HOW MUCH DO YOU LOVE THE 80?!

THE FIRST-GENERATION NISSAN PATHFINDER IS AN SUV THROWBACK TO A TOTALLY RAD TIME, FOR SURE

- AARON GOLD

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, is an ode to the straight line— wheel-arch muscle bulges notwithstanding. The Pathfinder stands so tall on its wheels that it seems like you could duck and walk right under it, even with your bangs sprayed and teased, but in fact the floor rises no higher than a pair of leg warmers. The design belies the Pathfinder’s size (shorter and narrower than a modern-day Nissan Versa) and weight (nearly two tons). It carries its bulk more like Ted DiBiase than Captain Lou Albano.

Of course, there are only two doors; the four-door Pathfinder wouldn’t arrive until 1990, a year before the first-ever Ford Explorer. And could anything be more rad than those triangular windows behind the B-pillar? Park the first-gen Pathy next to a modern-day four-door Pathfinder, and it’s, like, bag your face and gag me with a spoon.