New 2011 Nissan Patrol

The new seriously beefy Patrol was unveiled in the Middle East back in February and we Australians got our first glimpse of it at the recent Australian International Motor Show in Sydney. The new Nissan is the result of more than 13,000 hours of testing by 40 Japanese engineers in the heat and dust of the Middle East and Australia and no fewer than 200 prototypes were involved in the program. Another problem for the local Nissan management team is that, somewhat surprisingly, they were the only ones to request the factory to build a right-hand-drive Patrol, not to mention a turbo-diesel version.
When the all-new Patrol finally arrives in Australian dealer showrooms - probably in early 2012 - buyers who can live without a turbo-diesel can look forward to a great new 5.6 litre petrol V8 that cranks out 298kW of power and 560Nm of torque.

The engine is equipped with variable valve-event lift and direct injection and it is 14 percent more fuel efficient than the engine it will replace. Speaking of fuel, the big new Nissan has a 140 litre tank.
With most Australian SUV buyers preferring turbo-diesel engines under their vehicle's bonnet, the lack of a suitable "oiler" for the new Patrol - at least in the foreseeable future - is a body blow for Nissan Australia and it will certainly cost the company plenty of sales. In the interim, Nissan dealers will continue to stock the current three-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel Patrol.

Meanwhile, Nissan is talking with Daimler about the possibility of sourcing a turbo-diesel from the great German company and the engine that might be suitable is the excellent 165kW/510Nm V6 that powers the Mercedes-Benz GL.
If that scenario eventuated, it will leave the Patrol well behind the 195kW/650Nm figures delivered by the Toyota LandCruiser 200's 4.5-litre V8 "oiler." The Patrol's new V8 is mated with an equally new seven-speed automatic transmission that is equipped with manual-shift mode and a wider range of gear ratios for faster shifting.
The transmission has a variable lock-up torque converter, a new and improved shift map and a new transmission fluid warmer that cuts fuel consumption at start-up.

Also in the new technology department is what Nissan calls its hydraulic body-motion-control system or HBMC.
It is designed to deliver less body roll during lane-changing and flatter cornering and a short stint behind the wheel at Mt. Cotton confirmed that this is the case. The Patrol is built on a totally new steel, ladder-frame chassis that delivers twice the lateral rigidity of the previous model and its all-new suspension uses a four-wheel independent double-wishbone set-up.

Driver aids include hill-start assist and hill-descent control that uses the brakes to maintain a constant downhill speed of 7 km/h in 4H mode and 4 km/h in 4L mode. Stopping power is delivered via a new four-piston opposed caliper setup at the front that grab 358mm discs and there are 350 mm discs at the rear. There is also a suite of state-of-the-art safety technologies designed help the driver to recover from dangerous conditions and minimise damage when a collision is unavoidable.

While Nissan Australia is a couple of months away from finalising local specification, things that could be included are lane-departure warning and prevention, intelligent Cruise control, distance-control assist, a forward collision-warning system, vehicle dynamic control, traction control, a helical-brake limited-slip differential, a mechanical differential lock and intelligent brake assist. Inside there are six-airbags, front seat-belt pretensioners and load limiters and active head restraints and there is also a super-clever tyre-pressure monitoring system with an inflation indicator.

There is also an enhanced climate-control system and a multi-screen, multi-functional individual DVD entertainment system with three displays - a dashboard screen and two rear-facing TVs. Seven-inch monitors embedded into each front seat headrest can connect to the various sources of music, video and entertainment, such as the DVD, iPod and game player. When it finally arrives here, the Patrol will also be available with a hard drive-based navigation system and a 9.3GB 'music box'.

Recently, Nissan Australia hosted a media event at Queensland's Mt. Cotton driver-training centre just south of Brisbane and it had on hand a Middle East sourced left-hand-drive Patrol. A few laps on the centre's tough off-road course confirmed a couple of things. First, the new Patrol is huge - in fact it's longer, wider, taller and at 2800kg, heavier than the big LandCruiser. There's no doubting the smoothness and torque delivery of the engine and its seven-speed automatic and the quality of the big SUV's luxurious interior.

While it's a long time before the petrol Patrol finally arrives on our shores - let alone a possible turbo-diesel - in today's money you shouldn't expect change out of $100,000.
Ian Crawford