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- Nissan Patrol GR 3.0
- nipper's review
Have a picture of Nissan Patrol GR 3.0?, please send it to us.
Picture courtesy of Robbie Hegarty.
| Performance | 6.7/10   |
|---|---|
| Practicality | 7.7/10 |
| Reliability | 5.8/10 |
| Value for Money | 6.7/10 |
| Reviewer Rating | 6.3/10 |
| Overall Rating | 6.4/10 |
By nipper on 1st Oct 2005
| Year Manufactured | 2000 |
|---|---|
| Length of ownership | 5 Years |
| Doors | 5 |
| Performance | 4/10 |
| Practicality | 7/10 |
| Reliability | 1/10 |
| Value for money | 4/10 |
| Overall value | 4/10 |
 nipper's recommendation | |
High visibility, big load space enough for our Retriever and an English Mastiff in the back, or 2 mother in-laws. Good seats, and good traction. Good for towing, but with limited visibility. Drives well on snow, with good traction. The interior is hard wearing but simple.
Annoying split doors reduce visibility, especially with the spare wheel in view. Difficult to retrieve shopping from the rear due to the high and deep loading floor. Very noisy, sounds like a tractor at best, and sometimes smokes like one too. Poor turning circle means you need a roundabout to turn round in, nearly impossible in most car parks. Due to its height there are problems with some multi-storey car parks height restrictions. The ride can be bouncy due to the type of suspension, and often makes the kids car sick. It will never beat a snail at the starting gate either, as you have to work the gears well.
The first 18 months with my Nissan Patrol GR were fine without too many problems. Then it started... We live in the Czech Republic, and when driving home from a skiing holiday in Austria in 2004, the engine lost power and thick blue smoke belched out. This was due to 2 pistons having blown a hole in them. It was impossible to get spare pistons in the whole of Europe, and we tried everywhere. We eventually got 2 nearly new pistons from Germany (from a crashed Patrol). The car was off the road for 5 months, and Nissan said there was nothing they could do to help, except sell a new engine to us for £7,000!!
Last week it happened again, and it is now back in the garage. This time the garage has offered us a new engine for £3,000. Why is it that because Nissan have had very high engine failures with the 6 cylinder 3000cc engine, and are discounting the replacement engine (it is also discontinued from production). They also told us that this problem is very common with this model, and they have changed nearly all the engines in the Patrols that they have sold. The final comment is that each time we have been towed away, the recovery driver has said the same thing "THIS IS A COMMON PROBLEM".
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