If you had Cyndi Lauper screaming “She-Bop” in one ear, Ronald Reagan denouncing communism in the other, and Don Johnson smacking you upside the head with an Atari 2600, you still could not have a more ’80s experience than driving the first-generation Nissan Pathfinder.
Nissan introduced the Pathfinder in 1985, a year when the minivan was only just beginning to threaten the giant wood-sticker-sided V-8 wagons still sold by the Big Three. SUVs were becoming righteously trendy, though if you told the average mid-’80s American the SUV would someday dominate the market, they’d probably dismiss you as a wastoid or a total space cadet. Still, that day was coming—and the Pathfinder would help usher it in.
But let’s not ask Zoltar to predict the future just yet; instead, let us appreciate this first-gen 1988 Pathfinder’s aesthetic. Its bodacious bod, like the Hardbody pickup it’s based on,
