#02#We were invited up to Cranford Hall in Northamptonshire to try out the Nissan Pathfinder on a proper off-road course. To add to the fun, it had been raining heavily all morning and the course was bound to me more slippery and muddy than it had been for days. So obviously, when presented with a row of Pathfinders to choose my vehicle from, it seemed only right to pick the virginal clean white one! A virginal clean, middle of the range (£28,895 with the technology pack - satnav etc.) Nissan Pathfinder 2.5 dCi Sport automatic - just the thing to go mud-plugging in.

As I drove down the farm roads to the course I was directed onto the first of two routes and told it would take about seven minutes in all, and was just to acclimatise to the vehicle before tackling the proper course. I was a little surprised; usually at events like this, we are escorted by some 'expert' who shows us just what the vehicles are capable of (always more than you can believe) and to help keep us amateurs out of trouble. No such luck here.

As I entered course number one, low ratio selected and (new for the 2007 model year) hill descent switched on, I could see the path was already well rutted, with deep tracks in the mud showing the way. What then got my attention in a big way was the realisation that I was driving horizontally along the top of a sheer drop of about 50 feet, just a couple of feet left of where the tracks went. Oo-er, I don't mind admitting I don't do heights. Where was my "helper" when I really needed him? In first gear, low ratio, the 169bhp turbodiesel engine in the Pathfinder was a paragon of virtue as we crawled along slowly. I swear snails were pulling out and passing me. With that sheer drop there, believe me, the snails were welcome to go first.

The Nissan Pathfinder and its scaredy-cat driver inched along the route, steering to the right to keep away from the edge, but being gently guided back to the left by the deep tracks carved in the earth. Seven minutes the guy said; seven minutes to deal with the fear. After what seemed like hours, but was probably no more than five minutes, the course pulled away from the edge - phew, I was still alive. Then there followed a steepish track down the bottom of the drop, but probably no worse than 1-in-4, if that. In fact it was tame enough that the hill descent didn't even need to kick in. A quick (it's all relative, I got into second gear in the low set of rations) run along the bottom of the drop brought me back to where I started. I was relieved that the run was over, but more concerned about what lay ahead on course two - the off-road course proper! #p##01# So off we went, the Pathfinder and me, where only fools and test drivers dare to venture. On entering the course, a sharp right turn with descent showed me immediately the sort of thing that lay ahead. There were tight corners; there were steep hills, some surely nearer 1-in-1 than was sensible. The course was narrow, with natural obstacles like trees and banks everywhere. Oh, it was very muddy; in places the mud had a sort of liquid consistency and was a couple of feet deep. This white car wasn't going to be very white for very long.

And guess what, I started to enjoy the course. Yes, I parked at the top of a long, blind drop with some trepidation before edging forwards and trusting that the hill descent device really worked. A bit of a slip had the butterflies in my stomach whizzing round, but then with some violence, loud clunking noises denoted the hill descent device was doing its stuff. And how! We (that is, the Pathfinder and I) edged down the slippery slope far more securely than if I got out and crawled down on all fours. At the bottom it was a case of go back up a similar incline, so with a decent amount of welly applied, up we scrabbled back to the top.

We went through places I wouldn't take a mountain bike; we reached heady angles side to side as we rode with one side running a good two feet higher than the other, followed by a long run (a good 50 yards) through a mud river with heavily rutted bottom (invisible through the mud), but we sure felt it took us to the half way point. As we reached the marshal guiding us where to go, one of us was covered in mud, the other in hysterical laughter.

The second half of the course provided more of the same. A bit of experimentation showed that the manual override gearchange was still controlled and prevented stupid gear choices. Quite frankly the thing was so good in automatic mode that I put it back there and left well alone. Except when I got stuck at the bottom of a hill! Too much slippery mud and a steep incline, combined with poor driving technique showed that it is possible to have lots of wheels spinning even with all the gizmos working. Selecting reverse and then taking a longer run-up got us out of trouble and up to the top of the hill. #p##01# All too soon, I reached the end of the course. About 40 minutes had flown by and all I wanted to do now was go back round again! Taking the Pathfinder back to base, it was time to take stock of the vehicle itself. Initially, I had been surprised at the lack of obvious luxury - no leather and fairly hard-wearing looking door panels and dashboard. But no, not lack of luxury, more lots of practicality. The Pathfinder doesn't do posing like a Range Rover; it's meant to work for a living, but be a better compromise than a Land Rover Defender. So it's perfectly habitable, comfortable, got all the toys except the leather you might expect. It also has Tardis-like packaging. The Pathfinder might look like the Navara double-cab's sensible sister, but it's a lot smaller in length, no longer than a Vectra or Mondeo estate (something for the anti-4x4 mob to consider). Yet there is plenty of space behind the rear seats for two more seats, or a very large luggage area.

The 2.5-litre diesel engine pulls from almost no revs at all and the gearbox is completely impeccable. Whether done manually or left to its own devices, not once did I feel a gearchange on or off the road.

All in all, the Pathfinder is a very impressive piece of kit off-road; we're already harrying Nissan to let us take one out on the road...