The Nissan Patrol is a legendary SUV in the global market. Owners swear by its off road capability and reliability, the UAE especially has a huge fan following for this SUV and I speak from my personal experience of having spent a good amount of my childhood among Patrols when I lived there. Not surprising that the two Patrols imported by Nissan for this special showcase and brand building exercise also came with Dubai registration plates and were left hand drive.
As part of its ‘CARnival’ event held to celebrate 10 years of the brand in India, Nissan invited us to get a first hand experience of the driving the Patrol in its favourite habitat and let me say that waking up at 4 am to take a flight to Delhi on a Monday was well worth it. The venue for the drive was the Buddh International Circuit, well not on the track itself but on off road courses around it. Before I get to the driving experience, a little on this behemoth.
The Patrol has grown massively over the years and has got it self some curves in terms of design. There is a huge grille with the Nissan logo sitting in the centre. The Terrano that is sold in India gets a similar grille albeit few sizes smaller. The flared wheel arches look macho and a prominent V8 badge sits on the front fender which tells us what lies under the hood. There is a thick chrome strip that runs along the doors.The rear is also more rounded but the tail lights give a more Korean look than Japanese. There is a large tow hook mounted on the rear bumper.
The interior is as massive as you would expect of an SUV this size . It is no nonsense and typical Japanese. The dashboard has a combination of black and wood including the steering wheel while the upholstery has a dark shade of beige. Seats are massive and comfortable. The Patrol is a 7 seater and even with all the seats up, has good boot space.
The Patrol comes with a 5.6 litre V8 petrol engine that puts out 400 bhp and comes loaded with offroad equipment like All-Mode 4×4 drivetrain with Multi Surface Selection and Hydraulic Body Motion Control Suspension System. It comes mated to an automatic gearbox which can be driven in tip tronic mode as well.
There were two courses, which were made available to us for driving the Patrol. The first was made by Nissan themselves which had a combination different off road situations including a set of 30 degree angle inclines to drive sideways, more like an obstacle course. This was fairly easy for me to complete Peanuts for the Patrol really.
The second course was the more challenging one. This was done using 4L mode and Diff locking. One had to be very cautious while driving around this course. There were steep declines and inclines included, not to mention it was very narrow too. While I completed the course without any trouble, there was one climb where I had to reverse all the way down, floor the pedal and climb up again. That was not all. The immediate left hander after climbing up was a really challenge and that had to be judged perfectly. Add to that, the Patrol I was driving was a left hand drive. Overall it was surely a fun driving experience which I would love to do more often.
Nissan is evaluating the Patrol for launch in India and if it does come in, that will happen by the end of this year. Direct competition for the Patrol in India is the Toyota Land Cruiser LC200. The Land Cruiser sells in minuscule numbers despite having a diesel motor and the Patrol comes with a petrol unit, that too a guzzling V8. Also it will come has a CBU which means it wont be cheap. Expect it to cost around 1 crore or more. Buyers in India will think twice before putting down that kind of money on a Japanese SUV. Then there are the German SUVs which already have a stronghold in India, sell in good numbers and are locally assembled as well.
Will the Patrol boost the image of Nissan in India? I dont know, but there is a certain Godzilla that could do a very good job of that. Think about it Nissan.
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