End of an era?

It may be all downhill from here for the Patrol,
and not in a good way.

ALWYN VILJOEN loaded and goaded the 2014 Nissan Patrol bakkie to check if this one can beat the Toyota Land Cruiser

ON paper the new Patrol has the beating of the old Cruiser.
The Patrol costs the same as its diesel rival, but it has a more efficient, 3,0-litre turbo-diesel that uses less fuel to make more power; it can live with longer service intervals; and it can pull a ton more on a braked trailer.

But South Africans have been and are ignoring the Patrol in their droves, instead buying
several hundred Cruisers each month.

To see if the new Patrol bakkie deserved such a shunning, I had Duzi Turf load a ton of grass on the big bakkie's back and another 1,5 tons on a braked trailer.

Where does all the power go?

The grass farmer, who daily transports a 2,5 ton load with his much lesser-specced 3,0-liter D4-D Hilux, said the Patrol’s brakes are sharper than that of his Hilux.
But we both felt the Toyota’s synchronising of gear ratios to peak torque levels left the new Patrol in the dust, as the 3,0 turbo in the Nissan wants more power low down.

Nissan claims 371 Nm from 1 800 rpm out of its 2 953 cc engine.
 This is 86 Newtons more than from the Cruiser’s 3 956 cc block and at 400 lower revolutions, which is as much extra torque as a Nissan Sentra 1,6 engine makes.
But that’s all on paper. On the road, the Patrol’s power band sits between 2 000 and 2 500 rpm, and you have to work the gears to keep the needle in this space.

In 4x4 situations this means the Patrol has to be raced up inclines where the Toyota will cruise out. This narrow power band is not, however, my main gripe with the new Patrol.

The beather pipes separated from their hoses...
on a brand new 4x4. 

A brain-fart moment

Nor was my vex caused by the two rubber houses I found dangling under the sump.

These hoses go over the breather pipes from the sump to the diffs and will work fine on Saudi’s sand dunes, where a lot of Patrol pick-ups sell. But they are placed in exactly the right place to snag and pull loose when the Patrol reverses over SA’s tall veld grasses, as these did.

The differentials and sump undergo a lot of temperature changes during an average ride.

 No pipes dangling under the Cruiser.

If the hot sump hits a cold puddle, for example, the volume of air inside the sump shrinks a bit and the breather pipes need to breath out the air.
When the sump heats up and expands again, the pipes need to suck in air.
If the pipes do not suck clean, dust-free air, the next sucking noise you will hear is the one the mechanic makes through his teeth as he looks at the damage caused by a cup-full of sludge sucked into your sump.

The 4x4 mechanic I asked for a second opinion on the new Nissan Patrol made exactly that sucking noise as he looked at the two dangling two breather pipes dangling like gaping straws waiting for a milkshake underneath the Patrol.

“Whoever routed these pipes had a major brain-fart moment,” the mechanic said. But he also pointed out how the pipes can easily be re-routed, so this too, was not the main fault I found with the Patrol.

If looks could kill

Loading the Patrol to the max. 

The main fault of the 2014 Patrol Pick-up was what people thought about its looks, as voiced independently, two days apart, by a young man in his 20s and a woman in her 40s.

Both said: “But it looks like the Tata.”

Spot the difference, the Tata Telcoline 4x4

This is not what you want to hear about your R476 900 Patrol.
Especially when the Tata 207DI Worker costs less than R140 000 and makes a steady 225 Nm between 1 500 and 2 400 rpm.

Hence, I predict Patrol sales will continue to languish as South Africa’s farmers who are not wedded to Toyota explore the many cheaper and very capable workhorse bakkies on sale in SA.

And when the new Patrol fails to sell as the old one did, Nissan is not likely to give the big old workhorse another run, business being business.

This then, may be the end of an era. 

RIP, Patrol.
(First carried on Wheels24 in expanded form with tables to compare other bakkies.)

Update: Three years later in 2017, the Patrol still ain't selling in sunny Seffrica. So just call me sage the bakkie guru. Or basil the bakkie guru. Nice alliteration on both herbs, see.