Test Drive: Nissan Navara D40

Nissan's powerhouse pickup has been giving many names, one of them (my favourite) is "Mother Trucker". The Navara certainly earned that moniker, because this is one "mother" of a truck. Big, imposing, spacious, powerful and designed by Americans, the Nissan Navara was meant to conquer the market for light trucks and compact pickups. Borrowing much of its DNA from it's bigger cousin, the Nissan Titan (what an awesome name), it's easy to see why this truck became one of the best-selling vehicles in the UK and Australia. Even down in our little twin-island republic of Trinidad & Tobago, the Nissan Navara is definitely one of the market leaders in truck-sales. Let's take a look at this mother-fu... *ahem*.. mother-trucker.

"One bad mother"

Vehicle: Nissan Navara D40 LE, 2009-2010 model, sold by Neal & Massy Motors Ltd (Morvant branch)
Specs:
- Ydd25i 2.5 litre turbocharged common-rail diesel engine with Variable Nozzle Turbocharger
- 4x4 Automatic transmission
- LSD as standard with Electronic Differential assist (electronically controlled torque transfer via ABS)
- Leather Interior (beige)
- Fully Powered
- 6CD mp3 player
- sidebars with steps as standard

I drive a 3.0L turbocharged Nissan D22 Frontier, so this was going to be my benchmark when it came to comparing and assessing the Navara D40. These nissan trucks are true powerhouses; within each truck's model-generation, their respective engines have always been the most powerful out of all the brands available (compared to Toyota, Mitsubishi, Ford, etc). Other truckmakers have lagged behind in terms of power-specs and horsepower, until recently. The Navara I test-drove was way out of the league of my D22 Frontier, it was simply miles ahead in almost every respect.


First Impression
The D40 Navara is a huge ox of a truck. It's definitely bigger than my D220 frontier and it's mostly for the better. The tray is HUGE, loads of space for cargo and interior cabin space felt positively cavernous. It was like sitting in a concert hall (not really, but it was a tremendous improvement over the cramped D22 frontier). I found the imposing size and bulk of the truck to be reassuring, as if it were a trustworthy beast of burden or companion that's always got your back. The truck's bodyshape and lines are definitely macho and aggressive. Other manufacturers decided to design their trucks with "sporty" and "swooped" lines (*cough* hilux *cough* sportero *cough* ranger) in order to appeal to a younger crowd but I prefer the classic boxy shape of a traditional pickup which the Navara retains. There aren't many sticky-outy bits along the truck's body to interrupt the clean lines. The truck generates a masculine confidence and I got the impression that this is a powerful beast, waiting to unleash some real muscle.


In The Cabin
When it comes to pickup trucks, interior space is usually at a premium, due to most of the truck's useable space being given over to the tray. Not so much with the D40 Navara LE though, because Nissan has added a few inches overall when first designing this truck. The end result is a large, cavernous cabin while retaining a spacious cargo bed, even in a double-cab truck. I did my usual routine of jumping into the driver's seat, adjusting the steering wheel and then pulling the seat forward so that my arms are 45-60 degree's with the steering wheel (rally-driver's position - esp with a Manual trans, it's the ONLY way to drive - forget that retarded "gangsta lean"). Then I switched seats and jumped into the rear passenger seat behind the drivers.
Result = TREMENDOUS space. I'm 5-foot 6-inches, and when I sat into the back seat, I had almost 5 inches of space between my knees and the seatback. For taller persons up to 6-feet, the same effect would happen with your rear passengers: loads of first-class rear legroom. I was able to lounge comfortably in the backseat as if I was on my couch at home, although the seat-back is still a bit too upright for comfortable long-distance driving. I was quite impressed by how much leg-room there was in the backseat of the D40 Navara - this is an important consideration for me, esp when rolling with the family or with friends in the truck.

The instrument cluster was well-laid out with easy-to-find controls. The orange-coloured lights of the factory radio may take some getting used to, but I think it'll be relatively easy on the eyes when driving at night while still giving you easy readability. The driver's info cluster was also well laid out, I liked how logical everything seemed, as if the engineers who built it told the designers to keep everything simple and keep all the foofy-design-crap that we see in other trucks down to a minimum. Simple, effective, efficient - that's what I like.

Our local version of the Navara LE doesn't have steering controls.

In the driver's seat, I felt like I was sitting tall and had a great view of the road. Visibility in all corners was good and the height of the driver's seat felt commanding and confidence-inspiring.


Around the Outside
The D40 Navara is a big truck. Plain and simple. Take a walk around the truck and you'll be out of breath when you get back to your starting point. Clean, angular yet smooth lines, wide body with aggressive fender-flares, and a large cargo-bed makes this a "man's truck" (even though I called it a "mother-trucker" earlier). Just as macho as it's bigger cousin, the Nissan Titan, this truck exudes a confidence that just makes you want to take it to work and haul all sorts of stuff in the tray. Heck, if I had bought the truck that day, by that evening I'd probably have approached my neighbour and just for the fun of it, offered to move the huge pile of red-sand in front of his house for him, using my new toy/tool.
I didnt' really favour the large amount of chrome that Nissan put into the plastic front grill, but it just seemed to suit the truck well enough. I've seen guys paint over their chrome grills with body-matched colours and I thought that it looked odd, like something was missing.
Standard equipment on the outside includes tubular-style sidesteps (these are rock-sliders with steps cut into them) which were actually functional - most tubular sidesteps/bars are non-functional as steps like the ones in the Ford Ranger "Hurricane" package, or like the ones in my D22 Frontier. They did help to make ingress & egress much easier within the D40 Navara LE though. Foglights are also standard in every Navara LE, a handy feature I think. There's no bedliner or rollbar or nudgebar/bullbar included as standard however - these are all aftermarket add-ons.
I didn't like the stock 5-spoke 17-inch wheels that come with the Navara - indeed, most Navara buyers would install 20-inch and larger wheels as their first upgrade (which of course voids Neal & Massy's tight-assed warranty on your suspension). I asked if the 6-spoke wheels that come with the Pathfinder are available on the Navara, but sadly they're not. Perhaps one can import them via Ebay and a skybox. At least they're 17-inch and you'd be able to keep the warranty.

Performance and Ride
I was absolutely blown away by my test-drive. Absolutely. From when I pulled out of Neal & Massy's compound to when I drove back in, my smile never receded. As we turned from Neal & Massy morvant onto the main road and headed up Lady Young Road to the lookout point, the salesperson said to try the power on the pickup. I happily obliged and stomped my foot down on the accelerator. What happened next was astonishing, I found out that I was actually driving the Space Shuttle.
There were two cars in front of me - an Almera and a Wingroad wagon, and we were on a roughly 20-degree incline (the hill-climb just before the Lookout Point on lady-young road that overlooks downtown Port of Spain). I stomped down on the accelerator like the salesperson told me to, an almost immediately I was pinned to my seat. A gigantic surge of torque shoved me back into my seat as the automatic transmission sensed that I wanted "MORE POWER" and obliged with a shift into 3rd gear. What a powerhouse! This truck is even more powerful than my 3.0L turbocharged Frontier... MUCH more powerful than my frontier. We sailed past those two cars in front and the apex of the hill-climb which lead directly to the lookout point came quickly to me - scarily quick.
I had just overtaken two cars on a major hill, quickly, powerfully, effortlessly as if driving on flat asphalt. The only thing bigger than the torque curve on this truck was my smile. This is why they call the truck a "mother trucker" !!!

Just for funsies, I asked the salesman if I could do some donuts on the empty parking lot of the lookout point. He laughed and said no, so I asked if I could instead check the turning radius. Now the Navara does have a larger turning circle than the other trucks - the largest in fact at 13m radius. However I didn't really feel the effect of this drawback, the truck turned easily with 3 locks of the steering wheel to the right. It was able to do at least 3 complete revolutions in the empty lot without crashing off into the side of the mountain, but I did suspect this would not be true when having to do tight 3-point turns on a city side-street or main road. In fact, as I swung into the Neal & Massy compound after the test drive, I found that even when locking the wheel fully, the large turning circle did in fact impede on navigating through the parking lot - though only slightly. I think one would get used to it after driving the truck after awhile. Not a real drawback I guess, just a limitation of the truck's design (being that it's quite large & long compared to other compact trucks in Trinidad).

One last thing I forgot to mention - the suspension gave me a very refined ride. It's no SUV or luxury sedan, but the Navara's ride is very civil and quite capable of absorbing moderate bumps on the road. There's no bounciness, no jumpiness at moderate speed, and I hardly felt any of the road irregularites (even as the salesperson encouraged me to drive over a patch of rough asphalt to test the suspension). A smooth ride from a big truck. Well done Nissan, for tricking me into thinking I was in a car instead of a pickup.

Verdict
The D40 Nissan Navara LE is a veritable powerhouse of a truck. Other reviews complained about the narrow powerband and large turning circle of the Navara, but I believe these aren't drawbacks, they're simply design limitations. To me, these aren't deal-breakers that would prevent me from buying a Navara, they're more like quirks of a vehicle that one can get used to and get around. With a powerful engine and smooth ride, clean engineering & design with good quality building, the D40 Nissan Navara is a worthy contender of your hard-earned cash. It's a great road truck and I'm sure it's also a decent off-road performer (with the proper tyres mounted). Furthermore, the Navara is actually cheaper than some of it's rivals, making the deal even sweeter when deciding to buy your next vehicle.


Prices:
- 2.5 YD25 DDTi Common Rail / Variable Nozzle TurboCharger / 4x4 Automatic / Fabric / foglights / sidesteps = $230,000 TTD
- 2.5 YD25 DDTi Common Rail / Variable Nozzle TurboCharger / 4x4 Automatic / Leather/ foglights / sidesteps = $245,000
- 2.5 YD25 DDTi Common Rail / Variable Nozzle TurboCharger / 4x4 Manual / Fabric / foglights / sidesteps = $202,000 TTD
- 2.5 YD25 DDTi Common Rail / Variable Nozzle TurboCharger / 4x4 Manual / Leather / foglights / sidesteps = $210,000 TTD

Also available in 4x2 auto/manual, in LE & SE trim. Dunno the prices for those though.


*** More reading:
- www.nissan-navara.net
- www.navara.asia
- http://www.sonirodban.com/navara.html