The Nissan Patrol's Royale Makeover

EDITOR’S NOTE: The all-new Nissan Patrol Royale will be formally launched tonight, but since we’ve already driven Nissan’s newest baby, we thought we’d give you a test drive story straight from the Sultanate of Oman. Here’s what James Deakin thought of the much awaited SUV from Nissan...

The launch was still 5 weeks away, but the phone calls were every ten minutes. That’s not including text messages, emails, or the marathon meetings. There were pre-event meetings, post-event meetings, meetings about the next meeting and a familiarization meeting just so everyone could get to know each other before the next meeting. I think we met more about this Patrol launch than I have about all other launches combined in the last year. And that was even before I had even met the Patrol. I now know how a professional celebrity stalker feels.

It’s hard to imagine all the fuss over a new model, but when they come around this often, you begin to get the picture. While the average life span for each generation of most new car models seem to last as long as a presidential term, the Patrol’s life cycle could outlast a third world dictator. You could witness three Olympic games, or four US-led wars before they move on to the next generation, and in the case of the first-gen Patrol, you would have time to raise a child from birth to college before they developed a new chassis. The only other thing on earth as ageless are the Simpsons.

Locally, we’re on our fourth president since the sixth generation (Y61) Patrol was launched back in 1997. And if history repeats itself, we won’t be seeing a new one until one of PNoy’s children becomes president. Once put into that perspective, it becomes a lot easier to appreciate the development that has gone into this seventh generation Patrol that will most likely be serving as back up vehicles for world leaders, as well as ferrying captains of industry to their power offices and delivering foreign aid and medical supplies to war-torn nations for the next 12 years or so.

But as they like to say, good things come to those who wait, and despite a gap longer than the compulsory education period for children in first world countries, the all-new (Y62) Patrol has used that time wisely and is such a quantum leap ahead of the model it replaces that you would swear they skipped a generation. Or two. There’s such a negligible trace of the Super Safari in there that you would need the folks of CSI to find any matching DNA to confirm they were indeed born of the same parents. I guess that’s what 500 million dollars can buy you these days. Think: original Greenbelt vs. current Greenbelt.

With a development budget of half a billion dollars and six years to spend it, Nissan did not just set out to build a new SUV, but an entirely new benchmark as well. They were fully aware that Toyota had been smoothing off the edges of their Land Cruiser over the years, which resulted in smoothing off the Patrol’s sales figures, so they decided to fight back with one big drastic hit; because at the end of the day, no matter how much right they had to stake their claim as arguably the most serious off-roader in the world, frankly, that just wasn’t enough to cut it anymore. Today’s target market expect their rides to have the off-road capabilities of a mule and the looks and manners of a thoroughbred.

With that in mind the engineers worked on space, luxury and on-road comfort – without corrupting its legendary off road capability. They managed to find 92 extra millimeters of knee room compared to the Land Cruiser and a whopping 25% more luggage room in the back, while still giving enough room for the three rows to be separated by enough space to give each its own post code. All notable, no doubt. But that was always going to be the easy part.

Comfort was a little trickier because even though it is not exactly brain surgery, it can get pretty tough when you want to marry it with off-road capability. So first up, they junked the basic live axle, and replaced it with an independent hydraulic system that they call Hydraulic Body Motion Control (HBMC), and increased diff clearance by 50mm. It works by varying oil pressure to minimize body movements drastically enough for the engineers to claim to have less body roll than the E60 5Series.

Loosely translated, that means outstanding body control that betrays its heft, which gives it crisp handling, improved top speed stability and a more plush and composed ride – both on and off the road. Gone are the sharp thuds that filter through when you hit a pot hole or negotiate through rough roads, and in comes a more muted impact that distributes the vibrations evenly and regally throughout. You can never completely eliminate it of course, but in extreme conditions, its the difference between a kidney punch and a shiatsu massage.

But impressive as it is, all that is just plain fluff unless it could retain its core competence, which is its no-nonsense, go-anywhere capability. Having a Patrol that was afraid to get dirty would be as pointless as Porsche coming up with a comfortable, fuel efficient 911 that was as fast as a Chery, so Nissan worked with a computer controlled four wheel drive system to tackle all the nastiness that this truck carved its bulletproof reputation from.

It shares some of its basic roots with the GTR’s system, sending all the power to the rear, with a maximum of 50% being thrown back to the front when it senses a loss of traction, but it now features pre-programmed settings to give it optimum traction to negotiate through just about any surface. The result is an incredibly intelligent four wheel drive system that is to off-roading what a point and shoot digital camera is to photography. It takes all the guess work out by adjusting power delivery, gear change programming and centre diff locking as well as the rear helical LSD.

Keen to demonstrate it, Nissan held the global launch in the rugged landscape around the Sultanate of Oman and sadistically designed our test drive to include some pretty hairy terrain, with some nasty angles and hair-raising hairpins that could lift a wheel or two as you negotiated your way around it. But as heroic as I would like to paint myself out to be, sadly, the only skills required are turning the knob to rock, sand, mud, or whatever is sitting under your big, fat tires, and pointing the headlights in the right direction. If you can identify the surface, you can pretty much make your way across it. It’s so easy you feel guilty taking any credit as a driver.

There were high speed portions across shallow rivers and crude paths filled with crushed, jagged rocks, and the Patrol behaved as perfectly as the pictures on the glossy brochures. At one point we lost the convoy thanks to some trigger happy photographers who just couldn’t get enough of the scenery, but after a quick flick of the all mode 4X4 dial we were gently sideways at speeds more at home on the freeway and back on their tails before the lunch stop.

The second day of the test included a specially designed off-road course that incorporated a sand pit, a simulated water crossing, a neat angled dirt wall that demonstrated the Patrol’s ability to bank itself up to 48 degrees, and steep hills that could show off the new hill holding function and hill descent control. Not that any of the technology was unprecedented, except for Nissan’s slant on TPMS (Tire pressure monitoring system), perhaps, that sounds the horn when a suitable tyre pressure has been reached, (very handy when pumping them up in the middle of nowhere after you’ve deflated them for desert driving) but it was the ease of operation that left the biggest impression.

In other words, while the Patrol may go just as far as it always has done off the beaten track, the difference now is that even the most inexperienced drivers can do it. And once Nissan was certain that they had convinced even the most hard core off-roaders among the international press that it hadn’t sold its soul to the suits down in Tokyo, it was time to pull their Ace card. Luxury.

Everything about the new Patrol exudes it. You could whack an Infinity badge on it without making a single change and get away with it. It is that good. This is more of a Lexus 570 competitor than a Landcruiser, and if it wasn’t for the minor detail of not having an Infinity dealer locally, I would encourage Universal Motors Corporation to market it as one. Turns out that some markets are already doing just that, as this was designed as an Infinity before anything else, being built up entirely from the Infinity QX56 platform and powered by an exceptionally smooth 400 horsepower, 5.6-liter direct injection V8 engine that is built alongside the GT-R’s V6. It not only gets variable valve timing and lift, it also gets a strengthened 370Z seven-speed auto ‘box that keeps all those horses honest – although our local supplier will only be offering the 5 speed versions initially.

Barreling down the deserted highways of Oman with all three rows filled with adults, I found myself regularly cruising at well over 200 km/h without even the slightest hint of breaking a sweat. It was quiet, composed, and eerily stable. How Nissan managed to make something as large as a mini mart slice through the air at those speeds with such ease and minimum of fuss is something that Discovery Channel could spend an entire hour trying to explain.

Comparing this to the Super Safari would be like comparing a cassette tape to an iPod, which is why Universal Motors will be selling them side by side rather than as a replacement. Aside from the cutting edge technology under the hood, the new Patrol’s brochure reads like an exhibitors catalogue in a tech expo, or a super geek’s letter to Santa. There’s the very popular Intelligent Key with Start/Stop push button for ignition, of course, plus a novel new feature called Curtain Vent, which is several small but highly effective vents mounted in the ceiling above each side window to blow a strong current of cool air down forming a curtain of air that acts as a barrier to heat penetrating the cabin.

The Patrol, or “Royale” as it will be known once it is launched locally later this evening at the Shangrila Makati, will also offer a 2GB Music Box Hard Drive that can record over 600 songs as well as connect to iPods, USB flash drives and other compatible devices, Intelligent Brake Assist that automatically engages the brakes if the driver doesn’t respond to the warning, Hill Start Assist & Hill Descent Control, which makes any mountain a molehill by controlling the brakes and adjusting the vehicle speed, plus an electronic locking differential that allows you to pull out of mud or loose sand by distributing torque evenly to the rear wheels.

The only catch here is that luxury, technology and prestige comes at a price. And at over 5 million pesos for this new model, the new Patrol Royale, as it will be called locally, is about double the price of the Super Safari. I know what you’re thinking, and yes, I’ll admit that my initial thoughts contain language that is unpublishable in this fine publication, but after driving it, I can’t help but feel that a 100% price increase is a bargain for a vehicle that is at least 4 times better than the car it was before. Funny, but had this worn an Infinity badge and sold through a dedicated Infinity dealership, I’m sure it wouldn’t have a problem, which makes the Patrol the ideal vehicle for those who have nothing left to prove.