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By
EWAN KENNEDY
4 August 2008
Nissan Australia has greatly increased the range of body types on
offer in its Navara D40 light commercials.
Heading
up the new choices is a spacious extended-cab, or King Cab in
Nissan speak, variant. Using rear doors that hinge at the back
makes for simply access through an area uncluttered by a side
pillar. There are two occasional seats in the extended rear area.
These fold down from the back as the area is normally used for
secure stowage of cargo. While the seats do have the safety of
lap-sash safety belts and headrests, they are not the most
comfortable we have ever sampled, being rather upright, and
lacking in under-thigh support. Then again, they really are
emergency-only units.
Of
course, the big advantage of the squeezy seats in the rear is the
added load-bed length when compared with the full dual-cab model.
King
cab is offered in a sporty variant as well as standard models.
The
Navara D40 range is also available in cab-chassis format with a
single cab. There's a bench arrangement of the left-hand seat.
Like all in this class this seat is on the tight side so not
recommended for a pair of blokes with expanded backsides. Our road
testing was done two up and we found the driver’s seat spacious
and fairly well shaped so it should be good for those who spend
extended periods behind the wheel.
The
ride is remarkably comfortable for a ute. Indeed, not just for a
ute, there are some cars out there that cope less well with the
vagaries of Australian country roads than does this big Japanese
load carrier.
Power
for these Navaras in 4WD format – the dual-cab continues in the
range – comes from a hefty 2.5-litre turbo-diesel that produces
126 kW, and 403 Newton metres. We were impressed with this engine,
not only in our sealed road running, where it climbs hills with
ease, but also in off-road driving when we took it into some
pretty tough conditions.
Nissan
Navara is one of the new era of utes that are not only hard
working, but provide plenty of visual oomph. So the market is
booming amongst tradies, sporting drivers, and those who simply
like to look tough. These new D40 variants couldn’t have come at
a better time.
The
Nissan Navara D40 range, with prices (excluding on-road costs) is:
RX King Cab Chassis $38,160 (manual), $40,410 (automatic)
ST-X King Cab Chassis $41,160 (manual), $43,410 (automatic)
ST-X King Cab Ute $42,660 (manual), $44,910 (automatic)
RX Single Cab Chassis $33,660 (manual)
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Marque Publishing Company
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