First Drive: 2010 Nissan Patrol
The Next Infiniti QX56, in Disguise
February, 2010
/ By Bruce Newton

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...ive/index.html

You might not have picked up the seismic tremors in North America, but jaws thunked to earth in places as far flung as Australia, Africa, Russia and the Middle East when Nissan confirmed its Patrol heavy-duty SUV was trading in its good ol' live axles for independent underpinnings.

So what's the Patrol and why should you care? Well in plenty of places, it's a 4x4 icon, conquering the tough terrain of the Middle East since the 1950s and in 1962 becoming the first vehicle to successfully cross Australia's scorching Simpson Desert.

So it's a tough, old-style truck -- go anywhere, do anything, tow anything.

Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...#ixzz0g3Ry1D1v

Some quotes from the four page article

 

This thing is a beast!

 

I wonder how this thing compares to the lexus lx570 or the lc

 

wtf 6000 pounds !!!

 

Patrol is now the fastest in class.


Yep, this is the deciding factor for every SUV buyer out there.

 

looks great for the few that need or want one.

 

Sounds like they took a great spartan offroad vehicle and turned it into a glamorous less capable offroad vehicle.

 

nice but 13mpg?????

 

Very good review for this. This Patrol seems to have a huge dose of refinement from the ride, wind noise, interior, to the engine. I am glad they took this into account, because some Infiniti products are lacking in this area. This should make the current QX56 look very bad, in pretty much every perspective.

 

This vehicle had better turn out to be more reliable than the last Armada/QX-56 was. The QX-56 did some damage to the image of the Infiniti nameplate. It was built at the notorious Nissan-Infiniti plant at Canton, MS, and, like the other vehicles built there (Armada, Titan), had noted quality/reliability problems. That was not the case, though, with other Infiniti vehilces, which generally have had a better-than-average relibility record, especially the G and M models.

 

The QX56 is still their least reliable model, but the new Patrol and QX are being built at the brand new state-of-the-art Nissan Shahai Plant in Kyushu Japan. I would expect a much higher quality product than the current QX. It will be interesting to see how their rank changes once the new QX is on the roads. The M is supposed to be getting additional quality inspectors (women) also.

 

I see a lot of LC/LX in many of the design cues, but overall I think this is a very odd looking ute. The interior seems nice though.

 

The Nissan Patrol from Japan will be fine. The previous gen Patrols have been just as reliable as Toyota's Land Cruiser. The Patrol is an a different class of vehicles than those like the Expedition, Armada and Sequoia.

Patrol, Rand Rover, Pajero, Land Cruiser are all in the same segment.

I just hope North America gets the Patrol in Nissan form as well.

 

One of the few times I've found that I can agree with you, But I don't think that US of A will get the patrol. The LC has a long, long history on American soil, and due to the existence of the LX that history is probably the only reason it is still here.

 

it's a 6100lb 4x4 ute, what do you expect?