As far as tough looking utes go, the new Nissan Navara PRO-4X Warrior is certainly up there with the best.
It’s not often you find yourself in a ute that turns heads, but this Navara certainly did a lot of that during our week-long test in Brisbane.
You just need to take one look at the front of this ‘Warrior’ and it’s pretty obvious what the target market is. It looks aggressive as hell, thanks largely to the steel front bumper, light bar, and the very red Navara-engraved underbody 3mm thick bash plate.
The idea of the PRO-4X Warrior is pretty simple: why let aftermarket accessory brands steal the limelight?
What’s the point of selling a brand new Nissan Navara that goes straight from the dealer to the local off-road shop to get thousands of dollars of accessories fitted when Nissan – with the help of Australian engineering firm Premcar – can do it, and actually back it with a warranty?
The PRO-4X Warrior is the successor to the Navara N-Trek Warrior and, while it costs a little more, it also comes with a variety of improvements and looks more modern and angrier. Given this market is flooded with other options – the Toyota HiLux Rugged X, Ford Ranger FX4 Max, Mazda BT-50 Thunder and the Volkswagen Amarok W580S just to name a few – the Nissan will need to do more than look tough to stack up.
We have already reviewed this ute as an off-roader, which you can find here. For this review we will focus on what it’s like to live with as a daily on-road.
The Nissan Navara PRO-4X Warrior starts at $67,490 before on-road costs, making it a hefty $9360 more expensive than the Navara PRO-4X on which it’s based, and $3700 more expensive than its predecessor, the N-Trek Warrior.
It’s pretty much priced to compete with the likes of the Toyota HiLux Rugged X at $70,750 before on-roads, the Ford Ranger FX4 Max at $66,190 before on-roads, the Mazda BT-50 Thunder at $68,990 before on-roads, and to a lesser extent the more powerful Volkswagen Amarok W580S at $79,990 before on-roads. It’s a tough crowd.
2022 Nissan Navara PRO-4X Warrior pricing:
You get the sort of car that makes people move over when it shows up in their mirrors. There’s just something about that front design that makes it look a lot like a monster truck, ready to drive over anything that gets in its way.
You can see what you get in the new Warrior over the whole range at our Nissan Navara pricing and specs article, but over its direct cheaper variant, the PRO-4X, the following features help justify its nearly $10,000 extra sticker price:
Other features are carried over from the PRO-4X and include:
Outside
Inside
The current Nissan Navara has a five-star safety rating based on ANCAP testing conducted in 2015.
That rating was based on a frontal offset score of 14.01 out of 16, a side impact score of 16 out of 16, and pedestrian and whiplash protection scores of Marginal and Good, respectively. All models come standard with seven airbags.
The Nissan Navara received a safety boost as part of its 2021 facelift. Standard on the Navara PRO-4X and carried over to the Warrior are the following:
If you were paying more than $70,000 for a normal passenger car you would expect a lot more from its interior than you get from the PRO-4X Warrior. You can find yourself in a very nice European car for similar coin and experience a very different world… but that’s not really the point of the Warrior.
There’s no doubt the majority of the additional cost associated with the Warrior goes towards the exterior and mechanical components that give it a huge edge for off-roading compared to the regular model.
The interior is where Nissan has done its best to keep the costs down. The Warrior looks like someone has spent a lot of money on the outside, but it looks pretty ordinary on the inside.
We really like the red Nissan badging, but found ourselves hoping for a more modern interior. With that said, it’s still a very functional interior with decent technology backed by Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Then again the 8.0-inch screen feels too small inside the cabin, and is surrounded by buttons that really don’t need to be there.
Our pet peeve with the Navara, like pretty much all Nissans, is the reversing camera resolution. You have a pretty decent screen that’s bright and shows fantastic clarity, but put the car in reverse and the display goes back to a 320p YouTube stream from 2005. What the?
This has been the case with Nissan vehicles for some time. The reversing camera is very functional and does the job, but can we please spend that extra 50 cents for a better camera unit? If the $17,000 MG 3 can do it, so can the Navara.
If you don’t want to use Apple CarPlay, the built-in navigation system is good enough to get you there. The Bluetooth audio quality is pretty reasonable for both the speakers and the microphone for the other person.
You also get three USB-A points and a single USB-C (future proofing the car immensely), in addition to 12V outlets in the fascia and the centre console.
We were a little disappointed to find out the Warrior still makes do with the same powertrain as the regular Navara. It would be great to have some additional power and torque – even for bragging rights over your mate’s cheaper Navara – but Nissan has stuck with its twin-turbocharged 2.3-litre four-cylinder diesel engine.
It’s a pretty solid engine – outputs are 140kW at 3750rpm and 450Nm between 1500 and 2500rpm – and the two turbochargers operate at different engine speeds, meaning torque is always at hand. Transmissions to choose from are a six-speed manual or seven-speed auto.
The driveline is part-time 4×4 with low-range and a locking rear differential. The braked-trailer towing capacity remains 3500kg.
Nissan says the Navara uses a claimed 8.1 litres per 100km on the combined cycle test and has an 80L tank, giving it 987km of range in the best-case scenario.
Would you be mad enough to daily a ute that looks like it’s made to escape a zombie apocalypse? Probably yes.
Despite 40mm more clearance thanks to new springs and shocks on top of its large all-terrain tyres, reduced front spring rates, and larger dampers with modified rebound and compression settings, the Navara is made to go through the drive through with ease.
The driving position is really nice with great outward visibility (but keep in mind the steering wheel offers no reach adjustment), and the Warrior itself is easy to manoeuvre and get around in. The steering weight is ideal and it never feels disconnected from the road despite its giant tyres.
Does it lean into corners thanks to its off-road focused suspension? Absolutely. Does it take away from the on-road driving experience? Not really.
It’s exceptionally quiet inside, almost eerily so. Although the diesel engine occasionally makes its presence felt, the noise, vibration, and harshness suppression are close to best-in-class with almost no noise being heard inside the cabin. You can barely hear a car go past.
The ride can be jittery if you’re coming out of a normal passenger car, but is very much as you’d expect from most modern utes.
The powertrain itself really begs for more torque. It can definitely do the job but an extra 50Nm or so would really transform how it feels when it comes to overtaking or merging on to the highway.
Our review vehicle was equipped with the seven-speed automatic transmission and it felt very well tuned to the diesel engine (which may explain why Nissan left it alone for the Warrior, rather than try and give it more oomph at a cost of unsettling the powertrain as a whole).
We did find the cruise control a little annoying. Unlike most cruise control systems whereby you can go from 60-100km/h by just holding the up arrow to get the car to shift speed settings, the Navara Warrior seems to want to do it with the car’s speed.
So if you keep going from 60, 80 and 100km/h and back again, you will need to get the car to that speed yourself then set the cruise control. Otherwise you will be using the cruise control buttons pretty much like the accelerator pedal, holding it and holding it as the Navara catches up to your desired speed before it will set. It was also disappointing to see a lack of radar cruise control.
Overall, we were pretty happy to drive the PRO-4X Warrior around town and would not hesitate to recommend it for a daily if you can get some bolstering for the seats.
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