“I’m surprised you haven’t complained about the ride yet.”
That’s what I told my wife when we were driving around in the Nissan Navara. Truth be told, I haven’t been driving pickups too often because of the compromises in comfort and the sheer bulk. While I do like having them around, it’s just not something that I’m keen on owning.
Still, it got me thinking about something. The current generation Nissan Navara is now the most seasoned pickup in its class. It received a major facelift in late 2020, but the rest of the competition have received full model changes since then.
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Just take a look at the Navara’s main rivals. The D-Max got a full model change in 2019, while the Ranger got a massive overhaul in 2022. The all-new Triton just rolled in, while the Hilux, still in its current iteration, is a little newer than the Navara having been launched in 2015.
But despite that, it still holds up well against them.
For starters, it’s still a handsome looking truck. Even without the Pro-4X’s more rugged design, the standard trucks don’t look like it’s from a previous era of pickups. The 2020 facelift did a good job rolling back the years.
Then there’s the ride. The Navara’s novelty is its coil spring rear suspension. Payload is comparable with leaf-sprung trucks but it doesn’t jitter as much as some newer models. I’ll be blunt and say that it’s more composed than the bog standard Hilux and, surprisingly, the Isuzu D-Max. I’d say it’s about on par or slightly firmer than the Triton, but the new Ranger is tough to beat. Still, not bad for a decade-old model.
I recently used it to head to Clark and I have to say it’s still a great long-distance cruiser. Okay, it doesn’t ride like a luxury car, but it’s smooth enough that you’ll forget that it’s a pickup. Even though its 2.5-liter turbodiesel makes ‘just’ 190hp and 450Nm of torque, it’s still more than enough for confident overtaking. Shifts from its seven-speed automatic are also crisp and smooth.
That said, it shows its age in the refinement department. There’s no other way of saying it, it gets pretty noisy in there. Part of me wishes it benefitted from the Terra’s improvement in noise isolation. I wouldn’t call it a total dealbreaker, but you’ve been warned.
While we’re on the subject of things I didn’t like, I’ll throw in fuel economy. In heavy traffic, you’ll struggle to break 7.5km/L and lucky to hit 8km/L, at least for the four-wheel drive models. The Navara's highway fuel consumption of 14.1km/L is decent but could be better, but it's likely because of the Pro-4X's all-terrain tires. It also doesn’t help that the cabin didn’t get the new Terra’s look, so it feels a bit dated in there. It also doesn’t get adaptive cruise or any of the sort, but admittedly, it’s not a feature I miss. At least it has autonomous emergency braking.
But, if for some reason, I had to get a pickup, I wouldn’t mind putting it in my shortlist. If you compare its prices against the competition, the Navara undercuts, well, everyone. Depending on the variant, it’s easy to drive thanks to 360-degree cameras, but it’s easy to steer even without it. Okay, it’s not the lightest to drive, but it doesn’t feel cumbersome, either. It handles well enough for a truck, and I have no doubts about its off-road abilities.
If I’m being completely honest, the Navara would be somewhere in the middle of the pack among its pickup peers. While it sounds like faint praise, it should be lagging behind if you consider its age. The fact that it still holds up is quite an achievement.
So, how can the Navara become the leader of the pack? We have a few suggestions for the next-gen model. First off, it’ll need to work on refinement. It doesn’t have to be whisper quiet, but anything less than the current noise levels will be welcome.
It’ll also need improvements in fuel economy, especially now that diesel prices have skyrocketed in recent years. We’d keep the coil spring suspension, but add niceties such as a driver’s side grab angle and a telescopic steering wheel. More tech would be nice, especially in the aspect of advanced driver assist systems as all of its competitors have it already.
By now, you’ve heard that Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi will work together on a new generation of pickup trucks. The fruits of that are shown in the all-new Triton. If that should serve as an indicator for the next-gen Navara, then we can say its future is in good hands.
SPECS: Nissan Navara Pro-4X
Price: P1,811,000
Engine: 2.5 turbodiesel I4
Power: 187hp @ 3,600rpm
Torque: 450Nm @ 2,000rpm
Transmission: 7-speed automatic
Layout: 4WD
Seating: 5
