Four-wheel-drive vehicles (aka 4x4s/SUVs) have been a major part of the automotive industry. Their rugged, go-anywhere attitude and vast capabilities have led them onto a path that’s made their creators a fortune. In the past few years, the sales of SUVs have been on the rise, with some well-established marques holding onto their spots vehemently. Of course, there was a time when the term “SUV” meant only one thing - a boxy, uncomfortable, bouncy vehicle whose sole task was to allow its occupants to traverse almost any type of territory that mother nature could throw at it. And in the early part of the 1950s, two such iconic vehicles were about to be unveiled in Japan -- these were the Toyota Land Cruiser and the Nissan Patrol. Since we have already covered the story of the Land Cruiser, this one’s all about its arch nemesis, the Nissan Patrol.
Considered as one of the all-time greats and one of the finest four-wheel-drive (4WD) vehicles on the planet, the modern-day Y62 can trace its roots all the way back to 1951 when the very first Nissan Patrol was made. At this point, Nissan had just introduced the venerable 4W60 series, which was also accompanied by its (even tougher) military sibling - the 4W70 series. With its compact three-door wagon design, the very first Patrol was an extremely simple off-road vehicle and had no gimmicks on it whatsoever. Its (comparatively) lightweight 1.5 ton body wasn’t that much more imposing than some of the current breed of crossovers.
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However, unlike those soft-roaders, the 4W60 Patrol had absolutely no problem going over even the worst of terrain, despite lacking on the power department. This is because, under the hood, the first batch of Nissan’s Patrols were equipped with a 3.7-liter inline six-cylinder engine which was actually borrowed from one of their buses, and it made all of 75 horsepower. To make best use of this rather weak powerplant, Nissan fitted the 4W60 Patrol with a 4-speed manual gearbox and a part-time four-wheel-drive system. In the next coming years, later iterations of the 4W60 series gained more powerful, 4.0-liter inline six-cylinder engines and these made the first-gen Patrol more capable and nicer to drive. The first generation of the Patrol remained in production up until the end of the 1950s, when it was finally replaced by the 60 series (not to be confused with the first-gen 4W60).
Compared to its simplistic predecessors, the latest Y62 series of the Patrol boasts way more power, technology and safety features. Of course, things like automatic climate control, leather& wood interior trimming, an automatic gearbox, adaptive cruise control and a touchscreen infotainment display helps, too. Some of the new Patrol’s other fancy hardware includes automatic & adaptive LED headlights, power tailgate, 20-inch alloy wheels, electric sunroof, keyless entry & go, ambient cabin lighting, cool box, dual-zone climate control with rear-row vents, 13-speaker Bose audio system, rain-sensing wipers, heated/ventilated and power-operated front seats, GPS navigation system and steering-mounted paddle shifters.
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While the first-gen Patrol’s safety standards were pretty hilariously low, the latest of the breed is bristling with some really handy gadgets on that front. To begin with, you get six airbags, electronic stability & traction control systems, hill assist & hill-descent control, blind spot assist with lane departure warning, all-around parking sonars with a surround-view camera system, and a tire pressure monitor. Still battling it out with the Land Cruiser, the new Nissan Patrol Y62 earns brownies with its incredibly smooth and powerful 5.6-liter V8 engine. It makes 400hp while also delivering 560Nm of torque, which is mated to a smooth-shifting 7-speed transmission and an electronically-controlled 4WD system.
