Nissan Problems

Before buying the tow vehicle you should establish what you want to tow with it. It would be a good idea to decide on the caravan you want to buy and from that determine the total weight you want the car to handle, that is the weight of the caravan when it is fully loaded ready to travel. I say that because a car rated to tow 2 tonnes means you will only be able to tow a relatively small caravan. A diesel will be more economical when towing, and if that were your priority then I would go that way. I would suggest you consider a mid-sized SUV, like a Nissan Pathfinder, Ford Territory or a Toyota Kluger.

Timing chain failures on the Pathfinder are relatively common, but that doesn't means it will happen to yours. Keeping up the service will help, and your mechanic should be able to keep an eye on it when it goes in for service.

There's no need to have it serviced before you go, get it done when you get back.

There are two ways of setting your car up to run on e85. One, the cheaper one, sees it tuned to run on e85 exclusively, in which case I don't believe it would actually run on 98-octane. The other, more expensive one is to fit a flex-fuel system, which is able to detect what fuel is being used and adjust the tuning accordingly to run on either fuel. The latter system requires the use of a sensor, the same used by GM in its flex-fuel cars, and an ECM to control it. That your car will run on 98-octane fuel leads me to believe that it could be fitted with a flex-fuel system. If it is there  is no danger in running your car on either fuel. To check take it to a mechanic with experience in Skylines and they should be able to tell you what has been fitted to your car.
 

The ute is seven years old, a Nissan dealer hasn't serviced it, and you don't say how many kilometres it has done, so it's hard to make a judgment on the validity of your claim. The only thing I would suggest is that you attempt to convince Nissan to change its mind and come good with their goodwill assistance.

Early 3.0-litre turbo-diesel Patrols were trouble, but the engines of the later years are not giving any trouble to speak of. It's important to check for a service record, changing the oil regularly is critical to a long engine life. Also check the diff bushes. It's recommended that you have your chosen car checked by a mechanic with knowledge of Patrols.

The engine warning light was telling you that there is a problem within the engine management system. Going into 'safe', better known as limp home mode, is a fail-safe system that allows you to drive the car, albeit at a much reduced pace, until you can get to a mechanic to have it fixed. The error codes that have been found should assist the mechanics to find the cause of the problem and fix it. There is really no choice, but to press on with the mechanics and trust them to find and fix the cause of the problem. If you doubt their competence then take your car somewhere else. Today's cars are much more complex than cars in the past, and most problems seem to affect the computer systems that effectively control them. They're much harder to fix than the cars of old.

Talk to the dealer and request that Nissan send a tech rep to inspect the car with you, and then work out a plan of action for Nissan to address your concerns. Nissan cannot walk away from the problem; you are perfectly entitled to demand they fix the car. If it can't be fixed, then I think you have good justification for asking for your money back.

It's frustrating when a dealer misdiagnoses a problem, and then charges you for the work they've done, even though it hasn't fixed the so-called problem. In this case, from what you have told us, there really isn't a problem. You say you are able to start the car first time, every time, by simply waiting a second or so longer, it was only the dealer that claimed it was hard to start. I wouldn't trust the dealer and would take the car to someone else if you feel you need to have it checked further, in this case one who specialises in diesels.

Yes, they do. It generally seems to happen at 80,000-plus km, so you should be safe for a while. In the meantime make sure you keep the servicing up to it, as some Nissan mechanics blame a lack of servicing for the failures, although it appears to be caused by wear to the chain and the tensioner.