It was once the case that anyone looking to transport a large family had little choice but to buy a minivan, at least if they didn't want to spend a fortune at the gas pump. However, the ever increasing popularity of SUVs, combined with the slow but steady rise of electrified powertrains, means that's no longer necessarily true. Buyers can now look at any one of a wide range of three-row SUVs, safe in the knowledge that they're no longer the gas-guzzling beasts that they once were.
In fact, the top performing three-row SUVs even offer similar fuel efficiency to many smaller cars. Using a combination of KBB's new car search tool and the EPA's database of efficiency figures, we've put together a list of 10 of the most fuel efficient three-row SUVs on the market. To keep things simple, we've excluded plug-in hybrids, since their real world efficiency varies dramatically depending upon how often they're plugged in.
As such, this list consists only of gas-only cars and hybrids. For comparison, we've also included a trio of the worst performers on the market below the main ranking. Available in several different flavors for the 2025 model year, the Nissan Pathfinder achieves a combined 23 mpg in its most efficient trim.
Buying either the Platinum or Rock Creek trims will reduce that figure slightly, to 22 mpg combined and 21 mpg combined respectively. Across all trims, the SUV's 3.5-liter V6 remains unaltered.
In SlashGear's review of the Nissan Pathfinder Rock Creek trim from 2024.
