Nissan Patrol V8 first review

If you’ve ever been to the Middle East or Australia or even some parts of the Americas and Africa, you will be well aware of the Nissan Patrol. The full-size SUV has been around for sixty years and six generations and is known for its ability to traverse the harshest of terrain where only a handful of rugged large off-roaders can dare to. The Toyota Land Cruiser LC 200 and a bunch of Land Rovers aside, there are few who can stand shoulder to shoulder in this August company.

But like we’ve seen with the current crop of top-of-the-line off-roaders, the full time burly beast has given way to being a part time metrosexual male. The Patrol too follows this route. It’s as luxurious and welcoming on the inside as a Sheikh’s castle, yet gets all the 4WD trickery to get you through the wilderness. We’ll come to that soon but first let’s take a look at its design.

The Patrol is a typically butch SUV that unimaginatively uses the tried and tested squared stance with strong shoulders, an imposing front end, plenty of chrome and massive 265 section 18 inch wheels. And it works well for the Patrol. The Nissan flagship is over 5.1 metres in length, 2 metres wide and almost two metres tall, with a three metre wheelbase. This room on wheels could possibly swallow a Mini with the seats folded flat. There’s massive 283mm of ground clearance and the Patrol can tow a 3.5 tonne trailer.

The interior is a high quality leather lined living room with wooden cabinets and entertainment screens. Pardon the exaggeration but that’s the best way to describe the acres of space on the inside of the Patrol. There are wood inserts all across the dashboard and the centre console and video entertainment screens for the rear passengers. The Patrol has three rows of seats and with all the seats in place, there is 550 litres of luggage space! With the rear benches folded flat, you get 3,100 litres of storage. 

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Between the front bucket seats is the all important knob that gives you command of the Patrol’s ability to drive off road. The electronically controlled all-road 4WD system in auto mode splits power evenly between the front and rear axle or varies it depending on the levels of grip at each wheel. You can switch it to 4WD High for not-so-serious off-roading, or Low for some heavy off-roading. There are also four terrain options available that alters power delivery and gear shifts – Sand, Snow, Rock and On-road. You can also turn on hill descent control or lock the rear differential.

The pièce de résistance however is the 5.6-litre V8 engine under the hood of the Patrol. Nissan newly developed this engine for the Patrol for markets where the fairer fuel isn’t as expensive to buy but in India, it is going to be a hard sell. The Patrol is going to be a CBU halo product and will most likely sell in single digits to buyers who might not dare to take the SUV off the road. This privileged lot we assume may own a fuel station too for the Patrol has a claimed efficiency figure of 6.9kmpl. So expect a real world figure of close to 4-5kmpl. Good thing the fuel tank can store 140 litres of petrol then!

If you can make peace with its efficiency, you might quite enjoy the V8 burble dishing out 407PS of power and 560Nm of torque to hurl you down the highway. The Patrol can do the 0-100kmph sprint in about 6.6 seconds and the hydraulic body motion control that helps reduce body roll will keep the SUV in check around corners too. 

Expect prices of around Rs 1 crore for the Patrol when it is launched. It will take on the likes of the Toyota Land Cruiser and Mercedes Benz GL Class, two full size SUVs from more aspirational brands. Even such a micro-segment is tough to enter.