My 2024 Nissan Armada Platinum

I decided to go old school for my newest ride, a 2024 Nissan Armada Platinum.

Like most car purchases, this wasn’t really formally planned as such. But, making some changes to the fleet had been in the works for a while.

Our 2015 BMW 328i GT COAL was our oldest car. I initially wrote it up when I brought it home from CarMax in Nashville, Tennessee in 2018 at just over 20,000 miles.

Since then, it was primarily driven by my two boys, now 25 and 23. It’s been to high school with the youngest who graduated in 2020, then parked on the streets of New Haven, CT for two years with the oldest until he graduated, then it rejoined the youngest in college for his junior and senior years.

It got a good bath MAYBE twice a year since we bought it, and I only recall one good wax job, but the black metallic paint still looked good. At 93,000 miles, suffice it to say it’s had a hard life. The boys have taken it as far south as Florida, and as far north as Toronto, with a couple of Boston trips thrown in. It’s been loaned out to who knows how many friends at both colleges. It’s been booted or towed for parking violations multiple times; we make the boys pay for any such things. It slid into a snowbank in New Haven, breaking the front spoiler, but it’s never been “wrecked”. It has moved dressers, mattresses, gas grills, and jumbo flat screen TV’s for them and their friends.

I kept the maintenance up, with 0w30 or 0w40 Mobil 1 every 7,000 miles or so (sooner than the computer calls for); new spark plugs; engine and cabin air filters more than once of course; new front pads, rotors and a brake flush at 60,000 miles at a BMW dealer (still on the factory rear brakes); a set of Toyo tires around 40,000 miles and a new set of Continentals at about 85,000 miles.

The only repair was a leaking oil filter housing gasket, a common issue with this N20 engine. It wasn’t just a “weep”, it was pumping oil out under pressure and making a mess. The valve cover gasket was also leaking, but I ignored that because you can’t just replace the gasket. In typical BMW fashion, you have to buy a new “cover assembly”, and the high pressure fuel pump and fuel rail have to come off to get the valve cover off. The estimate at the dealer was $1,500.00 for that job.

The suspension had some weird noises over bumps (another $1,500.00 estimate), and there was timing chain rattle at startup (didn’t ask for an estimate on that). But, it ran great, the A/C was GM meat locker cold to the end, and you didn’t have to add oil between changes. We just needed it to live one more year for the youngest to graduate with his Masters in 2026. However, the timing chain noise seemed to ramp up over this summer.

Instead of a rattle on a cold start, it rattled all the time when accelerating from a stop. As I stood on the curb to listen to this as my son drove it slowly back and forth, I also heard what I suspect is bottom end noise. I’m no mechanic, but I think the engine was on borrowed time due to, ahem, enthusiastic use. Maybe I’ve been watching too many engine tear down videos from IDoCars on YouTube, but the state of the engine was concerning to me. My worst fear, remote as it might have been, was for my son to be flying down the interstate and the engine fail at speed, locking up and putting him in danger.

My 2020 Outback Touring XT has been with us for 18 months. Starting at 23,000 miles and change when I bought it from my Dad, it’s at 74,000 miles now. It’s an interesting, split-personality car. Very handy and versatile, of course. I towed 2,500 combined pounds of cabinets and UHaul trailer to the mountains from Charlotte after Helene flooded a rental duplex chest deep.

I filled it with 900 square feet of laminate flooring and two closet doors on the roof, when the handyman couldn’t get everything on one of our many trips to Lowe’s.

As the summer drew to a close, the decision was made to pass the Outback on to my youngest son for his 650 mile trip back to grad school, and for me to drive the 328i GT until I found something else. I had no idea what I wanted; so many cars appeal to me. I set an arbitrary budget of $50,000.00 and was thinking about a lightly used S Class. My wife helpfully pointed out “well, if you’re getting a new car, you should get something that will tow an RV for the two of us”. We’ve wanted to get a small travel trailer as empty nesters, as we miss the days on the road with the Winnebago View COAL, and the inexpensive, plain, but large 36 foot bunkhouse travel trailer we owned from 2007-2014 or so when the kids were small.

We are also used to having something with a hitch in the family, for the utility trailer, UHaul trailers, and the bike rack.

Our 2005 Infiniti QX56 we bought new was the first tow vehicle for the RV bunkhouse. It had a great V8, and gave no trouble for over 100,000 miles until we traded it. Despite all the abuse (small kids, dogs, long road trips, pulling the bunkhouse up and down the East Coast) and light tan interior and carpeting, it looked new inside and out when we traded it in 2011 (thanks, WeatherTech mats). Fond memories that came back to me in my search.

I did a lot of online research. I wanted a large car and I wanted to tow. I started with the obvious choices: Tahoe, Yukon and short Navigator (a Suburban would not fit in our garage, among other considerations). The prices were pretty shocking, to say the least. I switched to 1-3 year old used, but given how these models hold their value, used prices weren’t much better for what you were getting. I expanded my search to new and used Sequioas (even pricier) and the new 2025 Nissan Armada (ditto).

The soon to be replaced 2017-2024 Armada started to seem like a good option. They depreciate more steeply than the other large SUVs. And despite not selling in huge numbers, there were a fair number of used examples around. After driving the 2024 and 2025 Armadas back to back, I found that I liked the older model better overall. The new 2025 is great, and more stylish on the inside with the large screen going more than halfway across the dash.

But, the older body style seems finished a little better inside (real leather on all the door cards and door pulls on my Platinum, for example). I liked the idea of the tough and respected 5.6 naturally aspirated V8, for which 2024 was the final model year. The 7 speed automatic transmission has also been around for 20 plus years (as a 5 speed in our 2005 Q56), and has a good reputation. The gas mileage improvement for the 2025 Armada with a twin turbo V6 and 9 speed automatic is negligible (13/18 for the V8 AWD 2024, vs. 16/19 for the V6 AWD 2025).

I won’t bore you with a lot of history of the Armada (that’s what Wiki is for), but the first version from 2004-2016 was based on the first Titan pickup and built in Mississippi. The 2017-2024 Armada (as well as the new 2025) is a rebadged version of the Nissan Patrol tuned for American interstates and built in Japan. The Patrol is a legendary and stout vehicle, like the Toyota Land Cruiser. They have a Chevy/Ford (or UNC/Duke) type rivalry in the rest of the world, but especially in the UAE and Australia.

There weren’t any new 2024’s that I could find locally, but lots of 2025’s. For 2025, Nissan expanded the model lineup and the Armada comes in SV, SL, Pro4X (new), Platinum, and Platinum Reserve (new). They have also lessened the quality of the interior appointments (IMHO) to get more people into the new Infiniti QX80, which is largely identical but more expensive, and with nicer interior appointments. The top dog QX80 trim is very nice inside with real wood and metal accents, but also $100,000+.

My 2024 Platinum’s equipment is closest to the 2025 Platinum Reserve. The 2025 adds HUD and massaging front seats, which I don’t have. However, I have heated and cooled seats, 22 inch wheels, as well as an integrated brake controller in the dash, which you have to go with Platinum Reserve to get for 2025.

Pricing on the new Armadas was almost shocking as the other makes, though feature for feature the Nissan is consistently lower than the GM, Ford and Toyota models. A 2025 Platinum equipped a little less well than my 2024 stickers at about $83,000 and the best number I was able to negotiate was in the low $70’s, including a Costco $1,500.00 certificate. Still too high for me, and I was on the fence about having the twin turbo V6 and 9 speed transmission in their first year of production (I am sure they’ll be fine, just not my preference).

One Saturday in August, I headed out in the 2015 BMW down a road I rarely venture on. I was driving (eventually) into the countryside for a pleasant drive in the BMW, when a beautiful Hermosa Blue “old body style” Armada caught my eye. It was parked on the grass in front of a Nissan dealership. Thinking it was a leftover new 2024, I turned around and stopped to look. Even better, it was a 2024 service loaner, never titled, with 5,176 miles.

A late 2024 model year build from June, 2024, it truly looked and smelled new. While the interior looks dated to some, I liked it fine and actually better than the 2025.

A 2022 model year update brought a new front clip (hood, quarter panels, headlights, grille and bumper), taillights, rear bumper, center stack with touch screen, and wireless CarPlay. You have simple physical climate controls. You have an actual gearshift you can use without looking (as opposed to the buttons in the Tahoe, Yukon, Expedition and new Armada). It has a 360 degree camera for parking, video rear view mirror, and all the nannies (blind spot, lane departure, emergency braking front and rear, etc.). It has just “tow” and “snow” modes, instead of a half dozen “terrain” options. Is this what getting old means? I didn’t want to pay top dollar for the “latest and greatest” when I liked the “old style” better.

On a short test drive, the buttery smooth V8 and automatic was a treat, after years of nothing but turbo 4’s in the household, and the CVT of the Outback (which I have never really taken a liking to).

Everything looked new,

and even the owner’s manual was still shrink wrapped.

We negotiated a $44,500 trade difference before tax and tag ($7,500 trade in for the BMW, and $52,000 for the Armada). Since I am the first registered owner, the factory warranty started with me. The window sticker in the glovebox shows $77,000 and change, but of course no one would have paid that. You couldn’t have negotiated $25,000.00 off, though, so I was happy with that discount on this unit for what was essentially a new car. And, it was coming in for just over $20,000 less than the best price I had negotiated on a slightly less equipped 2025.

The gas mileage has been a pleasant surprise for a 6,000 pound, full-time AWD vehicle. I’m averaging 21 mpg on most tanks, a mix of city and country roads. My worst tank with mostly city driving, was still 17. On a three hour drive to the beach on divided highways with a 60-mph speed limit most of the way, I get 23. At 65 mph, the engine barely exceeds 1,500 rpm.

So now we need a trailer! Haven’t pulled the trigger on that yet, but we’ve been looking. With the factory Class IV hitch, 7 wire connector, and integrated brake controller, the 8,500 pound tow capacity will more than manage anything we would be interested in. The above unit is too big for us; I think a 24 foot trailer of 4-5,000 pounds is where we will wind up.

My young Nissan saleslady was a recent arrival from her native New York City, and in our conversations she said she had never owned a car but needed one now, in our car-oriented Southern city. I recommended the BMW to her (“you know what they are giving me for it, you need to make them give you a deal”), and told her about the timing chain noise and valve cover gasket leak. I don’t know if she bought it, but according to my CarFax app it was sold three days later. It was listed as having “engine inspection, engine serviced, valve cover replaced” at the Nissan dealer two weeks after it was sold, so I suspect it is hers or a mechanic there bought it as a project car.

Today is about 10 weeks after my purchase, and we’re at 14,000 miles and change. I’ve been to New York twice to help family move and visit, and it’s surprisingly easy to handle even in NYC traffic since you have good sightlines. I go from N.C. to Hoboken, through the Holland tunnel, surface streets across lower Manhattan, then over the Brooklyn Bridge (if you’re headed to the Best Buy across from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, I can tell you the parking entrance is very difficult to find). I’m pleased with it, and haven’t found anything I would change. It is a job to wash by hand, but I avoid car washes with dark colored cars because of the scratches that develop over time. I cheat and don’t wash the roof every time.

After these pictures were taken, I had the windows tinted (darkest legal on the front doors which isn’t very dark in my State, and limo dark the rest of the way around). I got a four wheel alignment because it wouldn’t track well on the interstate, and it made quite an improvement. It didn’t come with mats; I found an inexpensive but quite plush set of made-to-fit carpet mats online for all the rows from Australia (where Patrol and Land Cruiser accessories are quite an industry).

Hope we get some great COALers soon, and thanks for reading!