PODCAST: New Nissan Navara will struggle against Hilux and Ranger

Expected updates could be a case of too little, too late for bakkie in its fight against top dogs. Judging by the first official details of the South Africa-bound facelift Nissan Navara, the latest version of the bakkie could struggle to gain ground on the local market leaders. The updated Nissan Navara, which will be imported from Thailand after the manufacturer recently sold its local assembly plant Rosslyn to Chery, is expected to arrive in Mzansi before the end of the year. The facelift bakkie will be another reiteration of the 12-year-old internally named D23. It will not be the Mitsubishi Triton-based D27 sold in Australasia. This means that the bakkie will keep the coil-spring rear suspension and not adopt the D27’s leaf springs. New Nissan Navara makes Pitstop On this week’s episode of our Pitstop podcast, we discuss the facelift Navara. And we explain why it is unlikely to break into the top five best-selling local bakkies, the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger, Isuzu D-Max, Mahindra Pik Up and GWM P-Series. It appears that the biggest enhancement from the current Nissan Navara will be the inclusion of a modern interior. This is one area where the current model is really dated compared to its rivals. However, the base model will keep the current interior. But its exterior styling will remain largely unchanged, while there are also no expected changes under the bonnet. Model range reshuffle The preliminary Nissan Navara model range does not feature the current XE, SE, LE, Pro-2X, Pro-4X Warrior and Stealth model variants. The SE Plus, LE Plus and Pro-4X seems to be the only models that will be offered initially. The LE Plus and Pro-4X receive a new centre console with a new gear lever. The latter also features red stitch work. The 2.5-litre turbodiesel engine that produces 140kW of power and 450Nm of torque is carried over unchanged. It will most likely be mated to the current seven-speed automatic gearbox. It is still unclear is the new Nissan Navara will again be offered in a single cab.