Nissan Patrol vs Ineos Grenadier

What's the difference?

The Nissan Patrol Warrior is a very capable 4WD, it’s a refined, comfortable all-rounder with plenty of potential as a touring vehicle.

PremCar’s work here – as on the Navara – has made a good 4WD even better.

All of that conversion work, engineering upgrades and fitment of accessories is the kind of sensible work an experienced 4WDer would apply via the aftermarket. The bonus here is that it’s all factory-backed and covered by a 10-year/300,000km warranty, albeit with conditions. 

If you can cope with the fuel bills, this big V8 4WD remains a refreshingly old-school style of off-roader – relying more on sheer grunt than touchy tech – and the latest round of cabin updates has added more appeal to what is already a very appealing vehicle.

The Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster is best regarded as a charming old-school oddity in an increasingly cookie-cutter dual-cab ute market.

In the same vein as the Suzuki Jimny, Jeep Gladiator, and Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series, this ute is for those of us who really like driving to be a fully immersive experience and don’t mind a few sacrifices and some discomfort along the way.

Good on Ineos for giving it a crack.

The Nissan Patrol Warrior is 5269mm long (with a 3075mm wheelbase), 2079mm wide, 1990mm high and it has a listed kerb weight of 2858kg. It’s 94mm longer and 84mm wider than the Ti.

Though this latest round of range updates have been mostly limited to the multimedia system, that’s a-okay because this Warrior has more than enough heavy-shouldered presence on- and off-road and not simply because it’s a chunky behemoth.

While other large 4WDs, such as the Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series, have bowed to contemporary-taste pressure and become a bit softer around the edges, the Warrior retains some of the blocky stature of 4WDs past.

Inside, the interior has benefitted from the new bigger multimedia system which sits atop the dash and dominates real estate up front. The interior feels slightly fresher than in previous iterations, but still comfortably familiar.

The Quartermaster is 5400mm long (with a 3227mm wheelbase), 1943mm wide, and 2019mm high. It has a listed kerb weight of 2718kg and a 14.5m turning circle.

I’m always reluctant to talk about any vehicle’s design but it’s easy with something like this ute.

The Quartermaster has a distinctive look. It’s blocky, hard lines everywhere, and it’s straight up and down, old school.

Substantial side steps/runners, exterior utility belt (a integrated feature by which you can attach accessories, tools, or cargo to the Quartermaster’s exterior), and BFGoodrich All-Terrain KO2 all-terrain tyres on 17-inch alloy wheels add to this ute’s presence.

It certainly catches everyone's attention, for better or worse because some people like it, some people don't. I happen to be part of the mob who actually like the look of the Quartermaster and its sibling, the Grenadier station wagon, and the design pretty much works overall.

Extras like the black contrast roof, safari windows and raised air intake further set this Quartermaster apart from most other modern dual-cab utes on our roads.

The interior is somewhat spartan but well laid-out and comfortable. It has lots of controls and quirky styling to keep everyone inside occupied and while, at first, it’s all a confusion of buttons, knobs and dials, it soon takes on a more familiar feel as you become accustomed to everything.

The Warrior cabin is essentially a Ti interior – as such, it’s roomy and plush, with expanses of soft-touch surfaces. Due to plenty of ‘Warrior’ touches and the most recent updates as noted earlier, the cabin feels made-over yet instantly recognisable. 

The centre console is no longer the confusion of buttons, dials and knobs it previously was and there are plenty of storage spaces for driver and front passenger – glove box, cupholders, bottle holders in the doors etc – as well as some concealed spaces (with pop-up lids) for keys, phone and other everyday carry gear.

Second-row passengers get comfortable seats, as well as two USB charge points, and temperature and fan controls in the back of the centre console. Those in this row also have access to the back of the centre console. 

There are cupholders in the fold-down armrest, map pockets in the seat backs and bottle holders in the doors. 

Second-row seats have a top tether point and an ISOFIX point on both outer seats.

Third-row seats are flat and hard compared to the other positions and, in terms of space, are better suited to children or adults for brief stints.

All three rows get air con – there are roof-mounted vents – and there are handy storage spaces in the third row, but no cupholders. 

The third row has one top tether child seat anchorage point. 

The rear cargo area has load tie-down points and a 12V socket, as well as tyre-changing tools under the floor. The new full-sized spare tyre is underslung at the rear.

With the third-row seats in use, boot space is listed as 467L. With the third row stowed away, there’s a claimed 1413L of cargo space. With the second and third rows stowed there’s a claimed 2623L.

In terms of practicality, it's pretty good news inside the Quartermaster cabin when you first climb in. As mentioned, there is a confusion of dials, buttons, knobs, everything in front of and above you. But give yourself some time to locate controls and understand how to best use them, and you'll be absolutely fine.

As alluded to in Design, the cabin looks really good but it also functions quite well as a work or travel space. Once you are underway and you have a firm understanding of everything, it all feels comfortably familiar.

There are hard plastic surfaces in the cabin, leather accents, as well as plenty of quirky styling cues around the cabin, including port and starboard markings, aircraft cockpit-style controls and more, and you'll have fun discovering those.

The floor has drain plugs and the buttons and switches have an IP54K rating (protected from limited dust ingress and water spray from any direction) with the idea being that, worst comes to the worst, you can always hose out the interior if it gets really dirty.

The Recaro seats, front and rear, are very comfortable. There's not a whole lot of room in the rear seat. You don't get much leg and knee room, especially if you are tall, but the seats are raised for optimised visibility to the front and otherwise, with big glass everywhere and safari windows, it’s an airy and useable space. 

The auxiliary battery is under the rear seat.

All in all, it's a functional and comfortable interior.

Anyway to the business end. The tub is 1564mm long, 1619mm wide (1137mm between the wheel arches) and 485mm deep. It has a sturdy tub liner, four-tie-down points, a load-space light, power socket.

The full-sized spare was located in the rear left-hand corner of the tub and while that’s not ideal and certainly doesn’t optimise the load space, it can be shifted elsewhere – on the roof perhaps – and it’s not as much of an eye-sore as the spare in the GWM Cannon Alpha PHEV tub.

The spare tyre also has the optional lockable storage box ($490) attached to it, so you can throw a bit of gear inside there and keep it secure during your travels.

This ute is available in three different spec levels: the base-spec Quartermaster, the Fieldmaster and, this, the Trialmaster.

It’s available with one of two BMW-sourced engines: a 3.0-litre inline-six turbo-petrol engine (producing 210kW at 4750rpm and 450Nm at 1750-4000rpm) or a 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo-diesel engine – producing 183kW at 3250-4200rpm and 550Nm at 1250rpm-3000rpm.

I tested the diesel-powered variant.

The Trialmaster has a starting price of $118,000 before on-road costs, but our test vehicle has $15,386 worth of accessories onboard pushing its as-tested price up to $133,386.

Standard features onboard the Trialmaster include a 12.3-inch touchscreen multimedia system (with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), permanent four-wheel drive, centre diff lock, and front and rear skid plates.

Other noteworthy features inside this test vehicle include leather trim (black, $3405), heated front seats ($715), Nappa Leather Driver’s Pack, as well as auxiliary battery, auxiliary charge points, high load auxiliary switch panel and electrical preparation, 400W Inverter, and load bay utility rails.

Other features on the outside of this Trialmaster include a contrast roof – Inky Black ($2460), front and rear diff locks (standard on the Trialmaster), raised air intake, privacy glass ($770), safari windows ($2720), 17.0-inch alloy wheels ($1165), Class III 1-7/8” NAS tow hitch and electrics, a load bay liner, and a spare wheel lockable storage box ($490).

Exterior paint colours include the standard Britannia Blue (solid) or you can choose from Scottish White (solid, $1155), Magic Mushroom (solid, $1155), Eldoret Blue (solid, $1155), Sela Green (solid, $1155), Inky Black (solid, $1155), Devil Red (solid, $1315), Shale Blue (metallic, $1520), Queen's Red (metallic, $1520), Donny Grey (metallic, $1520), or Sterling Silver (metallic, $1520).

But what you want to know is how is it off-road and is it a replacement for the 70 Series, so let’s keep punching on through this yarn.

The Warrior has a 5.6-litre V8 petrol engine producing 298kW and 560Nm, matched to a seven-speed automatic transmission.

This solid combination lacks a dynamic edge, but the Warrior produces such a supremely relaxed and assured delivery of power and torque – it feels almost lazy – that you forgive it for not being the zippiest thing around.

The Patrol has full-time four-wheel drive with high- and low-range and a rear diff-lock.

The Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster is available with either a 3.0-litre inline-six turbo-petrol engine (producing 210kW at 4750rpm and 450Nm at 1750-4000rpm) or a 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo-diesel engine – producing 183kW at 3250-4200rpm and 550Nm at 1250rpm-3000rpm.

Both engines are from BMW. Our test vehicle has the diesel.

This Quartermaster has an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission and a dual transfer case (high- and low-range 4WD), as well as a front, centre and rear diff lock.

This is a nicely refined engine-and-auto combination, offering up a decent punch of power and torque across a broad rev range when it’s needed.

The Nissan Patrol Warrior has an official combined cycle (urban/extra-urban) fuel consumption figure of 14.4L/100km.

I recorded 21.4L/100km on this test. I did a lot of high- and low-range 4WDing – but the Patrol was never working hard.

The Patrol has a 140L fuel tank capacity, so going by our on-test fuel-consumption figure you could reasonably expect a full-tank driving range of about 654km.

Official fuel consumption is 10.5L/100km on a combined cycle.

On this test, I recorded 12.3L/100km.

The Quartermaster has a 90-litre fuel tank so, going by that fuel figure, you could reasonably expect a driving range of about 730km from a full tank. However, long-range fuel tanks are available, so there’s always that option.

This latest update is cabin-centric so it’s brought no powertrain changes or any improvements to 4WD mechanicals or driver-assist tech. And that’s fine because the Warrior is pretty darned impressive, as is.

On-road and on dirt tracks, it’s all smooth sailing. The Patrol Warrior is tighter and more composed than its standard stablemates, and that's mostly due to its upgraded suspension and HBMC system.

HBMC acts as a sway bar and sway bar disconnect equivalent and combines with the Aussie-tuned suspension to rein everything in when you're on bitumen and loosen everything when you're on dirt or off-road. 

The Patrol as standard is a nice wagon to drive, but the Premcar work undertaken to create the Warrior – all the conversions and upgrades – have made it that much better. 

On the open road you have the opportunity to appreciate just how comfortable and refined the Patrol Warrior is. 

And as for 4WDing, well, the Warrior is a Patrol at heart so it has reliable four-wheel drive mechanicals, plenty of torque over a broad rev range and a rear diff lock. 

There's more ground clearance in the Warrior over the Ti at 323mm (+50mm ), so approach (40 degrees) and departure angles (23.3 degrees) are an improvement over the standard Patrol.

The Warrior’s tyres – Yokohama Geolandar 15 All Terrain tyres (295/70R18) – are bigger and offer more grip, so they provide plenty of traction on terrain where a standard Patrol may struggle. 

Premcar has modified the towbar position to accommodate the new bigger full-size spare wheel and tyre.

Another good thing is the fact the Patrol Warrior has two recovery points at the rear.

The HBMC system, which performs so seamlessly on-road, provides more articulation off-road, as well as a bit more wheel travel through difficult terrain.

And, as I’ve noted before on other tests, one of the impressive points about Premcar’s work here – the conversions, the modifications, the engineering upgrades and the fitment of accessories – is that it’s all the kind of common-sense upgrades an experienced 4WDer would apply to their Patrol. 

But, even in something this impressive, the news is not all good.

The Warrior is a big vehicle and at 2858kg you have to drive it with that in mind, all the time. It fills the trail and with its wider wheel track, you have to be focused on wheel placement, even more so than usual.

The bi-modal exhaust is awesome, but those exhaust caps (underneath the Warrior's right-hand side step) are too vulnerable to damage.

They compromise the vehicle's ramp-over angle, so you have to drive with careful consideration, especially if the Warrior rocks even slightly to the right-hand side going up or down a steep rocky hill, because there’s a risk of grinding those exhaust tips against rock steps, dirt or a tree stump. 

The Patrol is a towing platform of note and towing capacities remain as 750kg (unbraked) and 3500kg (braked).

The Warrior's GVM (gross vehicle mass) at 3620kg is 120kg more than the Ti Patrol’s.

First things first, just to put your mind at ease – the Quartermaster is not absolutely terrible to drive on road, in fact it’s actually quite nice: planted, comfortable (on coil-spring suspension), and refined (for a ute).

It’s no surprise that a long four-wheel-drive ute does really well on-road, even if it is a heavy solid axle vehicle and not particularly dynamic.

What's also not surprising – because on paper this is an off-road beast – is that the Quartermaster is very capable off-road.

It has three diff locks (front, centre and rear), off-road mode, hill descent control and more, so it's an effective mix of traditional mechanicals and driver-assist tech. That's the dual range transfer case, but it also has electronic traction control. The 3.0-litre turbo-diesel engine and the eight-speed automatic transmission work well in on-road situations and it's also a clever smooth combination in off-road scenarios.

So there's plenty to like about this ute when it comes to 4WDing.

Be aware though: this is a big, heavy vehicle with a long wheelbase, so it takes considered driving to steer around – it has a big turning circle at 14.5 metres – but that's not to say those dimensions and those characteristics ruin it off-road because they don't. The Quartermaster simply requires a bit more thought when you're driving it.

If you haven't spent a lot of time or any time in vehicles like this, such as the Toyota LandCruiser 70 series or of that sort of ilk – big long old-school four wheel drive utes – then you may have a bit of an issue with the steering. It is slow, and there is a lot of play to it, especially off-centre. It does feel floaty and it takes a lot of effort and constant micro-corrections when you're driving to keep it on track and to keep it going where you want to. Put it this way: it’s not self-centred so you have to work at getting it back on track once you’ve taken on a turn.

But I like that, because four-wheel driving should be an entirely immersive experience, you should be always directly involved in the process and in this ute you are.

There’s plenty of power and torque across a nice rev range, with plenty of torque down low, which is crucial when off-roading.

And while the stretched wheelbase makes the underbody vulnerable to knocks and scrapes, especially over more severe 4WD-only terrain, the Quartermaster actually manages quite well.

Its approach, ramp breakover and departure angles – 36.2, 26.2 and 22.6 – are reasonable for something of this size and with 264mm of ground clearance and 800mm of wading depth, this ute has the measurements to cope with most off-road challenges you could throw dirt at.

Another thing I like about the Quartermaster is the fact it retains an old stubby stick, that’s working off the dual-range transfer case, to put the vehicle into low range and that's a welcome touch and a practical nod to the past, rather than a button or a dial.

As mentioned earlier, it has live axles, so there’s flex through the front and rear, although it'd be even better with a swaybar disconnect system onboard (as in the Jeep Gladiator).

This Trialmaster gets the BFG KO2s and where the standard tyres on a contemporary ute may not be up to scratch in off-roading terms, the KO2s work really well. It’s impressive what a difference decent all-terrains make, and if you want to get into the sloppy stuff, then you might consider getting some mud-terrain tyres.

So the Quartermaster is a very capable four-wheel-drive ute and there's a lot to like about it, but the issue with a vehicle like this is that people may come into it not understanding exactly how it rides, how it drives and how involved you actually have to be and the fact that there are lots of compromises, indeed some sacrifices.

You're not getting as much driver-assist technology as you get in other utes, and it doesn't drive as precisely or perhaps as comfortably as some other utes – but that's missing the point.

The Quartermaster is about that all-encompassing off-roading experience. And if you get in one of these things, you have to be all-in, ready for the bumps and the discomfort and the effort it requires but all of those things add to the appeal of this ute, rather than detract from it.

And that's a major point of difference with this ute over others in the market: in being faithful to the spirit of old-school 4WDing, Ineos has been willing to forgo those things which people have come to expect and as a result it may only draw the faithful, the committed, who are all-in for off-road adventure.

Where the Quartermaster falls short, however, is in terms of practical use because its payload is 832kg in the diesel version and that’s disappointing, especially when a 2.8-litre LC70 GXL dual-cab can cope with 1325kg.

It is rated to tow 750kg unbraked, and 3500kg braked and with a kerb weight of 2718kg it has a GVM of 3550kg and a GCM of 7000kg.

The Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster does not have an ANCAP safety rating because it has not been tested.

As standard, it has six airbags, electronic stability and traction control, rear park assist, a tyre-pressure monitoring system, and trailer-stability assist.

It does not have auto emergency braking (AEB), adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, lane-keep assist, or traffic sign recognition.

The Quartermaster does have a rear-view camera, but the screen is quite small.

Front and rear parking sensors are standard on the Fieldmaster and Trialmaster, but optional on the base-spec Quartermaster.

All new Patrols have a 10-year/300,000km warranty when the vehicle is serviced with Nissan and the Premcar work is covered for the same amount of time – with the same conditions applied.

Five years of roadside assistance also applies – with the same conditions.

Servicing is scheduled at 12 month/10,000km intervals, and capped price service rates apply for five years. That means each of the first five services will cost you $499.

The Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster is covered by a five-year/unlimited km warranty, not the best in terms of years of coverage, but on par with the likes of the LC70.

A 12-year anti-perforation warranty – covering body sheet metal panels and chassis frame against inside-to-outside corrosion caused by defective materials or workmanship – applies to this ute.

No capped-price servicing is available and service intervals are scheduled for every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever occurs soonest, and total cost for the five years is $4626 for the diesel and $4896 for the petrol.

At the time of writing, Ineos has 25 sales and service centres, two sales-only centres and 55 service-only centres spread throughout Australia with a focus on regional and rural areas.