I have been watching this debate for a long time now and I said I would take most the friend of a friends 3.0 Nissan patrols blew up with a pinch of salt. But I feel I need to write this, as a few things do not add up.
As I am not from Australia please correct me if I am wrong with the first point.
Point 1: If the 3.0 is so bad why is there nothing about it in the press, in the UK if a car was this bad it would be on watchdog (TV program) and it would be slated in the JD power survey. I am sure you have the equivalent to the JD power survey in Australia, it’s a survey done every year where owners respond to questions about their cars. This survey is taken seriously by the car industry. Out on interest almost every year Toyota/Lexus come first and the top 6 are dominated by the jap manufacturers, Nissan are usually about 6th place.
So why is this car not coming out bottom of every survey and the magazine filled with complaints!
2nd point:
In the UK the Nissan patrol 3.0 has an impeccable reliability reputation as a low tech unbreakable vehicle. I know we do not have as many patrols on the road or extreme conditions as Australia. But if the car was this bad we would have heard about it. Remember the 3.0 Nissan engine is by no means a hi-tech diesel, its a run of a mill diesel. In the UK all the first engines were changed before their reputation was tarnished. Since then the 3.0 patrol has turned out to be a very reliable 4x4. I cannot understand the different findings.
I also cannot understand this 4 cylinder vs 6 cylinder debate as all we really have in the UK is 4 cylinders. A
well designed 4 cylinder will run as long as a 6,8, or 12 cylinder engine. The London taxi uses a 4 cylinder Nissan diesel engine and they clock up over 400,000
miles no bother. We have 4 cylinder 7.5 ton trucks which run forever in our work on very low maintenance.
I think the way things are going you guys will just have to get used to 4 cylinders and accept that a proper-designed 4 cylinder can last a very long time. We have been living with Hi-tech 4 cylinder engines for years and we expect 200,000
miles trouble free motoring from our cars, so it's not a cylinder issue.
My only explanation is because of the early failures the 3.0 drew attention to itself, and to make matters worse the dud engines are still running around, Nissan should have followed Europe and changed the early engines and saved their reputation. If you take out the early failures and just look at the newer engines I think you might find the same a Europe, good reliability with a few duff cars, just like any other brand. Because of the early failures the 3.0 is being scrutinised closely and if you look hard enough at any car you will find faults.
The way things are going with all the emissions and environment concerns you might just find you are slagging the future Ask yourself this, Just how long do you think Nissan can keep meeting the ever stringent Euro emissions with the old engine. I think you will find they will be put to rest soon and you can be certain that the next engine line up will have a few 4 cylinders in it.
That is the only reason I can give to explain the different opinions between the two continents. Over here the 3.0 Td in the patrol is classed as an old tech diesel which will go forever and it is yet to prove otherwise.
I might be a bit biased 3.0 S model diesel 20,000
miles and runs like a dream.
Can anyone else explain the difference?