Nissan has made a lot of strange decisions over the last few years, hence the company’s perilous financial position. But two of its strangest decisions seem to have drawn together and produced one of the best vehicle interiors I’ve ever experienced. And that’s coming from someone who once spent about four hours stuck in traffic behind the wheels of a Rolls-Royce Spectre.
So which decisions am I talking about exactly? Well, firstly Nissan decided to go upmarket with both the Armada and Murano the other year. A “premium” option isn’t the worst idea in the world, but the decision did raise several questions. Like is the average middle class American happy to part with $60,000 to $80,000 for something with a Nissan badge on the front? And if Nissan wants to go upmarket, why does Infiniti exist?
The second strange decision involved making a “NISMO” version of the Armada. For those of you who are unaware, NISMO is Nissan’s performance division. A bit like the M Division is to BMW, or AMG is to Mercedes. While sporty things do exist, the idea of releasing a performance version of something that has the size, and handling capabilities, of a standard shipping container are a bit baffling. But Nissan and NISMO did absolutely nail one aspect.
The interior of the Nissan Armada NISMO is absolute bliss
First impressions are everything and sitting inside the Armada Nismo is certainly an experience. The red and grey color scheme absolutely nails it. It makes the seats look like the lining of a high ranking vampire’s jacket. The material quality is exquisite too, it feels like high quality leather alongside something from the suede family. The red parts are wonderfully quilted.
The same mix of leather and suede is also applied to the dash, giving a beautiful textural juxtaposition you can experience from both a visual and tactile perspective. It’s not all looks either, those seats are superbly comfortable and Nissan ranks pretty highly on my “massage seat quality” league table.
In the center, some hard shiny piano black does appear to ruin the party, and the buttons aren’t exactly pleasing to press. But at least some buttons are there. The Armada Nismo has an MSRP that sits under $80,000, and that’s incredibly low for a “performance SUV.” As a result, corners do have to be cut somewhere, and that often happens around the center console. This is why touchscreens are so common now, they used to be cutting edge but these days they’re significantly cheaper than buttons.
As for the positives, the toggle switch for the heat and cooling is pretty pleasant. As are the dials you can use to select the vehicle’s drive mode. Infotainment comes courtesy of a half-dash length display. Which works perfectly well, despite many of Nissan’s competitors offering dash length panoramic displays on their premium products.
The styling carries to the outside too
The gray/blue and red color scheme continues on the outside of the vehicle, though this may be where things get a little silly. This isn’t a BMW X7, it’s not a naturally sleek or sporty vehicle. Instead, it’s a bit of a block.
With that being said, I do like the color schemes and accents NISMO tends to use by default. It’s well established enough to be cool in its own way, like BMW’s M stripe, or like that odd blue of the Elantra N is for Hyundai these days.
The V6 under the hood also carries the same color scheme on its cover. So you can pop the hood during Cars and Coffee before talking about how that bad boy is rocking 460 horsepower. Which would be terrifying if it wasn’t responsible for moving something the size of a small continent. You even get beefy red NISMO Brake calipers on it. Honestly, it’s a wonderful thing if you don’t take it too seriously.
More than anything it makes the Armada stand out. It jazzes up what is otherwise a nice, but pretty plain, large SUV. While it may be a touch confusing to some people, it is definitely a talking point. And why would you splash out on a performance variant of a vehicle if no one was turning to look or muttering anything about it.
So there we have it, the Nissan Armada NISMO. Another pretty confusing decision from the struggling Japanese manufacturer, but at least it’s one worth talking about.
