Faults:

I purchased a Nissan Patrol 3.0 GR 5Dr in December 2000 through a Nissan dealer in Dublin. The engine was replaced under recall at 30,000 miles, the spigot bearing then failed after a short time (we paid the bill), after replacing the spigot bearing it became difficult to select reverse gear and eventually the gearbox failed at 61,000 miles (we paid for new gearbox). Now at 100,000 miles the 2nd engine has to have the head gasket replaced due to failure and this will cost an estimated £1,300.00. The Nissan garage has stated that there will not be any goodwill gesture due to some French geezer who now runs Nissan Japan, do I have any recourse with Nissan and if so what? The vehicle has always been serviced on time by an authorized Nissan dealer. I have spoken to the RAC and they have not really made any comment other than the vehicle is out of warranty. I have spoken to other Nissan Patrol owners and they are amazed at the problems I have encountered as they have not had any problems whatsoever, one person has had 5 Nissan Patrols and never had a failure, was he lucky or is there an endemic problem with this model. Hoping you may be able to shed dome light on the problem.

Yours Faithfully,

Allan Feltham.

(Swindon area)

P.S. I have had the vehicle serviced 2 weeks ago and the Nissan garage has told me that there is a problem with the turbocharger and the front discs need to be replaced.

General Comments:

Good 4x4 vehicle seriously let down by very poor engine and gearbox. Nissan are poor to deal with.

Faults:

After a young yuppy chap tried to drive his 1968 VW Karmen under the front, we replaced the broken plastic grille with a bit of "Sitex", there was a bit of overheating in summer time, A "clunk" on the steering was sorted with a bit of grease.

My head gasket will not blow.

The seats smell of dog.

General Comments:

These vehicles will tow anything anywhere.

At 17 years ours has quite a bit of rust around the sills etc especially the bottom of the tailgate, but what do you expect?