Video: 2026 Nissan Armada NISMO: Your New Boat-Hauling Battlewagon

You have? Okay, well, please take a look at the new 2026 Nissan Armada Nismo, which means that yes, the badge most commonly associated with Nissan Z's and GTRs can now be found on your buddy's boat hauler. Now let's talk about it. (upbeat music) And you are certainly gonna stand out at that campground 'cause check out the Nismo-specific visual effects package that we've got on this new variant. Starting of course, with that massive front grill. And of course, then onto these kind of red-accented side skirts here, the swollen fender flares front and rear, all the way around to the back where you've got a very blocky and really aggressive, squareish rear bumper. All of this in concert, of course, with a whole full set of Nismo-specific 22-inch wheels wrapped in those new performance tires. Yeah, you are really gonna make a statement wherever you go. Now, we definitely do have more power. In this case, the Armada standard 3.5 liter twin-turbo V-6 now is up 35 horsepower for a total 460 horsepower. That's pretty good, but not entirely unexpected, given that the Armadas platform mate, the Infiniti QX80, which has the same 3.5 liter twin-turbo V-6, has a standard 450 horsepower. Why the kind of only small difference between the Nismo and the QX80? Ah, so the base Armada with its 425 horsepower is optimized to accept regular fuel. It doesn't require any premium fuel, whereas the Infinity does. Okay, that's the key difference. Now with Nismo, with all that extra power and the engine tuning differences, does require premium fuel and it's got a Nismo-specific exhaust system, kind of with a little few more changes, bumps it above around 10 extra horsepower compared to the QX80 and 35 horsepower compared to the base Armada. Pretty good. Well, on the inside it's kind of as we expected. For the most part, it's the Armada that we already know and pretty much like. It's a nice place to spend some time. Tell you this, I hope you like red because the Nismo Armada or the Armada Nismo comes standard with, well, a lot of red accents everywhere. You got red seat belts, you got some red seat inserts here with this nice suede material. You've got red stitching. Now, if you purchase the Armada Nismo specifically for style and not so much the extra performance, and you're hoping that this has the same level of capability as, let's say, a base Armada would, you're mostly in luck. You've still got the same amount of space in here, three rows. You've got the captain's chairs in the second row, at least in this trim-in configuration. You've got real-deal, actual four-wheel drive with the auto modes and four high and four low. You've got terrain modes including all sorts of inclement weather and tow modes and everything like that. Speaking of towing, you can tow more or less the same as a standard Armada, which is pretty great. A quick note on QX80 versus Armada. I'm a big fan of the Armada center console, which incorporates a whole heck of a lot more hard controls than the QX80 does. And that is the same case with Nismo. And if this is your new canyon carver, wow, it has bespoke Nismo tuning for both the steering and the air suspension. And though the brakes appear to be unchanged, the tires are a more aggressive, higher performance all-seasons. Now, this all might seem a little bit silly, but other than the ridiculous Cadillac Escalade V and this smaller Dodge Durango Hellcat, this might just be the quickest way to tow a camper trailer up a mountain pass with all your family in the snow. Style is a huge part about what makes Nismo so interesting, but also how the Nismo drives. Can't really tell you much on the latter, as we don't even know how much this thing costs as of this preview. But we're gonna learn more about that and more, closer to this car's on-sale date later in late this summer. And when we do, you can read all about it at cars.com/news.