Japanese manufacturer Nissan is slowly coming out of the dark shadows its former leader, Carlos Ghosn, threw it in not long ago. But that’s when talking about the carmaker at a corporate level, because as far as its products are concerned, Nissan is a long way from salvation.
2021 is shaping up to be a crucial year for the Japanese. It will be the real start of the second decade for the Leaf, the European Qashqai is getting a serious revamp, and the line of SUVs is scheduled for a major overhaul. Among the high-riders to get some changes is the Armada.
Introduced in 2003, the full-size SUV is now in its second generation, but the current version is old enough (it was introduced in 2017) to be in need of a desperate facelift. That should come in 2021, and the Japanese already announced the reveal of the new Armada is to take place on Tuesday, December 8.
Now, you might not be all that acquainted with the Armada. The SUV, although available in its current form in no fewer than 10 configurations for the U.S. market, barely managed to sell a little over 32,000 units last year, according to Car Sales Base. Given the segment it plays in, that’s peanuts, and rancid ones at that.
It remains to be seen if the facelift would change the status quo, even if there will be plenty of upgrades, at least of visual kind. The big SUV is to adopt more modern look inspired by the 2020 Nissan Patrol sister vehicle, featuring a revised front with the larger V-motion grille and new boomerang-shaped LED headlights, as well as a refreshed rear with updated LED taillights. Mechanically, though, we don’t expect the existing 5.6-liter V8 to be replaced.
We could look forward tough to some serious upgrades when it comes to the connectivity technologies available, and infotainment system tweaks such as the addition of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
All of the above means that we’re not in for a major event tomorrow, but given how this is one of the last new auto reveals of the year, we kind of look forward to it.
Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies. Full profile
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