R O A D    T E S T

The Nissan Patrol Safari is one vehicle that is hard to miss.  Particularly when they've got those blue lights flashing on top, a pair of Patrols bracketing one of those cars with single-number license plates—they'll get your attention, all right.  Here in Manila they've pretty much cornered the market for bodyguards' transportation.  I can't quite visualize those barong-clad guys shopping around at the nearest Nissan dealer, but I can certainly imagine their bosses specifying the Patrol without hesitation. 

Elsewhere in the world, Patrols fill a similarly brutish role.  Tough-as-nails U.N. inspector Richard Butler used them as his vehicles to inspect Saddam's secret stashes of suspicious Scuds.  Maybe he thought they could help intimidate the mustachioed one.  Even in Mission: Impossible 2, the new Patrol has made an appearance as what else but the henchmen's chase vehicle.  Well, John Woo may have been able to make the Patrol dance with a Ducati, but their primarily role seems to be carrying the backup. 

Yet there are some Patrols out there that don't end up with sirens and those annoying bullhorns.  These are cars that were bought by perhaps a woman for its extra height and ground clearance (always a good selling point for the ladies), or a family man who just wanted space for more than five, and who knows—maybe for some of that unstoppable-vehicle image.

So we decided to take a look at this car as an alternative to all those fridge-type vans.  After all the Patrol can seat seven (even eight in a pinch) in its three rows of seats.  The Hyundai Starex may look more sleek and modern, but it certainly doesn't have the off road capability and brute pulling power of the Patrol.

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