Hello from Melbourne, Australia! (Diesel '05 ST-L)

[nmonteith]

Hi guys! Neil from Oz here...

Good to find a website forum about my dusty and beaten car. My ride is a 2005 ST-L Diesel 2.5 litre 126kw. Added alloy bullbar (nissan factory one) and upgraded the tyres to Cooper AT on the standard 17" rims.

I bought the vehicle after several years of Subaru ownership which destroyed two Imprezas and most of a Forester. Most of the destruction was from hitting kangraoos and wombats in the middle of the night when transiting between my home in the city, and my second home, the wilderness rock climbing area of the Grampians National Park. Now I have a big car with a big bullbar (we call them a roo bar here!). I do a fair bit of easy dirt road driving every week and occaisonal dabble in proper 4WDing in the Victorian Alps and on various bush tracks near Melbourne. The car is a dream for loading with with camping gear, I can even sleep in the back with the seats folded down easily (double matress fits in nicely!)

Im not a big mechanically minded nut, i'm not about to highly modify the vehicle as i think its pretty fine just how it is!

Photos to follow!

[nmonteith]

[NVSteve]

Glad to have you on board! Nice pictures, great scenery. All I can say is that you are bound to make all of us jealous with your diesel version of the Pathfinder. And I know I'd like to see some more pictures!

[nmonteith]

If it wasn't for the price of fuel these days i think i'd prefer a petrol one. The diesel is grunty and good when 4WDing, but it pretty pathetic on the highway. It struggles when overtaking past 100km/h (60 MP/H?). Totally gutless past 120km/h or up steep hills at speed (cruise regualry stops when driving up a gradient on the highway). Getting 700km (440 miles) on a tank of fuel is good though!

[Ben H Aussie]

Hi nmonteith,
Ben here from Sydney, have you knocked any roos yet with the new Pathie and the alloy bar? I have the steel bar and have not hit any yet, I am leaving in the morning for Armidale and back in a day (1200kms) and I may christin the bar on this trip..... You never know your luck.
Thanks, Ben.

[boogyman]

Nice truck. I wish they offered the extras at the dealer here in the US. What is the sticker on your back window? Looks like a psychotic bunny or something.

[nmonteith]

I've hit two roos in the last 12 months, but both were the small grey kangaroos we get in the Grampians so they didn't do any damage luckily. I also managed to (guiltily) hit two owls as well. The silly birds seem to like sitting on the road in the middle of the night and are hopeless at flyign away. So, so far so good with the bull bar! During this drought the roos have definitely gotten worse because they hang out in consolidated groups near water holes and thus its russian roulette driving past at night or early in the morning.


The sticker on the back of my Pathy! It's from an illustrator friend of mine who does crazy drawings of demented bunny rabbits. Check out some of his other crazy stuff!
http://www.bucketothought.com/

[boogyman]

This sticker is cool and the artwork on his page is outstanding.

[V8Pathy]

welcome ! great pictures