Nissan Navara Review

Nissan Navara

Trek is the one most likely to appeal to commercial users and provides the basic specification for the other three. From the outside, it is not too fancy with a black front bumper, chrome grille and tubular rear bumper. Sensibly, this and all of the other trims come with steel wheels for more robust use. The Trek seats are cloth covered and the centre console houses a single CD/radio but Bluetooth functionality with voice activation is already installed. To emphasise the utilitarian usage, the Trek has external cab guard frame to prevent loads joining the passengers.

The Sport has larger, 17-inch wheels and is distinguished from the Trek by the addition of front fog lamps set into a body-coloured front bumper. A rear step bumper replaces the tube while side steps and coloured door mirror housing with integrated indicators make up the external differences. Inside, the dashboard gains a metallic trim, the driver now has height and lumbar adjustment to his seats and the steering wheel and gear knob are leather covered. Dual zone climate control is introduced along with powered and heated door mirrors.  Moving away from the workhorse image, the cab guard is removed but remains an optional extra but the load bed benefits from C-Channel fixing points.

C-Channel is a factory fitted system comprising five rails set into the sides and floor with moveable, self-locking cleats for securing loads.

Adding to the Sport, the Outlaw Double Cab has roof rails, chromed door mirrors, rear privacy glass, headlamp washers as well as automatic headlights and wipers, cruise control and an integrated 6 CD autochanger with secondary controls on the steering wheel.

At this stage, the options packs come into play; for the Double Cab, there is the Premium Pack - electric sunroof, leather upholstery, heated front seats, plus side and curtain airbags. The King Cab makes the Hi-tech Pack available, comprising DVD sat-nav, premium audio system and the extra airbags.

The Aventura has most of the pack items as standard and the Double Cab version, as tested, bears a price tag of £25,252.50. Why the odd 50p, I don’t know. As an illustration of the scope of the added extras list, the test car had a further £3,554 worth of options, the most expensive of which was the Snug Top at £2,360. It had the effect of making the pick-up more SUV-like by enclosing the load area in a hard, glazed shell but is just one of five different tops on offer.

You might think that it would be better to go for the Pathfinder from the start but not only would you lose the bulkhead between the cabin and load platform but for VAT registered companies and individuals it makes sense to choose the Navara because as a commercial vehicle they can claim back the VAT. What is more, if the Navara is used as a company vehicle, different BIK rules apply.

Personally, I wouldn’t bother with the Snug Top. I can see that it would have many uses a covered area for transporting dogs, for instance, but with the one that was attached to the test car, driving at night became a problem. A glance in the rear-view mirror revealed nothing but a reflection of the satellite navigation screen. To be fair, I couldn’t figure out if the reflection was caused by the rear window in the main bulkhead or the further one, in the Snug Top; either way reversing at night meant leaning out of the window, which makes a good call for the inclusion of rear parking sensors as a standard feature.