Testdrive/Impressions: Nissan Patrol Diesel

[pommes-t]

We drove about 1500km on and offroad between Alice Springs and Ayers Rock in the Outback with this thing.

As some of you might know I was on a family-vacation with my parents in Australia. One part of this journey was the Outback. We had the journey booked by a travel-agency who also chose the rental cars for us. I was a bit excited to see what kind of car we would get. I expected a Toyota Rav4 or some other not so interesting cars. When I saw this huuuuuuuuuge Patrol standing in the Avis parking lot at the airport of Alice Springs I was very surprised positively, cause I think this is a very cool car.

The interior space is... bigger than an average Japanese house I guess. Our suitcases could have fitted that trunk about 30 times I guess. We hadenough room on all seats that were very comfortable, too.
This car had zero extras. No power windows. No leather seats, sunroof, power seats... whatever. But it had automatic transmission. Very nice anyways.
In the beginning, my dad drove it. The car wasn't insured for me, so I should get to know this car on emptier roads before I should drive it.

We brought our suitcases to the appartments we had rented for one night and went to the West MacDonnell Ranges on a paved highway. There were only VERY few cars so I was allowed to drive it.

The engine pushed the car pretty strong for its size. It's definitely not a fast or overpowered car, but you don't feel underpowered either. It has a very rough, trucklike sound, but it fits the car very well. I guess (only a guess...) the 0-100km/h should be done in about 13 seconds. The automatic was a very nice one, I guess a 4 speed, and it allways had the gear I wished it to have. One could chose 3 different set ups. I always drove the ordinary one and that was very good.

In this car you sit in a very high place and have a feeling like driving a truck. The steering is super soft and has no feeling at all.

So, as I drove along this highway I thought this car would jump into the Outback like a kangaroo on crack if I drove into a corner too fast. So I drove pretty slow and enjoyed the beautiful countryside.

Next day: We started pretty early, packed the suitcases in the trunk, a sixpack and a bottle of wine for the evening and some M&Ms and started to drive to the East McDonnell Ranges. I drove.
Now a little explaination is needed: The travel ageny gave us a boring route via highways directly to the Kings Canyon National Park. This would have been a very boring route so my dad and I decided to visit the East Mac Donnell Ranges, take a non-paved road to Hermannsburg and then a 4x4 route to a street that would lead us to the Kings Canyon.

The East Mac Donnell Ranges were awesome. Somewhen the pavement stopped and we were on a gravel road. My dad took the steering wheel, because he wanted to arrive our hotel before dusk, so he hit it. He drove faster than 120km/h on that road and the Patrol often came with the tail to the outer corner often. Several times he was really drifting for a few seconds. My mum started screaming he should slow down and even me (I drive like an asshole, too) nearly shitted my pants. My dad didn't care and drove on with the same speed.

Somwhen the road was rebuilded (which means some trucks bring water and they press the wet gravel... We switched to 4x4 to drive through the mud and were very happy about the AWD. So we thought.

After we had refilled our tank in Hermannsburg we wanted to take that 4x4 route. My dad had driven a Suzuki Vitara over a so called "4x4" route in Iceland when I was 11 and this was a route that even my Polo would have done easily. So we had no doubts we would easily make it to the hotel...

At first we didn't find the damn route so we simply drove a sand-"street" into the Aborigine's land. There were several points of seperations, but no signs. We simply went own. There were some old houses with car-wrecks, but no people we could have asked. Somewhen a roadsign. We thought "jieeehaaaa, we're right", but no. As we came closer we saw that it simply said "no liquors allowed beyond this point". 
Whatever. We kept on. Somewhen we arrived at a vast looking house with about 30 car-wrecks around it and some dogs walking around. My dad stopped the car and we went to the veranda. Some aborigines were playing billard. We asked them for the correct way, but only understood half of what they said. Somewhen we had to turn left.

So we simply drove on. Somewhen we were on a bigger sandway and thought (correctly) that we were right. But only a few metres later we were in a dry stream-bed. And got stuck.
We tried to drive reverse, forward. Nothing. The car only went deeper into the sand. I went out and realized that the front wheels didn't spin- but the car was on AWD mode. Shockshit.

Suddenly I saw an old Landcruiser coming down a hill. I run to that hill to ask if they could pull us out. There were 6 Aborigines in that car. Two parents and their children. All were extremely dirty and their clothes were torn. I talked to them and the wife said: We help you. So they drove next to our Patrol and the man and the childen came out- and started to laugh. One child said "locklock" went down on the knees and turned a switch at the front wheels from free to "lock". And as you can imagine the Patrol came out easily.... 

We were very thankful and the children started to say "some money...". Of course my dad gave them happily.

Stupid german tourists. Amused about our own stupidity and about the stupidity of Avis who gave us the 4x4 without explaining anything we went on. And 30 metres later we got stuck again. My mum and I got off and my dad could drive out in reverse. We've had enough and went back to the paved road.

And then we started to really kick this car. We decided to drive back to Alice Springs via highway, because it was too late. My dad maxxed the car out at 165km/h all the time and I wanted to call the hotel and ask if they have a free apartment... both of our quadband mobile phones had no connection... But surprise, surprise: The Patrol took even tight corners easily at 165km/h. It was incredible.



We arrived a short time after dusk and got one appartment.

The next day we again got up early, refilled the tank and again maxxed the car out since we wanted to visit kings Canyon before we would visit Ayers Rock. Once again we were surprised about the superb roadholding.
Then we were on a gravel road again and I drove it. My dad gave me a hand sign my mother couldn't see that meant "hit it". And it was a blast. I drove up to 130km/h on gravel and sand. I often had to slow down, because the sand was too deep, but the most time I drove highway speed. And the car was holding its way perfectly. Now my dad got scared, but this time I didn't give a shit. I really had a blast driving like this. I drove with locked front wheels now    of course.
So we got to see the Kings Canyon and Ayers Rock easily.

And one more extremily impressive thing about this car. We had an average of a bit over 10l/100km I think. That's great.

So the verdict: This is one of the coolest cars I have ever driven. It's simply great. It's an old-school offroader, not an SUV, but still great on paved roads as well. Plus it's very roomy and efficient.

Oh and one more thing: This is what the 4x4 guide Central Australia says about the road we got stuck on (I read this too late...):

This route is considered remote fourwheel drive travel as traffic along this road is infrequent so it is wise to travel with another vehicle, especially during the heat of summer. Always check the latest road conditions by phoning (blabla) before attemting this spectacular, but hazardous, route.
The road is for four wheel drive vehicles only, trailers are not recommended. It is essential to be well prepared when taking this journey and to have an emergency plan in place. Always travel with a lot of water.

At least we had a few beers in our trunk... 

[TheIntrepid]

Nice review, Pommes!

[J86]

sweet!