Special edition Nissan Patrol released
BY MIKE COSTELLO | 3rd May 2012
Stuffed with a claimed $8500 of extra features at no extra cost, the limited edition commemorates Reg Sprigg’s historic first crossing of the Simpson Desert in a G60 Patrol in 1962.
Additional features include satellite-navigation with Hema Tracks (detailed off-road maps), reversing camera, new alloy bull-bar, driving lights, roof bars, kick plates, bonnet protector, branded stainless steel spare wheel cover, special decals and an accompanying branded Esky.
Only 500 units will be sold, priced from $56,990 plus on-roads for the manual and $59,990 for the optional automatic.
All Patrols are powered by the same 118kW/380Nm 3.0-litre turbo-diesel engine.
Reg Sprigg completed his record-breaking crossing of the vast desert behind the wheel of a short-wheelbase G60 Patrol in the company of his wife and two children while on a search for oil.
Nissan Australia is supporting a re-enactment of the crossing this July, featuring a restored G60 – not the one used by the Sprigg family half a century ago – to be crewed by Reg’s children Doug and Margaret.
The current-generation Patrol, which essentially dates back to 1998, will be joined at the end of this year by the more luxurious new generation, powered exclusively at launch by a thumping 298kW/550Nm direct-injection 5.6-litre petrol V8.
The current iteration will continue to serve as an entry-level model until at least 2015, providing a diesel option until an appropriate oil-burning unit can be sourced for the new model.
Australia is believed to be the only global market to have put its hand up for a new-generation diesel Patrol, but the lion’s share of its volume comes from the Middle East and the US – markets that traditionally favour petrol.
Nissan sold 1147 Patrol wagons in Australia to the end of April, a drop of 2.6 per cent.
The only other vehicle in its segment – the equally venerable Toyota LandCruiser – has outsold the Patrol by more than three-to-one this year.
