Bakkies are big business in South Africa, with many thousands of them finding homes across South Africa on a monthly basis. With brands such as Toyota, Ford and Isuzu building bakkies locally for many years, Nissan re-joined the scene when it began producing the Navara in South Africa in 2020. We recently received a Navara double cab to test recently.
Styling
The Navara, in PRO-2X guise, is a good-looking bakkie, particularly in the signature grey hue which is contrasted by the gloss black alloy wheels and door handles while the black, white and red stickers and red and black badge differentiate this derivative from other Navara models.
Interior and space
Stepping inside the PRO-2X and the grey, white, black and red theme continues with white stitching on the black leather seats and a red Nissan logo on the steering wheel. The general fit and finish are about what you would expect from a double cab, with some hard plastic surfaces and simple ergonomics. There's an 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, with a small colour screen housed within the instrument cluster. Other niceties include leather seats, cruise control, lane departure warning, blind spot assist and keyless entry which are expected in a vehicle at this price point.
From a practical perspective, the Navara offers a 2.46 square meter load bed, which was able to take an entire go-kart, spares and racing kit. The rear quarters offer reasonable space for occupants, with respectable head and leg room for adults.
Performance and driving impression
The Navara is powered by the familiar 2.5-litre turbodiesel motor and 7-speed automatic gearbox. There is 140kW and 450Nm on offer, making the performance sufficient and endowing the Navara with a braked towing capacity of 3 500kg.
In 2015, the Navara was crash-tested by the ANCAP vehicle safety programme, where it achieved a 5-Star rating with a score of 35.01 points from a possible 37.
Fuel consumption
Nissan claims that the Navara will sip diesel at a rate of 8.1 L/100km, however, our week with the vehicle resulted in a higher, but a respectable figure of 8.7 L/100km
Pricing
The Navara PRO-2X retails for R756 500, making it pricier than the Mitsubishi Triton Xtreme, Toyota Hilux Legend and the Ford Ranger FX4. The Navara comes with a 6-year/90 000km service plan as well as a 6-year/150 000km warranty.
Verdict
Nissan has a solid product in the Navara, however, it faces stiff competition, particularly when we consider the upcoming Ford Ranger/Volkswagen Amarok twins, the new Isuzu D-Max and, of course, the Toyota Hilux. If you are in the market for a double cab bakkie, the Navara should be on your list of test drives, but we would wait for the aforementioned Ranger and Amarok to be released before pulling the trigger.
