2026 Nissan Navara review: Australian preview drive

Depending on how you view these things, the new Nissan Navara either has a huge weight of expectation burdening it, or it has virtually none whatsoever.

The first take trades on the Navara’s past glories. It was once Australia’s second-best-selling ute, and the nameplate has both serious history and a hefty dose of clout.

The latter reflects the fact that the Navara has recently fallen on tougher times. The D23 model, introduced in 2015, struggled in the market, seeing its share slip from just over 9 per cent down to just over 3 per cent so far this year, mauled in the sales charts by the likes of the Ford Ranger, the Toyota HiLux and the Isuzu D-Max.

Much of that could be attributed to newer and better rivals appearing. Nissan also needs to bear some responsibility for failing to engineer the D23 in an exacting fashion. 

Two sets of remedial upgrades were rushed into market to try to get the D23 Navara, with its coil-sprung rear suspension, to bear a heavy load as well as its heavier-duty leaf-sprung rivals. 

In the end, Nissan was largely successful, but by that time the D23 Navara was viewed by many as damaged goods in an ultra-competitive market sector.

Nissan then faced significant headwinds with its own balance sheet, and its aborted merger with Honda is well documented. In short, it needed a new Navara, but didn’t have the budget to develop its own. Cue Mitsubishi.

Nissan is in an alliance with both Mitsubishi and Renault, and the three brands have latterly been rebranding each others’ wares to defray development costs. So the new Mitsubishi ASX is a lightly facelifted Renault Captur and this Navara is based on the Mitsubishi Triton.

Of course, Nissan will contend that the Navara does more than enough to differentiate itself from its Triton sibling. There’s some substance to that argument too, as there’s been a local testing and chassis tuning program to try to get that essential ‘Aussie tough’ attitude back into the Navara.   

Nissan’s been keeping its cards fairly close to its chest in terms of pricing and specifications. We drove ST-X variants on our short off-road preview drive. These will sit beneath the Pro-4X version and, if ANCAP documents are to be believed, above the more utilitarian SL and ST variants.

All will be in 4x4 dual-cab form, and all will come with six-speed Aisin automatic gearboxes. A Premcar-developed Warrior version is set to launch as the flagship variant. 

The range may then be subsequently fleshed out with other body styles, and possibly a manual gearbox, but for the time being, Nissan is concentrating on the variants that sell best. Over 90 per cent of D23 Navara orders were all-wheel-drive dual-cabs with automatic gearboxes, so that’s where the customer demand resides.

If the Triton is any guide, pricing may well sit somewhere in the $52K–$65K bracket. We’ll know more in March 2026 when the launch ‘proper’ takes place. That's when we'll get to see the full pricing and range specification details.

That’ll be just in time to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Navara nameplate on sale here.

Buyers will be able to take advantage of a hefty 10-year/300,000km warranty, whichever arrives first. That’s if you undertake your Navara servicing at Nissan dealers. Otherwise, it’s a five-year/unlimited-kilometre deal.

How does this work? In effect, it’s a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty.

If at the end of those five years, you’ve maintained your servicing with a Nissan-authorised dealer, the company will add another year of warranty. Along with the additional warranty unlocked by servicing the car with Nissan itself, each service affords an extra 12 months of roadside assistance. Continue to satisfy the servicing conditions and this will repeat until you reach 10 years or 300,000km, whichever arrives first.

The base warranty includes up to five years of capped-price servicing to help with your budgeting.

Fuel consumption is a claimed 7.7 litres per 100 kilometres on the combined cycle, edging down from the old Navara’s 7.9L/100km figure despite the new vehicle boasting more power and torque. By way of comparison, the Ford Ranger 2.0-litre manages 7.6L/100km and the new HiLux nets 7.2L/100km with the help of its 48V mild hybrid system.

The Mitsubishi-derived 2.4-litre bi-turbo diesel engine is a gutsy unit and far from agricultural in its power delivery. With 150kW and 470Nm at its elbow, it’s up by 10kW and 20Nm on its predecessor, and it feels more tractable at the same time.

Towing is the class standard 3500kg for a braked trailer or 750kg for an unbraked unit. What’s more, the engine delivers its peak torque from just 1500rpm, which ought to make towing easy. The heavier-duty leaf springs will also cope better with a bit of downball weight than the old coils.

As much as we’d love to bring you the full details on how successful Premcar’s damper tuning has been with this vehicle, the fact is that we’re limited to about 15 minutes bumping around an off-road course on the outskirts of Adelaide, so we have no real information about its behaviour on bitumen.

There’s a polished feel to the new twin-tube Monroe dampers throughout their stroke of travel. In that regard, they feel a cut above the usual cost-compromised standard fare.

Premcar claims that it went through 13,000km of damper validation after the tuning and durability testing program. No fewer than 837 different damper codes were tried during the program, with over 550 permutations of internal damper shims used to create those final tunes.

As you might expect, the Navara’s all-wheel-drive system mirrors the two setups seen in the Triton, with a basic Easy 4x4 system that features a low-range transfer case and an e-diff on the rear axle marking the entry-level architecture. 

Go for an ST-X or Pro-4X variant and you get Super 4WD, which features a Torsen centre differential and allows you to shift on the fly at up to 100km/h between 2H and 4H. To switch into 4L, you still need to be at a standstill in neutral. 

In practice, the shift into 4L could be a little temperamental, with a degree of nudging the vehicle back and forth required to get the low-range transfer case to clunk into action. 

The biggest draw about the Super 4WD system is that you can use it on sealed surfaces in 4x4 without damaging the transmission. Knock the gear lever to the left and you can change gear yourself, albeit with the ratios the wrong way round (you push the lever forward to shift up).

Seven terrain modes feature: Normal, Eco, Gravel, Snow, Mud, Sand and Rock. There’s also a standard hill descent control function.

Ground clearance is 228mm, with approach and departure angles of 30.4  and 22.8 degrees respectively, while the breakover angle is 23.4 degrees. Nissan couldn’t supply us with a wading depth for the vehicle. For what it’s worth, the Triton has an 800mm capability.

The electrically-assisted power steering feels low effort and fairly low geared at 3.2 turns lock-to-lock, but has a pleasant linearity to it, and special mention should go to the throttle mapping too. Even bumping over rocks off-road, there’s no oversensitivity of the throttle pedal, allowing you to travel smoothly on rough terrain.

The traction management system is also excellent, with very little noticeable interruptions in torque when it needs to kick in. For most typical off-road duties, the new Navara feels like a capable piece of kit. 

There are decent sightlines out of the cabin too. The interior isn’t the most adventurous in terms of design or materials, but that feels in keeping with the Navara’s no-nonsense capability. There’s even an old-school manual handbrake.

Tap the top of the dash and it’s all hard plastics, the headlining is a one-piece moulding, and if it weren’t for the Nissan logo on the steering wheel boss, and the reskin of the infotainment, it feels pretty much identical to the Triton. 

The 9.0-inch centre touchscreen features DAB radio, plus wireless Apple CarPlay, but only wired Android Auto, which is an oversight. What’s more, you need to spend up on the ST-X or Pro-4X versions to get a wireless phone charger. This all seems quite 2020.

On the plus side, there is a selection of physical buttons that control many of the air-conditioning basics, as well as a set of shortcut keys for the main infotainment functions.

Ahead of the driver is a 7.0-inch colour TFT display housed between two analogue dials. The centre console is piano black, which isn’t a great addition in a vehicle with off-road pretensions. There are also some silver-finished plastics around the vents and even a splash of fake carbon-fibre.

Twin grab handles on the A-pillars help you swing into the vehicle, and there’s a sizeable side step. Unfortunately, there’s a undershot lip in the bodywork above the side step, which I noticed a couple of people trip and stumble on as they climbed into the cabin.

We got to drive the ST-X version and this featured fairly deeply bolstered and monogrammed front seats. There’s a reasonable amount of stowage space up front, with a pair of gloveboxes, a flock-lined centre console bin, and non-lined door pockets.

Front occupants get USB-C, a USB-A and 12V power outlets, with the same array of outlets mirrored in the rear. 

Jump into the back and there’s a reasonable amount of leg room. The two outer seats are deeply supportive, which contrasts with the uncomfortable convex centre seating position.

The tub is 46mm longer than its predecessor and 1mm wider, which means it’ll house a Euro pallet between the arches. There’s a Navara-branded drop-in liner on the ST-X versions we tried and four lashing points, but no step system to help climb into the tray.

Nissan has attained a five-star ANCAP rating for the Navara based on that awarded to the Triton in 2024.

Safety equipment includes eight airbags as well as the following:

• Emergency Lane Assist 
• Traffic Sign Recognition
• Emergency Assist for Pedal Misapplication
• LED headlamps and tail-lights
• High-Beam Assist
• Lane-Departure Warning
• Emergency Lane Assist
• Blind-Spot Warning
• Front and Rear Cross-Traffic Alert
• Intelligent Speed Limiter
• Driver Monitoring System
• Adaptive Cruise Control

The new Navara is an interesting case. Nissan isn’t awash with development budget at the moment, so must cut its cloth according to its means. The Navara will cop some flak for being so closely aligned to the Triton, but it’s a decision that makes financial sense. 

Much will hinge on pricing, but if we use the Triton as a rough guide, the Navara will enter what we’d describe as the dual-cab mid-market. In offering a broadly capable ute with a great warranty from a brand that people trust, the Navara isn’t without its attractions.

It could well see sales eroded by the legion of new entrants spearheaded by the BYD Shark 6, so the notion that the Navara will claw its way back to the market share it once held, well, that's not about to happen.

Anyone tempted to buy a Navara will get something tough and capable, with a workman-like but functional interior and a good 150kW turbo-diesel engine up front. Throw in the eye-catching warranty, and a decade ago that would have been a class-leading proposition. Today? Not so much.

We’ll need to spend longer with the Navara to deliver a definitive verdict, but the signs are promising that it has the chops to re-establish a niche in a tough market. That might be some way short of Nissan’s aspirations.  

From what we’ve seen so far, Nissan needs to play up the Navara’s basic toughness. It’s a fairly open secret that it’s looking at bringing in the Nissan version of the Dongfeng Frontier Pro plug-in hybrid ute to cater to the light-duty end of the market. 

The forthcoming Warrior flagship will doubtless cement the Navara’s reputation for no-nonsense ruggedness, and with many of the Nissan’s rivals seeming to gentrify themselves with each passing generation, there’s a real opportunity for Nissan to lean into that Aussie-tough angle.

We understand why some would criticise the Navara for being a half-baked rehash of the Triton. Look a little deeper, however, and Nissan has obtained value for money on its Navara development spend.

There’s a separate discussion to be had on whether the Navara is a worthier recipient of the development dollars directed at slow sellers like the Ariya electric SUV. There’s also an argument that Nissan wouldn’t be in the parlous financial position it finds itself in had some of those previous development decisions been a little wiser.

The worrying thing for Nissan is that it appears to have lost control of the tiller when it comes to design. In effect, it sells a Mitsubishi Triton as a Nissan, it’ll sell a Dongfeng Frontier Pro as a Nissan, and it’ll sell a rebodied Renault 5 as a Nissan Micra. 

Nissan's corporate identity is at stake here. A brand look and feel goes deeper than a grille, some dampers, and some new lights. So while the Navara is a Nissan that can, and probably will, work for now, Nissan needs to reassert what it is, what it stands for, and what a Nissan feels like. 

That’s an altogether trickier proposition, but heck, you came for a car review not ideas for an MBA thesis.

The Navara's report card? It's a decent and worthy effort, but it needs all the marketing support Nissan can muster if its attractions aren’t to be drowned out in a crowded dual-cab sector.

Andy brings almost 30 years automotive writing experience to his role at Drive. When he wasn’t showing people which way the Nürburgring went, he freelanced for outlets such as Car, Autocar, and The Times. After contributing to Top Gear Australia, Andy subsequently moved Down Under, serving as editor at MOTOR and Wheels. As Drive’s Road Test Editor, he’s at the heart of our vehicle testing, but also loves to spin a long-form yarn.

Read more about Andy Enright