My brother in law has a Pathfinder. Bought it new two years ago. He's a bit in two minds about it to be frank. It's great for towing their twin axle caravan and indeed the seven seats suit their needs but he doesn't like it much to drive. Quite thirsty too apparently. A few niggling quality problems including a collapsing driver's seat squab.

He also has a 2002 Mondeo he bought as a "station" car but to be honest he uses that in preference to the Pathfinder most of the time.

Not a lot of help I know !

Yeah, Amazons look lovely but they aren't cheap! I'm not really in the market for a proper 4x4 but more a "soft-roader" I think. But I think the CR-V may be a fraciton too soft.

Funny that this site gives great reviews to the Pathfinder while other sites generally do not.

Yeah, trouble is you can over-analyse this if you read too many reviews, and analysis paralysis sets in :)

Also, the sites have such different opinions. For example this site reviews the Nissan well and comments on general good reliability, but there's comments above to suggest otherwise. I suppose if you look around, you'll find negative comments on any car because people tend to be vocal when unhappy and quiet when happy!

I drove a Pathfinder and it's a great looking vehicle and I like the interior (was a high spec model), but I couldn't live with that gearbox and the engine is really noisy and harsh, so back to the drawing board on that one.

I agree the Subaru Outback looks good but the diesels are too new so no cheaper ones are available yet.

Was momentarily tempted by a Grand Voyager the dealer had that seemed cheap and ideal in lots of ways, but then read the NCAP report and the JD Power survey on it and thought better of it.

Probably off to look at an XC90 next! Thanks for all the suggestions so far.