With the development work already done on the 4W60, Nissan decided to put it into production anyway. Toyota did the same with their BJ series Land Cruiser. This turned out to be a wise and lucrative move by both of them, as the Land Cruiser and the Patrol would go on to become the biggest selling four wheel drives on the planet.
Nissan's first Patrol went into production in September 1951. The production version was visually very different to the prototype built to try to secure the government contract, in fact it was visually almost identical to the Willys Jeep. But while the styling may have been similar to the Jeep, it was a very different beast. For a start the Patrol was bigger than the Jeep in every dimension. It was taller, longer and wider, and it had a much bigger engine. The American Willys Jeep had a 60hp 4 cylinder engine. The first Patrol had the Nissan NAK series engine from the Nissan 290 bus, which was a side valve 3670cc 6 cylinder engine that produced 75hp. While the Willys was a 2 wheel drive vehicle, the Patrol had a part time 4 whhel drive system.
This original model 4W60 had a flat bonnet that looked exactly like the one on the Willys Jeep. The Willys had a grille that consisted of a series of six vertical slots. The Patrol instead had two rows of eight horizontal slots. These had a large rectangular pressed steel Nissan badge at the top of the grille. Shortly after the introduction of the 4W60 the bonnet design was altered, probably to make it appear less Jeep-like. The new bonnet has a pronounced bulge at the front that tapers away until it is flat at the back. This design required a new grille panel, which now has a raised section at the top to meet the new bonnet bulge. This model has a much smaller round Nissan logo at the top of the grille. The windscreen on the 4W60 is a two piece split screen, on the later 4W61 the windscreen in a one pice design.
The 4W60 was in production until August 1955, when it was replaced with the 4W61 Patrol.
