with the fuel economy.
5. 2021 Mazda CX-9 AWD Carbon Edition - This one redeemed my opinion on the CX-9 above immediatey and the salesman kinda did us dirty, because he showed us this before the Pathfinder we were there to look at after telling him our experience with the other CX-9(this was a Mazda dealer). Holy crap, this thing was awesome and looked amazing. It was a beautiful blue/grey pearl color with red leather interior and black 20" wheels. It also had every single option you could think of on it. We absolutely fell in love with this one and it was really hard saying no to it. In fact we had to keep talking ourself out of it throughout the evening. It drove awesome and in 2019 they added a lot more sound deadening, which made the overall driving experience better. I really appreciate how much effort Mazda has put into their design and engineering on these SUV's to make them feel like something much more expensive. Sadly, even though we kept coming back around to it we had to say no to it because it was $4,000 over our budget and red leather and all of the bells and whistles just wasn't the sensible thing to spend an extra $4,000 on.
6. 2015 Toyota Highlander Limited V6 4x4 - It is absolutely insane to me how well Toyota's hold their value. This thing was in the same price range as the 2019-2021 vehicles we were looking at, but I'm glad we drove it. It had all of the features we wanted, plus heated and cooled leather and a towing package. Like you'd expect from a Toyota, everything looks very spartan and dated in a lot of areas, but is very well built and feels indestructible. The 3.5L V6 felt powerful and overall it drove very well. It felt more like a traditional SUV than I was expecting and I really liked how it drove, plus it had captain chairs in the middle row and was really easy to get the kids in and out of. I can see why they're so popular for sure. This one needed a lot of reconditioning though, as they had just taken it in and it looked like someone hauled their dogs in it, plus it had some big exterior scratches and a large dent. We didn't love it enough to wait for them to sort all of that out and it was tough wanting to buy a 7 year old vehicle that was priced like a new one. Still, great vehicle but as I tell most people - if you want to buy a Toyota, buy one new and cry once. Used ones hold their value so well that you don't really save much unless you're buying a 10+ year old one.
7. 2020 Nissan Pathfinder SV 4x4 - This is the one we came to look at, but ended up driving the last two before driving this one. I used to be totally against owning one of these and honestly thought I'd never consider something with a CVT but my opinion has changed on them quite a bit over the last 2-3 years. I've had a few Infiniti QX60's as loaners now and my father in law purchased a 2016 Pathfinder a couple of years ago as well. After driving those and one of my friends as well, I realized they're not really as bad as they're made out to be and have become a pretty viable option for a family hauler. This one is finished in Black Metallic with black leather interior.
Once we drove it, we both liked it a lot and honestly, had we not have driven the CX-9 above first we would not have even questioned buying this one. These things are laid out very well for a family compared to a lot of the stuff we drove over the weekend. Plenty of space, third row seating, cup holders EVERYWHERE(which is welcome with kiddos and other passengers), and just really well thought out for passengers. The middle row of seats, while they don't have captain chairs like other third tow models do offer the option to slide them back for more leg room, like you would be able to do with front seats and is something I never even thought about in something like this. The third row even has room for someone taller than a preschooler. Speaking of the middle row and cupholders, you get two cupholders in the center console and one in each door panel armrest. You also get a rear power inverter outlet in the middle row as well and rear heated seats with this package. The infotainment is pretty familiar, as it is the same one you see in these and the QX60/JX35 over the years but with some obvious software updates that are very welcome. This system isn't laggy and slow like the previous ones I've used, but sadly lacks Apple Car Play/Android Auto, which is odd in a 2020 vehicle but it can be added, so it's not out of the question. This one didn't have a sunroof and while I won't turn one down, they've become pretty pointless to seek out for us. We never open then in any of our vehicles and honestly I've used the power sliding rear window in my truck far more than I ever did a sunroof. The VQ35 3.5L V6 is a bit more powerful now than in the earlier ones, coming in at 284 horsepower and really delivers the power pretty well through the CVT. I also appreciate that it actually stays in FWD and can be switched into 4x4/AWD mode. It is kind of odd in a FWD SUV, but is a neat feature regardless. This model also has intelligent cruise control, forward collision prevention, lane departure control and lots of safety tech. Intelligent cruise control is AWESOME and it's the first time I've gotten to try it out. All of the other tech is pretty slick too.
Anyways, we obviously liked the CX-9 and the Pathfinder the best, but ultimately we decided to go with the Pathfinder because it came in well under our budget and was the more sensible solution so we pulled the trigger on it and brought it home, making it Nissan number 8 we've owned and number 12 for me. With it having just over 50K miles, I was willing to roll the dice on a CVT this time and in the end the wife had the final say in this one, since it's her daily and she wanted this one over the other 6 we drove. So now we own a Mallfinder and a Pathfinder
