Drivelife travelled to Adelaide to attend the global launch of the new Nissan Navara ute, a model developed specifically for the New Zealand and Australia markets, and currently only available in our region.
Nissan has an 80-year history of producing utes, dating back to the Datsun 14 Pickup, launched in 1935. The Navara name first debuted in 1986 with the D21 Navara, and the four generations have sold over half a million units, with 70,000 of those sold in Aotearoa.
The new fifth-generation Navara was co-developed with Mitsubishi, and shares a platform and large number of components with the Triton. The lead designer of the Navara, Ken Lee, spoke at the launch, and talked about the design approach for this new Navara. He and his team spent time in Australia and visited owners of previous models of Navara, and the owners’ stories of how they used their vehicles, and the modifications they had made, served as inspiration for the design of the 2025 Navara.
When co-developing a vehicle there are some constraints on what can be changed by each manufacturer, so the design focus was on the front-end “face” and lighting. These are the first things people look at, and they define the brand identity. The brief was to produce a modern, tough-looking vehicle, and I think they’ve done a good job, with LED running lights, and X-shaped front trim that has the look of a bull-bar.
The Pro-4X has Lava Red trims on the outside and a black rollbar, and on the inside, the seats have red stitching and trims. It has a real sporty feel to it and looks good. The ST-X trim level (that we would be driving later) loses the red for more traditional chrome details, and a chrome roll bar. This gives a more premium look and feel.
Of previous Navara models, 90% of Australian, and 75% of New Zealand sales have been 4WD, diesel, double-cab, so with this model, that is the only option you get. Different powertrain options may be considered in future.
Power comes from a 4-cylinder, 2.4-litre, bi-turbo diesel, with 150kW and 470Nm, gains of 10kW/20Nm over the previous gen 2.3-litre. This is delivered via a six-speed automatic transmission. Power may be up, but fuel consumption is down from 7.9 to 7.7l/100km.
Tow rating stays the same at 3,500kg braked and 750kg unbraked, but payload is 54-70kg higher. The bed is longer but slightly narrower.
Packaging has improved, as the Navara has 80mm more ground clearance (228mm), but is 40mm less tall than the previous model and only 9mm longer overall. Interior space improves shoulder room by 29mm, leg room by 42mm and rear shoulder room by 4mm. Nissan says that rear space is ideal for a family vehicle, for example a baby capsule will fit behind a six-foot tall driver.
There’s lots of tech included as standard including a 9-inch central display with Apple Carplay and Android Auto, 360-degree camera view, 7” driver display with two analogue main gauges, but most importantly actual buttons for the main functions. There’s a new Nissan app too which can remotely lock and unlock, turn on the AC, find the vehicle, or trigger an SOS.
The Nissan Navara’s main point of difference over its sister vehicle is its suspension tuning. Nissan worked with Premcar Australia, who developed and build the Navara and Prado Warrior editions. Premcar tested 137 different dampers and 550 damper shims over 12 months and 18,500km all over Australia. Bernie Quinn of Premcar said that the standard suspension setup and geometry was an excellent starting point and the standard springs were retained. Their development process landed on three suspension variants depending on the wheel and tyre combination. They use a larger-diameter Australian-made damper with an internal rebound spring, tuned to give improved primary ride and enhanced secondary ride comfort, along with better response and control.
Premcar also has a prototype of the new Warrior which we’d get to see at the global reveal that evening.
That was a lot of details and specs to absorb, so the next step was to see the car in person. We headed out to Adelaide Hills 4×4 Park where Nissan had three ST-X models ready for some off-road fun!
After some refreshments, and a very typical Aussie warning about where-not-to-stand in case of snakes, we jumped into the Navara and headed off along some pretty gnarly 4×4 trails for a short 15-minute preview drive.
There were steep up-and-downhill sections, river crossings, rocks, deep ruts, and a higher-speed corrugated section. Unfortunately there wasn’t an opportunity this time to go on-road and fully-test Premcar’s suspension work. We’ll be able to give some driving impressions when we do a full test of the Navara sometime in 2026.
Finally to round out the day, we attended the global reveal event, which you can watch here:
