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this would be my guess also..Probably related to US crash test standards, or some such Federal legislation.
I fully understand where you are coming from. My disappointment was more that such a renowned offroad vehicle not being offroad friendly and at the moment I am very skeptical of its durability. I have had a couple Infiniti QX4's and they were pretty reliable vehicles and I used to love the small compact lifted SUV. After the Land Cruiser everything else is a disappointment. I do like the look of the new Mercedes SUVs but don't believe in the reliability of german vehicles anymore. Reliability has become an issue across all manufacturers thus leading me to stick to land cruisers. It's like playing Russian Roulette and when I was younger I was willing to put up with maintenance and issues but as I have gotten older I don't have time to keep sending my vehicle out for repair.
That seems to be a trend at Nissan...at least in the US...moving away from off-road intent.
In the late 80's? Their Pathfinder was a legitimate off-roader that competed with 4Runner. Today? It pretty much a mini-van-in-disguise that just has a cool name. So sad. Hoping they won't do the same to the Patrol!
I think that has been the trend here in the US for most all manufactures over the past decade, I have seen quite a few good ole rugged body on frame SUVs get replaced by glorified uni-body car designs just one after another , where all you are really getting now days is a station wagon car, that is simply made to look like an SUV.
But they seem to sell a lot of them, the crossover SUV segment eclipses the full size body on frame segment by a healthy margin these days. Heck even The Range Rover and the GL Benz are nice vehicles, but not real SUVs in my eyes since both are Uni-body designs now.
Toyota is one of the few that seem to take a little different approach and still offer both variations for now. But even Toyota killed off the FJ recently.
Jeep has been confirmed to be sticking with Body on frame construction for the next gen Wrangler, also said to be sticking with solid axles too. That said the rest of the Jeep lineup is all crossover uni-body's now.
I think CAFE regulations is driving a lot of these changes here.
I am really glad to see that Toyota, Nissan, Ford and GM are at least keeping some real SUVs on the market here.