2025 Nissan Patrol review: Australian first drive

When it comes to extra-large family SUVs that can tow, handle themselves off-road, and take care of everyone’s daily needs, there are only two options – the Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series and the Nissan Patrol.

Of course, many others can do all of these things too, but they’re smaller, less capable off-road, utes, or on the flip side, cost well over $100,000, but the two biggest players are undoubtedly these two giants.

While the LandCruiser 300 Series launched in 2021, moving the game on from its LC200 predecessor, the Y62 Nissan Patrol has been on sale since 2012. That's 13 years. The Patrol is officially a teenager!

Despite being so long in the tooth, buyers have still been flocking in massive numbers to the Patrol, and in 2024, more than 8000 were sold – the most in 20 years for the nameplate.

According to Nissan, a whopping 65 per cent of Patrol owners are under the age of 50, showing that the biggest audience for this vehicle is families with two, three or more children seeking adventure in the great outdoors.

But strip away all the off-road chops, and is the 2025 Nissan Patrol still a good family car? 

Let’s find out.

There are three grades in the 2025 Nissan Patrol line-up – the base Ti, which starts from $90,600, mid-spec Ti-L that will set you back $102,100, and the top-of-the-line Warrior (secondary manufactured by Premcar), which costs from $105,660 – all before on-roads.

The 2025 Nissan Patrol is a big step up from what was offered over the last few years, even after the 2024 update, which brought a new infotainment screen offering Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for the first time via wireless connection.

The 2025 model comes with a new dashboard layout that includes the 12.3-inch infotainment screen first introduced to the US market four years ago, and it's paired with a 7.0-inch digital instrument cluster. 

The previous screen and cluster were 10.1 and 5.0 inches respectively. And before the local redesign in 2024, the screen was only 8.0 inches. 

While big screens aren’t the be-all and end-all, they do resonate with buyers these days, especially younger ones with families who want all the latest technology (namely Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), so it is a major selling point.

And in the limited time I had with it at launch, it did appear to work well, and it was simple and easy to use. There was no hesitation in its functionality, and although its looks aren’t anything to write home about, the display is neat and clean.

Furthermore, 2025 is the first year the Patrol has not had an analogue speed readout, finally getting a digital speedometer. I’m going to let that sink in for a second…

Also new is satellite navigation as standard (Hema 4x4 mapping was previously offered through a subscription), and the wireless phone charger has been moved to a different place, now available in a little compartment nicely tucked away to keep it from sliding about.

A 360-degree camera has returned after it was deleted in 2024, alongside a 13-speaker Bose premium audio system in the Ti-L.

Digital radio is no longer included, but the front centre-console cool box and digital rear-view mirror previously standard across the range are now Ti-L exclusives.

Also added is an off-road monitor view on the instrument display.

Not new, but still useful, are one front USB-C port and one front USB-A port, as well as two rear USB-A ports, a 10-way power-adjustable driver's seat, including height adjustment and lumbar support, and an eight-way power-adjustable front passenger seat as standard from the base specification.

Stepping up to the Ti-L adds a sunroof with electric one-touch power tilt and slide functionality, heated and cooled front seats, power-adjustable steering column, and driver’s seat memory with two settings, including side mirrors and steering column position.

As well as the infotainment upgrade, the rest of the cabin has also been elevated. For the base Ti and mid-spec Ti-L, buyers can choose from either quilted chestnut leather-accented seats with woodgrain-look accents or a black option.

Beyond this, the top-grade Warrior adds a black interior theme with Alcantara door and dashboard trim and high-gloss black centre console accents.

On the outside, the changes for 2025 are minimal, with Hermosa Blue and Champagne Quartz deleted from the Ti and Ti-L's colour palette, and Desert Red Metallic added, and the Warrior also gets black side steps.

While small specification and trim changes are the norm for any model as part of any car’s middle (or in this case, almost end) of life update, it really can’t be understated how much of a difference the alterations have made in the Patrol.

More elegant upholstery for the seats, dash and doors, the modern tech, and ditching the seriously dated brown wood effect on the centre console have brought the interior of the Nissan Patrol to the present. 

It now feels of its time rather than something that was paying tribute to the past, and potentially a little more deserving of that circa-$90K asking price.

Many large, and very good, family cars come in well under this budget, have plenty of space and three rows, so looking at it purely as a daily driver, the Patrol does not make sense at all.

The thing is, your money just gets you more. Whereas other large SUVs offer plenty of family practicality, the Nissan Patrol takes that and jumbo-sizes it.

The base Ti gets eight seats, as does the Warrior, while the Ti-L gets seven.

It can easily fit three child seats across, and even one in the third row since there is a top tether point on the right-hand-side seat, meaning you can carry at least four children under the age of seven at any given time. 

There are cupholders for all of them too, two in each row – plus room in the doors for regular-sized bottles.

There is more space than you could need for a school-run car, and the likelihood of bags being thrown around in the back is guaranteed.

Even throwing a pram in there, several shopping bags, and all manner of random rubbish that ends up in my car each day, the 1413 litres offered from the cavernous boot with the third row down is more than enough space.

With the third row in place, the Patrol still offers a respectable 467L of space – more than many small SUVs to put that in perspective, which tend to have between 400L and 450L – and if you did away with both rear rows, that swells to a massive 2623L. Plenty of room to take care of every bit of camping gear you could imagine.

The Patrol’s dimensions are unchanged from the previous model year, coming in at 5175mm long, 1995mm wide, 1940mm high, with a 3075mm wheelbase.

In comparison, the LandCruiser 300 Series offers 175L of boot space with the third row up, 1131L with it down, and 2052L with both benches folded away. It’s also shorter and has a smaller wheelbase than the Nissan Patrol.

Leg room in the second row is unsurprisingly generous, though head room is not as great as you might expect. I’m about 167cm, and it easily accommodates me, but there were only a few more inches available above my head, so someone on the taller side might find themselves brushing the roof. In the third row, however, even I had very limited leg room.

Getting into the Nissan Patrol, though, as someone who is not tall, can be a tricky thing. The side steps help, of course, but it is a case of climbing in rather than just opening the door and sitting in the seat.

The same can be said of the boot. If you need to reach something further back (assuming the third row is down), it’s a long stretch, and you’re going to need to hoof yourself up and in here too.

Not only is it impossible to reach the back of the second row from the tailgate, but fitting child seats is harder than it needs to be. 

The top tether anchors are incredibly low down, almost hidden in fact, and the middle one is virtually invisible. I had to ask for help finding it, only to discover it was secretly stashed behind a little flap of fabric set off to the side. 

I fit child seats in a lot of cars. If I couldn’t find it, then most parents probably wouldn’t be able to, and the result – as I’ve been told by experts previously – is that people mistakenly attach top tethers to things they shouldn’t, such as luggage hooks and the like.

Equally, the ISOFIX anchorages on the two outboard seats of the second row are very tight and hard to access, which is a pain.

While some of these evaluations may seem like quibbling, they can make a difference to a car’s family practicality in the day-to-day.

The weight of the doors and tailgate is another example of this. I’m actually a fan of a heavier door, because it feels more solid and is less likely to fly back and into someone else’s car on a windy day, but my five-year-old feels differently. 

He can open lighter doors independently to get in by himself and in his seat – saving us vital minutes on the hectic morning school run – but he can't open heavy doors and has to wait for me to finish loading his sister first. 

The same goes for the tailgate. The Nissan Patrol’s is very heavy and I have to put my weight into it to pull it down, plus the base-spec Ti doesn’t get a powered tailgate like the other grades, which feels a bit remiss for $90K.

The major consideration for families weighing up whether to buy a Nissan Patrol over another large SUV has to be safety.

Unlike the LandCruiser 300 Series, the Patrol has not been ANCAP or Euro-NCAP tested for several years, since the Y61 model was on sale. 

While it does have various safety features such as autonomous emergency braking (AEB), adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring with avoidance support, rear cross-traffic alert, and six airbags among other things, the vehicle hasn't undergone the specific ANCAP testing protocols to enable it to get a star rating.

It’s possible, though not confirmed, that the Y63 Patrol will be tested before it arrives locally towards the back end of 2026 or early 2027.

For the launch of this vehicle – the last Y62 Nissan Patrol – our driving route took us from Melbourne’s north-west down to the Great Ocean Road, stopping for a rest at the RACV’s resort in Torquay before heading out to the Australian Automotive Research Centre (AARC) at Anglesea to put its extensive off-road credentials to the test.

On-road, the Patrol in either the Ti or Ti-L configuration is pretty well behaved, and for the most part feels composed in a manner quite like many other large SUVs.

Even jumping into the more off-road-focused Warrior, with its reworked suspension with different front and rear springs, 50mm higher ride height, and 18-inch alloy wheels wearing Yokohama G015 295/70 all-terrain tyres, its manners were pretty impressive.

The ride for the first journey, which was mostly bitumen heading out of the city and down towards Geelong, was comfortable and smooth, even though the regular Patrols were wearing 18-inch alloys wrapped in Bridgestone Dueler 265/70 R18 all-terrains. In fact, the ride only gets a touch jittery when the hard stuff ends and the gravel begins. 

Similarly, the steering is well weighted, not struggling to put the Patrol where you need it, when you need it, despite its hefty size.

All three grades are powered by the same 5.6-litre V8 petrol engine (298kW and 560Nm) from previous iterations, with the same seven-speed automatic transmission sending power to all four wheels.

The V8 gives the Nissan Patrol a good shove when needed, with a satisfying rumble when you put your foot down so everyone around you knows you mean business. 

Don’t expect to go anywhere too fast, though, as the Nissan’s considerable 2786kg (kerb) weight holds it back some. Occasional lane change or overtake, yes. Getaway car? Probably not.

While cruising along, the noise of the V8 engine isn’t as loud as you might think, but it is there.

It's the same with the fuel economy. For a family hauler, the fuel economy is not great, offering a claimed 14.4 litres per 100 kilometres combined on the WLTP cycle. 

Given its size, it’s understandable, but with the high cost of living right now, keeping fuel bills down is a priority for many families. And compared to its closest rival, the LC300, it is much thirstier, with the Toyota claiming to sip 8.9L/100km combined.

That said, the cabin isn’t badly penetrated by overall sound. Road tyres would probably be quieter, yes, but there was no evidence of overpowering wind noise either so you can (a) hear yourself think, and (b) hear the radio/music/podcast without needing to turn the dial up too far.

At the AARC testing ground, the course took us up and down hills of varying sizes, the steepest being roughly 26 degrees according to the onboard monitor, as well as over rocky creek beds, through mud and water crossings.

The Nissan Patrol wasn’t even fazed. Using a mix of the four-high and four-low modes and hill descent control depending on the type of terrain – all operated via either a button or dial on the centre console – the Y62 handled it easily, and of course, in the Warrior the extra 50mm ground clearance helped too.

It’s a big vehicle, and it feels big to drive. In the driver’s position, especially, you’re so high up it’s almost like driving a bus. That’s great when you’re staring down the face of a steep descent, but it is oddly disconcerting on the highway.

We didn’t do any kind of towing test on this launch, but with a 3500kg braked towing capacity (750kg unbraked), it could haul pretty much anything, same as an LC300.

To read more about how the Patrol performs off-road, or how it compares to the LandCruiser in more detail, you can find more reviews here.

The Nissan Patrol’s 2025 glow-up has done wonders for its ability to compete against the mighty LandCruiser 300, with its trim and tech upgrades helping it to feel more modern in an age where what’s inside the car matters just as much as what’s underneath the bonnet.

The V8, though, is undoubtedly one of the biggest factors continuing to attract buyers in big numbers to the Patrol versus the LandCruiser’s V6, and will likely help the Nissan Patrol ride that popularity train until the arrival of the Y63 next year.

The LC300’s high price point, though, with the GX starting from $97,990, now works against it, with the Nissan offering more value than ever before.

And Nissan’s new 10-year/300,000km warranty is a big selling point for the 2025 Patrol too, not only outshining most of the industry, but also exceeding Toyota’s five-year period (though it’s worth noting the latter’s mileage limit extends to unlimited kilometres and the warranty can be extended to seven years by following the service schedule).

While Toyota servicing intervals are every six months or 10,000km for the LC300, capped at $420 per service for the first 10 visits/100,000km, Nissan’s are capped at $499 per service for the Patrol with the periods set at 12 months/10,000km, making the Nissan the cheaper option for maintenance over the first five visits (provided you service based on time, rather than distance).

Both the Nissan Patrol and the Toyota LandCruiser hold enduring appeal, and are the go-to vehicles for many Australians to tow, camp, or go off the beaten track. 

The switch to a V6 for the LC300 has changed the game but not the story, so while this may be the last of the V8 Patrols, it’s also quite exciting to see how this legendary nameplate will go on with the Y63 in the future. 

For now, though, there’s much still to love in the Y62.

A born-and-bred newshound, Kathryn has worked her way up through the ranks reporting for, and later editing, two renowned UK regional newspapers and websites, before moving on to join the digital newsdesk of one of the world’s most popular newspapers – The Sun. More recently, she’s done a short stint in PR in the not-for-profit sector, and led the news team at Wheels Media.

Read more about Kathryn Fisk