Test drove a brand new Nissan Pathfinder yesterday

I was out dealership-hopping a few days ago, just trying to find anyone that would let me test drive one of their cars. Impreza at a Subaru dealership=no go. 4 dr Wrangler Rubicon at a Jeep dealership=no go. 2007 Grand Cherokee at a mutt lot=no go. 2009 Audi S5 at an Audi dealership=yep, you guessed it, no go. So the last dealership I tried was a Nissan dealership and the salesperson asked ME if I wanted to test drive the Pathfinder I was looking at. I said yes, he copied my driver's license, and we headed out. Now granted, I didn't have much seat time in the pathfinder, but here's my impressions on it:

First off, it's very comfortable to get in and out of. The running boards are just the right width so that they're easy to step on, but not in the way. The model I drove wasn't fully loaded, but very well equipped with options like a backup camera and premium sound w/ steering wheel control (both of which I liked a lot). It also had the tip-tronic manu-matic transmission. I had high hopes for that transmission and I have to say, it was a major let down. Up and down shifting was basically like manually shifting any vehicle with the ability to lock out it's automatic gears. Downshifts were very crisp, but upshifts were complete crap. I'd be foot to the floor, attempting to hit redline on all the shifts, and it would hit the rev limiter everytime, even if I shifted 250 rpm before redline. In regular auto mode, the transmission was fine, but tip-tronic manual shifting flat out sucked. The Pathfinder seemed very stable on the road and on the highway, but I was comparing it to my Explorer without anti-sway bars, so I suppose everything is more stable than that. The steering felt really heavy, but tight nonetheless. While I didn't get any off road time in it, I did run it over a VERY badly pot holed street (4" deep pot holes everywhere) and it soaked up everything well.

So my overall opinion of the Pathfinder? For the mid $30k range, there's a lot of better vehicles to be had. If it were a little less pricey, I'd consider buying.  
My current ride:
1992 Ford Explorer

Where about do you live? And what story are you using?

One of my favorite past times is test driving cars. My friends and I would hit up the dealerships at least once a month when we were in high school and college just to go see what we could drive. We were very very rarely told no. Really the only one that they flat said no to that I can remember was a Kodiak, and that was because they were closing. We drove all sorts of sports cars, trucks, suvs, new, used, whatever we want basically.  
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I was hitting up the dealerships in Bellingham, WA.

My basic story was that I already had my off road vehicle (point to Explorer now) and that I wanted something that could get me down to the lake in the summer, through the snow in the winter, and it also had to be big enough to haul around a family (hug fiance now). I gotta change things up next time, I guess, get something more successful.  
My current ride:
1992 Ford Explorer