It’s barely a surprise that a car company thinks its vehicle is more impressive than the competition, but Nissan has come out swinging and declared the next-generation Patrol will make the Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series lose sleep at night.
Speaking to media at the Tokyo motor show, Ivan Espinosa, Nissan’s senior vice president of global product strategy and product planning, suggested that Nissan is on a winner with the next-generation Patrol and that it was moving upmarket in terms of its competitor benchmarks.
“Honestly it all depends, because we also go to the US with a lot [of competitors] so it depends on the market. And I’ll say the obvious one, I don’t like to say it is, the Toyota LandCruiser [300 Series],” he said.
“It is [a competitor] and the car is much better than the LandCruiser. You will drive it, we can talk when you drive it.”
Earlier in the session, it was also confirmed that Nissan would be ditching the V8 in the current patrol in favour of a twin-turbocharged petrol V6 engine that would exceed the current vehicle’s performance benchmarks.
“I’m also of that generation…I used to like the V8 and I still do [in reference to current generation Patrol]. But the V6 twin-turbo…you will not lament the V8,” said Mr Espinosa.
“I think we built on the strengths of what we have, off-road performance, we’ll keep it, of course the interior quality and attention to detail and probably we’re we’re stretching technology.
“This is one of the things that of course, on the current Patrol is old. It is what it is. It’s relatively old, you know, we don’t have the best infotainment system. And this is where you’re gonna see a big, big key change to technology.”
Looking beyond the Toyota LandCruiser, it appears that Nissan is pushing the Patrol and its luxury sibling, the Infiniti QX80, further upmarket.
It’s likely to mean that once the Patrol goes on sale in Australia, its price will climb well beyond the $100,000 marker to more closely match the LandCruiser.
It could see Nissan target vehicles like the Range Rover, Lexus LX and Mercedes-Benz GLS as competition for its big, off-road friendly SUV.
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