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Bruce Newton6 Nov 2020
NEWS

Tougher Nissan Patrol Warrior to take on all-new Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series

Battle of the SUV behemoths! 4x4 heavyweights set to lock bull bars in Australia next year

Get set for a clash of the 4x4 behemoths with both the go-anywhere do-anything locally-developed $100K-plus Nissan Patrol Warrior and the new-generation Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series set for launch in 2021.

The prospect of the Premcar-tuned Patrol Warrior taking on an all-new ’Cruiser is sure to get off-road fans drooling.

We’ve written heaps about the new V6 LandCruiser in recent times, but the development of the V8 Patrol Warrior was worryingly paused due to the coronavirus earlier in 2020.

But Nissan Australia and its engineering and assembly partner Premcar are now hard into the process of finalising the company’s new flagship and it is expected on sale sometime in the second half of 2021.

The Toyota LandCruiser is expected to arrive in the same sort of timeframe. Then it’s game on!

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Like the Nissan Navara N-TREK Warrior that pioneered the program, the Patrol Warrior is designed to have better on- and off-road capability than the donor vehicle, will be clothed in bespoke accessories and retain its factory five-year warranty.

Nissan Australia managing director Stephen Lester, who has been a key backer of the Warrior project, provided fresh detail about the Patrol Warrior at this week’s MY21 Nissan Navara reveal.

“That project is well underway and is moving along,” said Lester.

“We’re moving down that road, we have done a number of designs and feasibility studies and we haven’t taken it to market yet, but we have done some research with it and some dealer focus groups with it as well to help get an idea.

“Internally we have started talking about positioning so we can start to validate and finalise the business case.”

Lester said the Patrol Warrior development program was about improving capability and not focused on cosmetics alone. He confirmed the engineering program was extensive but, as per Navara Warrior, has left the engine alone.

“We are taking an incredibly well-engineered model and doing that little bit of extra,” he said.

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“One of the important things from a Nissan standpoint is always ensuring that anything we do to the vehicle and any time we keep selling it as a Nissan that we achieve the same standards that Nissan engineering does.”

The current Y62 Nissan Patrol is actually undergoing something of a late-blooming love affair with the Aussie market.

Powered only by a 298kW 5.6-litre petrol V8 and priced as high $92,790 plus on-road costs for the Ti-L, Patrol sold a record 373 examples in Australia in October, according to VFACTS. And sales are up 31.7 per cent for the year to date, against a COVID-hit market that has slumped 18.8 per cent.

The current V8 diesel 200 Series Toyota LandCruiser outsells the Patrol about five-to-one but the ’Cruiser’s sales are actually down about eight per cent year-on-year.

The Patrol Warrior will sit above the Patrol Ti-L as Nissan Australia’s most expensive model and undoubtedly top $100,000.

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Lester is confident there is space for it.

“The market is massive and there are only two players … In three years we have tripled our sales of Patrol. There has been a big change in the market,” he said.

“Three years ago there was a massive and continued discussion about diesel … but now the reality is petrol has all but achieved what people thought diesel could only achieve.”

Lester said the Patrol was a natural candidate to become a Warrior.

“A Warrior concept layered over our existing Patrol offers us that taste for a different consumer, who is not just looking for the biggest possible SUV to be safe on your suburban roads, they’re actually looking for it to go do the things they want to do and go explore Australia,” he said.

“That’s exactly where we think there is still a significant market for Patrol and Patrol Warrior.”

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Meanwhile, Lester also confirmed the Nissan Navara Warrior would return, most likely before the end of 2021, in updated form based on the new Navara PRO-4X model.

Separately, Nissan global product development execs revealed the Navara Warrior had inspired the study of a Ford Ranger Raptor rival as part of the next-gen Navara range due by 2024.

Lester also confirmed that Nissan Australia’s recent realignment into the AMIEO (Africa, Middle East India, Europe and Oceania) region could generate overseas interest in the Warrior.

“This does open up a window potentially,” said Lester.

The move to AMIEO is also a significant boost for the chances of the Nissan Titan full-size pick-up coming to Australia.

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