2021 Nissan Armada A Larger Than Life Facelift!

How's it going guys? My name is Christopher. Today we're with the 2021 Nissan Armada Platinum. Nissan has fully redesigned their whole lineup and this is sort of the rebirth or reinvention of Nissan. They're trying to kind of come out and revive themselves and they've started by rebranding their whole lineup. So we got an all-new Nissan Armada. It's going to come with an MSRP of $76,998. We got a ton to go over here guys. New front end, new back end, lots of new tech on the inside. Let's jump into it. So let's talk about what's going on with the front end. Fully redesigned. We have this kind of box here, headlights. We do have the LED headlights as well and right away when I saw this car my eyes just gravitated to the new Nissan emblem. So our first vehicle where we get to see this Nissan emblem. It's huge here and then we have our forward-facing camera right in the middle. Comment down below what you guys think of the new Nissan emblem. It sits right in between this really large v-motion grille. This one's the Platinum so it comes in chrome. If you went with the Midnight Edition you'd get it blacked out. Forward sensors as well and we do have our fog lights which are encased in this chrome and then this smaller gloss back section. It's going to have a ground clearance about 23.4 inches. You don't get any skid plates but it will handle the off-road if you need. At the side angle you can see it has these massive 22-inch aluminum alloy rims. Obviously you're going to get your front and rear disc brakes for stopping this thing. All-season tires. Everybody mentions this kind of faux little hood vent here. It's encased in chrome. It's not an actual vent but it does give it a little nicer look. It kind of fills in this front end here and then our V8 badging as well. You get the chrome mirrors with your LED turning accents. They are power tilt mirrors so when you put it in reverse it's going to automatically tilt down and we do have our 360 camera as well. Running boards here. They're not power running boards. I'd like to see some power running boards to compete with some of its vehicles in this class but as we move along you can see we have the chrome handles. I got to almost fully extend my arm to reach these massive roof rails so that's good if you're going on that weekend adventure. You can strap your Thule on top of that, your canoes, your luggage packages. Let's check out the back. Massive rear end on this. Again we have the new design Nissan emblem. That symbolizes the rebirth that I mentioned in the video. Everything starts here. Nissan's kind of starting fresh with the redesigning and rebranding their whole lineup. You can see they've redesigned the whole rear of the Armada compared to the previous generation. Big Armada stamp right below that Nissan emblem. Chrome trunk accent as well and then we have this nice fat bumper here. It is a protected bumper so if you have pets or things like that that are putting their paws up here, you're sliding things in and out, coolers and stuff, it's not going to scrape up your back bumper. Backup camera obviously and then we have our rear sensors. It does have the hidden hitch so our tow hitch is tucked away under here. You just need to pull this off. There's a few clips which I removed just to make it easier and there's our tow hitch as well as our electronic brake controller you will also get and I'm going to show you that when we jump inside. It can tow up to 8,500 pounds. When you pop the hood it's going to come with one of my favorite Nissan engines, that 5.6 liter 400 horsepower endurance engine. It's a V8 engine pumping out 413 pounds feet of torque at 4,000 rpms. You'll get a couple all-wheel drive modes and then you'll have the two-speed transfer case with a seven-speed automatic transmission. Then you'll have things like a snow mode, a tow haul mode. This thing can tow up to 8,500 pounds, one of the best in class towing but I hope you like spending time at the gas station. It averages about 12.9 liters or 22 miles per gallon on the highway and 7.5 liters for every 100 kilometers or 16 miles a gallon in the city. So let's unlock this thing and take a look at the inside. Before you do I got to show you the key. It does have the same Nissan intelligent key but we do get the new Nissan emblem. I'm going to put that nice and close. It is on the key and then you can use the remote start to start it up. Great in the winter time to help warm up the car and you can hear that V8 turn on. Let's check out the inside. You can use the keyless entry to get in and out of the vehicle and lock and unlock the door. You just need to push the button on the handles and you can unlock the door. So here's something that I had a beef with in the last models of the Armada is this kind of little accent here that goes into the armrest. They kind of made it look high-end but it kind of looks like I can pinch this and pull it out. So I feel over time this would be easy to break. It doesn't look too appealing either. I'd rather just have them have it straight you know maybe with some stitching and that would look a lot better. Let's jump in. On a big vehicle like this you would think it'd be tough getting in but you do have the step rails. Look at the size of this driver's seat. It is very elevated and then you have the handle here which can help you get in. It is a heated and air-conditioned front passenger seat. You have the eight-way power adjustable seat and you do have two memory positions if you do have multiple drivers. When you're in the driver's side you touch this heated leather-wrapped steering wheel. It's a very large wheel. This is one of the first Nissans I've seen that doesn't have that d-shaped wheel that they've been putting in all their Nissans. We do have the new display here. It's a seven-inch multi-information screen here right in between our gauge clusters. So they redesigned the gauge cluster. Now I was very impressed with the vehicle assist screen that they put in the Nissan Rogue. I don't understand why they didn't put that new one in here with the Armada with these gauge clusters but overall I do like the new look. It does do things like our forward collision warning, our lane intervention, our blind spot monitor. You get all those safety features. You get the intelligent cruise control, Nissan tire pressure monitor. There's a ton of features that you can go through on this screen. It does have a digital speedometer and then of course we have our Bluetooth buttons and our radio controls right on the wheel. Here's what everybody's talking about. New to the Armada is this 12.3 infotainment system. It's going to come with things like Nissan door-to-door navigation. You're going to get that 360 around view monitor so when I put it in reverse you can see the around view monitor comes on here with the guidance lines as well. I do wish they utilized the whole screen. I feel like here is a lot of wasted space. I mentioned that in my Ford Explorer reviews. You have this massive screen and then you have this teeny tiny backup camera and here's where I feel like Nissan could have done a better job. Up top is our digital rear view mirror. This is a camera on the mirror here. You can see it's portraying the view from the back and then if I want to use the regular mirror I can use it there. I like the digital mirror and this is very clear and very high depth and it's not reflected in the backup camera. This camera is stronger than the backup camera so I wish they put that camera or use whatever technology they use for this in here because this screen is a lot more vivid than this screen. We do have the multi-touch display so you can also do things like I said the door-to-door navigation. You have the Nissan Connect services. You can do wireless Apple CarPlay now. Android Auto you still got to plug in but you have the pinch to zoom and things like that. This is probably the best screen I've seen on a Nissan. Like I mentioned this pretty much in every new Nissan that comes out I say that this is the best screen I've seen because they're always kind of upping themselves with these vehicles each year. Like the 2021 Titan had a great screen and then they came out with the Rogue had a great screen. Now they've come out with the Armada which is an even better screen. So you can punch in your navigation. You can do that. It's also going to come with your upgraded Bose audio system and then you're going to get the Tri-Zone entertainment system which we're going to get to in the back. I see a lot of reflections of the Infiniti Q80, the Armada's kind of cousin, in this kind of dual screen where we have our infotainment and then our heating display down below. We do have our rear controls as well. I like that. That's great for parents who want to control the rear vents. Our heated and air-conditioned seats like I mentioned. Our automatic Nissan digital temperature control. Dual temperature control for both sides and then we have this big Armada badging. One beef that we noticed right away is how this gloss back here, you can see when I move my fingers along it, very very dusty. It would be hard to keep clean. You'd almost need to keep a cloth in here if you're one of those kind of anal people. Below the Armada symbol is this storage here. So a little hidden storage here. I can pop that open and then I have my wireless phone charger so I can charge my phone wirelessly as well. Below that is our brake controller for our trailers. We have a USB-C and a regular USB and then we have our 4x4 dial here. So it does have the traditional 4x4 modes. There's also a snow mode, a tow haul mode. The shifter is very similar. It's pretty much just a straight back shifter as well and then behind that is this dial. So if you don't want to be distracted and use your fingers and use the touchscreen, you can use this dial to control the middle screen there and then we can press like our camera button, things like that to control our infotainment system right from the dial. Huge center armrest here guys. Very comfortable for those long drives and then it opens up and there's a ton of space here. This is a little top tray and then we have a very very deep cargo area for our pens, business cards, masks, nowadays whatever you need. You get one single sunroof so your parents will have access to the sunroof. The kids won't get any sunroof but one's better than none. Here's the fun part of this thing is in the back there's a ton of space. 168 cubic feet of total passenger volume and then this one you get the platinum chairs. You can get a bench if you want the eight seats but this one comes with the two platinum chairs. You do get the tri-zone entertainment system. This is the best entertainment system that I've seen in any of the Nissans. I did a full walkthrough of the DVD system in the older models for people who need help connecting but DVDs are starting to become a little obsolete and Nissans recognize that. So you can now do things like an HDMI input, you can do phone mirroring, casting from your phone, you can connect different things to the HDMI like consoles, fire sticks, things like that. Comment below if you want me to do a full walkthrough of these infotainment systems but this is the best screen that I've seen in the Nissans yet. So this is truly the road trip type vehicle here. The seats are incredibly comfortable. There's a ton of space. There's a ton of storage. You have the two mat pockets in the back. You have the heated seats as well for the captain seats and then the kids can control the heating as well. If they need access to the front console there is a button here and I can access the front console but I shouldn't really need to because there's a ton of storage in this center console here. There's a center console there. There's a little bit of cup holders here and would you look at that there's even some storage in here. So lots of room for the kids to put their phone chargers, things like that. It's going to come with the two headphones and the remote for the DVD players. So you have everything you need for that family adventure. So if you have more than four members in your family you're going to be using the third row and how you get in and out of the third row is a big factor for most families. That's one thing I've noticed when I'm selling these SUVs. Accessing the back needs to be easy. It needs to be painless. You shouldn't be jumping over. The last thing you want is little Jimmy to be stepping on the seat and jumping over your center console. So you want a nice easy way to get in the back and I do think the Armada delivers on that. There's just a one touch and up it flips up and then here we go. If I can do it I'm sure little Jimmy can do it and then he can get in like this and that folds up. So I do have a lot of space. More space than the Pathfinder. More space than the Explorers. The knee level is a little awkward but I'd be fine back here for a very long time. Alright so we finally got this thing on the road. The most exciting part. We're entering on the highway here and we're gonna do a big acceleration. Yeah this thing pulls hard like super heavy. Like I said before it's one of my favorite engines. When you put your foot down this thing will go. It's a big vehicle but she moves. One of the benefits you have of this square vehicle is the viewing angles. For a big vehicle there isn't many blind spots especially with all the cameras. When you're on the highway you also have the haptic feedback wheel so it will vibrate if you deviate from the lane. It will also indicate you in your blind spot if someone's in your blind spot. You have the rear cross traffic alert for the safety when you're backing up. So I'd be surprised if somebody hits something going low speeds in this. We mentioned before fuel economy not so good but you're not buying this for the fuel economy. When you're driving at night you get the high beam assistant as well. And then if you have kids you do have the latch anchoring system for your car seats. A few other cool features you get the trailer sway control. You get the traffic sign recognition so it will tell you your speed limit that you're going. So you can always maintain your speed limit. You'll also get the tire pressure monitoring system. That's nothing new. I've done a demo video showing you guys how to use that. And then you have the enhanced seat belt recognition. So it notifies you on your screen here how many seat belts are hooked up. So if little Timmy's having his seat belt on you'll know right away. You don't even need to ask him. So there you have it guys. If you have any questions about this vehicle do not hesitate to send me a DM. If you have any questions in regards to purchasing the vehicle. I work at St. Catharines Nissan here in the Niagara region. So do not hesitate to send me an email. I'm going to put my business info in the description below. Thanks so much for watching. We'll see you in the next unlock.