Nissan Navara 2.3D Double Cab SE : A big bruiser that's also a bit of a bargain

By Martin Pretorius

With monthly sales figures numbering in the thousands, there's little doubt that the bakkie could reasonably be termed South Africa's national vehicle. Toyota's Hilux and Ford's Ranger are currently the two leaders in this sales race, with the other contenders generally relegated to “alternative” status – the ones which plug the little gaps left open by the two big names. But the new-generation Nissan Navara shows why this kind of thinking is really short-sighted: it does everything the others can (and sometimes it does those things even better), and it brings its own box of tricks to the party as well. If you're tired of the current two-horse-race, this may in fact be exactly the bakkie you need...

It's still big and butch, but less blocky than before.

There's only so much which can be done with a bakkie's styling: it has to have a large, square load bay at the back, a cabin to take some people in the middle, and a box in front to accommodate the oily bits. And so it is with this new Navara as well: there's a blunt nose with a prominent grille in front, a blocky profile view, and a deep box in the rear. It is however far sleeker than the old one was, without losing too much of its forebear's intimidating presence.

All very Generic Japanese Bakkie ™ , then. In fact, the only offerings with a different styling approach are the Mitsubishi Triton and its Fiat Fullback twin, but it doesn't seem like our buyers appreciate their swoopy curves and exaggerated swage lines all that much, going on their sales success (or lack thereof). The Navara rather goes for a more traditional appearance, and truth be told, it looks pretty good even in its most basic format – especially when wearing a glossy coat of metallic black paint as this test vehicle did. There's also just enough in the way of decoration, with side steps, 16-inch alloy wheels, tonneau cover, and a spoiler which is integrated into the tailgate. 

The cabin isn't really surprising, either.

Inside the cabin, the Navara follows current bakkie styling trends as well. There's black plastic everywhere, with some aluminium-look accents to break the sombre colouring, and the seats are covered in a black, velour-like cloth – great for removing stray pet hairs from your trousers, but also good for keeping your backside warm in winter. Fabric seat trim is standard at the SE trim level, but leather is optional.

There's a good amount of space for the front occupants, and the front bucket seats are supportive yet comfortable. The rear seat is somewhat less comfy, however, as it suffers from the typical double-cab bugbear of a short, flat, low-mounted squab and an upright backrest. Still, long journeys won't prove too much of a hardship for children, and there's enough room to accommodate adults on shortish trips as well. This trait isn't unique to the Navara, as only the Triton/Fullback twins offer anything close to decent rear-seat accommodation for adults. Let's call this area an “on-par effort” for the Navara – no worse than the sales leaders, but also no better... 

It gets interesting underneath.

So, at first glance, the new Navara is very much like any other bakkie. It's only after hunkering down and looking at its underside that something highly unusual will catch your eye: the rear end isn't suspended by the leaf springs you will find everywhere else, but instead uses a 5-link arrangement with coil springs – much like you'd find underneath a modern SUV. This is far more significant than you might think, as coil springs allow for a far more compliant ride quality than leaf springs ever could. Meanwhile, the five locating links for the rear axle enhances directional stability and handling. 

Don't think that this focus on extra compliance reduces the Navara's load-carrying abilities, though. It's still rated to tow a 3500 kg (braked) trailer, and can handle a payload of 1072 kg. This is pretty heavy-duty stuff, and matches the sales leaders with their conventional leaf springs at the rear. The springs are still quite stiff to accommodate such heavy loads, so the ride quality isn't at limousine level, but it's definitely less bouncy than you'd find in most of its competitors, especially unladen. This may just be the most comfortable bakkie around.

The engine is also really, really good.

Under the bonnet, you will find a 2.3-litre twin-turbo diesel engine with 140 kW and 450 Nm. These outputs compare very favourably with its competition (most of which have larger engines), and out-muscles all opponents of similar displacement by quite a margin. But not only are the absolute outputs impressive, but it's also endowed with a beautifully linear power delivery.

There's almost no sign of the take-off lag which usually afflicts small, high-output turbodiesels, and it starts pulling strongly and smoothly from just above idle. It also keeps on pulling well past 4000 r/min, with very little discernible power drop-off as the revs climb. Yes, it does get rather noisy above this point, but the power just never seems to let up. As a result, the Navara's engine has a wide (and potent) torque spread and a very user-friendly character. To get any better than this, you'd have to look at an Amarok V6 TDI, which brings with it a price jump almost large enough to buy another whole Navara.

It gets better.

Furthermore, the 6 ratios in the manual gearbox (a 7-speed automatic is also available) are well-chosen to take advantage of this excellent engine. The sensible gear ratio spacing sees the engine working in its peak torque range almost all the time, but also keeps the revs low on the freeway, resulting in excellent fuel efficiency and muted noise levels. Without any particular effort to conserve fuel, and with the air-con running most of the time, the test period returned an easy 8.6 L/100 km average consumption. That’s still some way off from the official claimed average of 6.3 L/100 km, but an admirable result in a big, heavy bakkie like this one.

The shift quality is rather notchy, but the clutch isn't too heavy for traffic use, and it has a progressive, clearly-defined biting point. Extra spring pre-load in the centre plane of the gearshift would be welcome, though – it's too easy to accidentally select fifth gear instead of third, for instance. But other than this minor quirk (which is easy enough to adapt to anyway), the rear-wheel drive Navara's drivetrain is quite difficult to fault.

Strong value proposition

You'd think that such an advanced suspension and excellent engine would come with a massive price premium, but that's also not the case. Our SE-trim test vehicle takes up the bottom rung of its range, but even as the price leader, it's generously equipped. Stability control is standard, as are 7 airbags, automatic climate control, a colour touch-screen infotainment system with navigation, cruise control, electric windows all round (including the centre portion of the heated rear windscreen), automatic wiper operation, remote central locking, 3 ISOFIX child seat mountings for the rear seat, a rear-view camera, and LED headlights with automatic operation.

The specification sheet is basically loaded to the hilt even as a base variant, with the higher-trim LE mainly adding things such as parking sensors, leather trim, and larger alloy wheels. None of these items are really crucial in a bakkie of this nature, so the basic SE variant is probably as close to an optimal configuration as you could wish for. And then you look at the price: R461 900 is amazingly cheap for a bakkie as advanced as this one, with such a nice engine, and with so many safety-, comfort-, and convenience toys fitted as standard. 

To gain some perspective on this price, it's worth considering that the Navara goes up against a Fiat Fullback 2.5 Di-D double cab (which costs almost exactly as much) and the Toyota Hilux SRX 2.4 GD-6 (which is about R20 000 cheaper). Neither of them can match this Nissan on power, sophistication or spec level, and only the Fullback is more commodious inside. To add insult to injury, the Navara also features by far the most comprehensive warranty in this company as well.

As far as mainstream bakkies go, this is about as close to a bargain leisure/work combination bakkie as you're likely to get (before venturing into “Chinese knock-off” territory, at least). A round of applause for Nissan, then, for giving us a top-shelf product at an imminently reasonable price. This one should fly off the showroom floors by itself. It deserves to.