Torque is good! Actually the low revs grunt of a turbo diesel is better than good.

Nissan’s Pathfinder turbo diesel achieved a heady 8.92 litres/ 100 kms or 31.65 miles per gallon on a journey from Manukau around the Coromandel Peninsula and return.

The Pathfinder is no light weight fuel miser with the benefit of an aerodynamic body.

Quite the contrary. The seven seater weighs in at 2244 kgs and is rated to tow 3000 kgs. There is no denying the fact it is a medium sized SUV, which is capable of challenging any full sized SUV.

Yet on the winding, twisty and hilly roads of the Coromandel Peninsula, where it is almost impossible to drive economically it sipped diesel rather than gulped it and easily surpassed the standard claimed fuel consumption of 10.1 litres/ 100 kilometres as determined by the Australian Design Rules testing regime.

And the secret to this outstanding economy, the Pathfinder’s torquey 2.5 litre turbo diesel motor, which has 128 kWs of power, but more importantly produces 403 Nm of torque at 2000 rpm.

With so much pulling power the Pathfinder climbed the Whangapoua Hill and all the other ascents around the Peninsula while barely breaking into a sweat.

The trip south from Manukau, along SH2 through Maramarua and across the Hauraki Plains to Paeroa always produces good fuel economy cruising around the legal speed limit.

The Pathfinder’s economy average 8.2 litres/ 100 kilometres in this early easy going.
But the on-board computer showed that when it got into the hills heading north from Waihi to Whangamata, Tairua and Whitianga the fuel consumption did not drop rapidly.

Using little more than 2000 rpm, the Pathfinder cruised up the hills easily and only drank a little more diesel.

The Automobile Association observed economy testing over this route has been carried out for more than two years now in a variety of Nissans. In various different petrol engine vehicles it has been noticeable the economy has dropped markedly on the hilly sections of the route as engines have had to be worked more to get over the hills – some as long as 4 kms.

But the Pathfinder took it all in its stride, maintaining its frugal use of the diesel, only consuming 36.11 litres over the 405 kms journey.

And the driver, passenger and 30 kgs of luggage did it in comfort with the air conditioning in constant use, replicating real world driving conditions.

The Pathfinder was using its low revs torque to overtake other traffic up the hills in higher gears in the five speed automatic gearbox, while petrol engined vehicles tended to use lower gears and higher revs.

The low revving torquey engine of the Pathfinder is a winner in the fuel economy stakes.