The Y62 Nissan Patrol has been around Aussie terra firma for over a decade now. And yet, as far as new sales go, it’s more popular than it ever has been.
Sure, some of that has to do with supply issues of its sought-after nemesis, Toyota’s LandCruiser 300 Series, but there’s more to it than that. It still offers V8 power its key rival doesn’t – That’s a big drawcard.
That it is, pound for pound, more affordable as a range – and a slim two-tier range at that – is added lure.
It also clearly stokes major interest from buyers who want ‘big’ in a good many areas – power, capacity, roominess, on-road real estate – but aren’t all that fussed on new style or modern tech.
As motoring aims to become smarter with natural evolution, many find increasing appeal in what’s increasingly simpler old-school charm.
There’s also the get-it-while-you-can status of its thumping 5.6-litre V8, which surely has numbered days.
Indeed, the Patrol’s newfound popularity has little to do with an MY22 update so mild that you’ll miss it if you dare blink. Not surprising, though, given its major facelift lobbed at the beginning of 2021.
Here on test is the more affordable of the two available grades, the 2022 Nissan Patrol Ti, which brings all of the meat of the flagship Ti-L but with less of the fat.
How much does the Nissan Patrol Ti cost?
The Ti version of the bent-eight Patrol lists for $82,160 before on-road costs. And it’s measurably lighter on the wallet than the higher-grade Ti-L version that clocks in at $95,115 list.
That undercuts the cheapest LandCruiser 300 GX ($89,990) and anything comparable from the Land Rover stable: the entry-level Discovery petrol, a 3.0L, is around $113k.
2022 Nissan Patrol pricing:
- Nissan Patrol Ti: $82,160
- Nissan Patrol Ti-L: $95,115
Pricing excludes on-road costs
What is the Nissan Patrol Ti like on the inside?
First up, the Patrol is large, really large. It nudges 5.2 metres in length and is a smudge under two metres in height, all 2.8-plus-tonnes of it.
Anyone, outside those of prime basketball stature, will be climbing in making use of the sidesteps and A-pillar handle. But given the doors too, are huge, most parallel parking will demand you squeeze through a fairly narrow door opening for entry or egress, because the Patrol is nearly two metres wide.
It’s like climbing into a time capsule – or, perhaps, a time cavern. There’s a palpable sense of sheer space inside, partly because you already sit so high and there’s a huge amount of seat base height adjustment to amplify it if desired.
It feels larger still once you drop the front seats low, though outward visibility does start to become compromised. Much of its design feels oversized to fit the format, so areas such as the console bin are humongous.
I’ve written it before and let’s write it again: you’ll likely consider the Patrol’s approach to cabin design to be old-school charming or somewhat tacky and outdated. To each their own.
The approach in combining hardy leather and leatherette, that scrunches up in some areas such as the door inserts, and the high-gloss woodgrain effect is quite an old-fashioned approach to aiming for a luxury ambience.
It’s not terribly convincing, if mostly because so much of cabin features and detail appear lifted from some new-old stock parts bin. That said, there’s precious little about the Ti cabin that looks or feels cheaper or more down-market than that in the Ti-L.
In fact, in the first row especially, the two grades of Patrol are almost indistinguishable, though the base model does have a lot of blank button panels, presumably for its various omitted features.
From the instrumentation to the steering wheel through to the multimedia controls, so much of the cabin is big, simple and easy to use, if achingly passé.
The monochromatic driver’s screen looks lifted from the 1980s. But there’s nothing too tricky about the general usability, even of the footbrake is such a throwback to old times that you often forget to disengage it when taking off.
The infotainment deserves a swift kick for underachievement. It’s slow, clunky, not terribly intuitive to use and what it does offer – sat-nav and 360-degree camera systems – just gets a passing mark for functionality.
There’s no DAB+ and no smartphone mirroring, though you can stream audio via Bluetooth.
No inductive phone charging either, and while there’s two adjacent USB-A ports in the centre stack there isn’t really anywhere to stow your phone, especially the larger devices that are popular at the moment.
As we’ve noted in reviews past, there’s a vastly slicker and newer multimedia system offered in the US version of this car, called the Armada.
The Patrol’s front seats are less buckets and more armchairs, and they’re incredibly flat in shape. That’s not such a bad thing for long-haul comfort as you can so easily adjust your posture, but there’s virtually no lateral support.
You might find they demand a lot of micro-adjustment to find a setting that’ll provide natural relaxation rather than constantly using your muscles to keep you well enough seated.
Storage is adequate but there’s less of it than this huge 4WD ought to offer. The large console bin isn’t lined, so oddments tend to rattle around.
The door bins are fine, but you tend to lay bottles flat along the bottom – to stop rattling – and use the bottle holder for smaller objects, like your wallet. They’re also set so low that some will find it quite a stretch to reach the door bins.
Unsurprisingly, row two is very roomy and certifiably three-adult friendly. The tail-shaft hump is minimal for good foot space, knee room is fantastic, the window sills are low and young-kid friendly and there’s so much glass area that the ambience is very light and airy indeed.
Like up front, the rear 60:40 split-fold bench is quite flat in its contours but it’s quite comfy and you and adjust the seatback to taste.
Bar the lack of row-two entertainment, the Ti doesn’t lack much to the pricier Ti-L. You get dedicated third-row climate controls (that can be adjusted from the first row too) with toe-level and roof mounted air vents, the latter also featured in row three.
Third-row accommodation is a mixed bag. The second-row seats tumble forward for quite handy rearmost access and the final row of seating does offer recline adjustment, too.
You also do get a total of four cupholders if you want them. But given row two doesn’t offer sliding functionality, it’s quite cramped out back for adults, particularly for legroom.
As an alleged eight-seater, it ought to fit three occupants with a modicum of comfort and practical space. You’ll get three small kids in there at an absolute squeeze.
Even with three rows in play, there’s a decent 467 litres of boot space that expands with considerable measure once you start stowing seating. As a five-seater, there’s a huge 1413L.
With row two tumbled forward as well, the volume is a cavernous 2623L, though the load floor does create a bit of an upwards slope.
What’s under the bonnet?
Five-point-six litres of bent-eight petrol fury. Hang onto your hats, and your wallet.
The naturally-aspirated V8 belts out a fearsome 298kW. That said, its peak torque of 560Nm is, in these forced induced times, actually fairly modest and it doesn’t fully arrive until well up in the rev-range, at 4000rpm.
It’s paired to permanent 4×4 via a seven-speed conventional automatic transmission. Drive can between switched between 4-High range and 4-Low range, while the rear differential can be locked when desired.
The driver can also select a number of different drive modes that include Road, Sand, Snow and Rock traction calibrations. It’s rated to tow 3500kg braked.
Fuel consumption? The claim is 14.4L/100km. In our week with the Patrol Ti, it rarely dropped below 20L/100kms indicated with never more than two adults aboard. And it runs on a 95 RON minimum in its massive 140-litre tank.
The silver lining is a rough 700kms of range. But consider this: at the time of testing, 95 RON was north of two dollars per litre.
Even as a conservative estimate, that’s 40 bucks per hundred kays. Or $280 per tank fill, at least. That’s two up, no kids, no luggage and no caravan attached…
Showing it some legs on the open road gets consumption down to into the mid-teens, though the extra urban claim is said to be as favourable as 11.1L/100km. Hmm…
How does the Nissan Patrol Ti drive?
For its potential fiscal hardship, jeez, that big petrol V8 is wonderfully addictive.
It’s smooth, characterful, quiet when it needs to be and gloriously raucous in soundtrack when you kick it in the slats. But the best bit is that the engine’s crisp naturally-aspirated response makes it seem torquier than it is.
The 5.6 is actually quite docile with mild throttle input but dig in and it piles on plenty of tractive effort, and masks the Patrol’s mass impressively well.
Acceleration is strident and linear and it feels downright quick, though much of that could well be the placebo effect of a machine so large taking up as much real estate. Perhaps the V8’s baiting nature is why I struggled to keep consumption below the 20s.
Still, it’s big and quite wooly around its dynamic edges, a big beast that encourages guidance rather than spirited enthusiasm at the helm. And yet it’s actually more wieldy than you expect, quite easy to place and direct even though its light and somewhat vague steering – not to mention its sheer mass – makes the front end not terribly accurate.
And that’s fine. If there’s some concession to a machine that feels like a rolling lounge room it’s that it’s not expected to deliver high driver engagement.
Yet, it’s actually quite an enjoyable thing to punt around once you get used to the size and and the constant adjustment the steering wheel demands.
The upshot to its soft-edged nature is that it’s quite unflustered by the worst potholes and sharp road acne hits, and does a decent job of smothering much of the impact from square-edged speed humps.
It offers the sort of isolation and compliance that would help in challenging off-road courses, and one of the Patrol’s big boasts is a generous amount of wheel articulation when you need it across the rougher stuff.
But it’s not infallible. One markdown is a surprising amount of noisy ‘wheel slap’ across road joints that causes notable thudding.
Some of the electronic systems, too, leave a bit to be desired. The adaptive cruise control works fine, but the active lane-keeping and run-off mitigation is mostly nonexistent for intervention. But where it ought to be better calibrated and specified is in parking assistance.
The front parking sensors, in particular, are so slow to trigger that they wait until you passed by a close-proximity object. The 360-camera system display is also too small and grainy for a device that really requires them for virtually any city parking demands.
Do not underestimate the care and patience the Patrol demands parallel parking on street, let alone venturing into underground carparks.
It only just squeezes into my local supermarket carpark (with its 2.05-metre height warning). And at 12.5 metres for its turning circle, you need a wide berth for U-turns.
While we didn’t venture off-road in the Ti, its on-paper chops lack nothing to that of the Ti-L, which we did assess out in the boonies. Check our full video review here to see how the higher-grade version fares off the beaten path.
What do you get?
Patrol Ti highlights:
- 8-seat configuration
- 18-inch alloy wheels
- 265/70 tyres
- Full-size alloy spare wheel
- LED headlights (dusk sensing)
- LED fog lights
- ‘Sports’ front bumper
- Helical rear limited-slip differential
- 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment
- Satellite navigation with traffic updates
- CD/DVD
- AM/FM radio
- MP3/USB/iPod connectivity
- Bluetooth phone/audio streaming
- 6-speaker audio system
- Tri-zone climate control
- 8-way power-adjustable driver’s seat
- 6-way power-adjustable passenger’s seat
- Leather-accented seat trim
- Keyless entry with push-button start
- 360-degree ‘Around-View Monitor’ with Moving Object Detection
- Front and rear parking sensors
What do you miss out on that’s fitted to the Ti-L?
Omitted are powered wheel adjustment, memory functions for the wing mirrors and seat adjustment, a front cooler box, powered tailgate, digital rear-view mirror, front seat heating/cooling, Bose 13-speaker audio and a rear entertainment system.
Niceties, yes, but not much of the ‘L’ effect is really all that essential. Further, the Ti-L is a seven rather than an eight-seater like the Ti.
Is the Nissan Patrol Ti safe?
After ten years on the local deck, the Y62 Patrol is yet to be ANCAP rated. You can bet something large that it probably never will be, either.
Standard safety features include:
- Autonomous emergency braking (AEB)
- Forward collision warning
- Land departure warning
- Lane-keep assist
- Blind-spot monitoring
- Rear cross-traffic alert
- 360-degree camera system
- Front and rear parking sensors
- Tyre pressure monitoring
- Adaptive cruise control
The Patrol fits front, side and curtain knee airbags as well as ISOFIX anchors outboard in row two.
How much does the Nissan Patrol Ti cost to run?
The Patrol is covered by Nissan’s five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty.
Servicing is required every 12 months or 10,000kms, whichever comes first. Nissan offers capped-price scheduled servicing costing $393, $502, $483, $791 and $425 through the first five visits.
Further, there are pre-paid packages costing $1378, $2168 and $2594 for three, four and five-year bundles respectively.
Fuel consumption is the biggie. Again, we saw an absolute best of around 15L/100km with (mostly) highs floating about the 20-litre mark during mixed driving, quite a bit of it on motorways around Sydney and a round trip to the Blue Mountains.
CarExpert’s Take on the Nissan Patrol Ti
That the Patrol isn’t the freshest fish in the motoring pond is fairly obvious, and its approach to style and execution, particularly the cabin, are matters of taste you’ll sort through quickly.
However it might polarise, buyers will be quick to negotiate those hurdles depending on their personal preferences.
From thereon in, the Patrol experience brings a lot to warm to. In the nature of the thing, with its big V8, its size and cushy nature, there’s a whole lot to like for buyers chasing these characteristics.
There’s plenty of feel-good factor in Patrol. And much about it that will make you smile.
The big petrol heartbeat comes at a cost at the bowser, obviously. But it also brings an entirely different vibe to that of the turbo-diesel six-powered LandCruiser as its obvious alternative.
There are plenty of reasons to be drawn specifically to the Patrol even if you don’t fancy that Toyota. And vice versa.
And, don’t forget that it’s a helluva lot of properly capable, go-most-anywhere wagon for the money it asks. Value in multi-purpose weight alone, it’s a tough act to top.
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