Armada

Make
Nissan
Segment
SUV

Big as it is, the Nissan Armada and its overseas cousin the Patrol aren't about to set any lap records at the Nürburgring. Not even in Nismo spec. But the oversized sport-ute has set another kind of record.

180 Nissan Patrols recently assembled in Dubai in a giant formation, setting a Guinness-certified world record for the largest synchronized car dance. Think of the synchronized swimmers you might see at the Olympics. Only instead of aquatic athletes in swimsuits and bathing caps splashing around in the water, imagine a bunch of full-size SUVs in the desert, tracing the giant, moving shape of a falcon.

Publicity stunt? No doubt. But it's not the first time Nissan's pulled one like this with the Patrol. A few years ago it set another record for scaling a hundred-meter-tall sand dune in under five seconds. And two years before that, it pulled a 170-ton Antonov cargo jet (the world's heaviest aircraft) 164 feet along the runway of the nearby Sharjah International Airport.

"At Nissan we are committed to bringing our customers 'innovation that excites,' and we are thrilled to have broken yet another Guinness World Records title with the Nissan Patrol," said regional vice president Kalyana Sivagnanam."

"What makes this achievement even more special is the fact that everyone who took part in the record-breaking attempt was Nissan staff," added managing director Juergen Schmitz. "It was a great privilege to give our employees the opportunity to take part in this landmark achievement."

Closely related to the Armada and Infiniti QX80 we get in America, the Nissan Patrol is now in its sixth generation, on the market now for nearly nine years. But it's not slowing down any time soon. Since 2011, sales have quadrupled to the point that it now stands as the best-selling full-size SUV in the UAE.