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There’s so much driving on Nissan’s new Navara, and the Japanese agency has leaned on companion Premcar to make sure the new-generation ute is appropriate for Australian situations.
Premcar has already fettled the present Navara and Patrol, with much more off-road-capable Warrior variations accessible in Nissan Australia showrooms.
Now, Nissan Australia has confirmed it has relied on the Australian automotive engineering specialist to check the brand new Navara’s suspension.
The brand new-generation ute, carefully associated to the lately launched Mitsubishi Triton, can be revealed on November 19, 2025 forward of an Australian launch in the course of the first half of 2026.
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“In Australia and New Zealand, the ute is simply a part of life – the weekday workhorse, the weekend adventurer, even the college drop-off,” mentioned Tim Davis, senior supervisor at Nissan Australia for native product improvement and enhancement, in a teaser video on the brand new Navara’s improvement.
“So we are able to’t simply take a ute from one other market and assume it’ll match. It must be fine-tuned as a result of the situations we face are completely distinctive to this a part of the world.”
Nissan says Premcar’s testing lined “the complete spectrum of use circumstances”, together with a spread of terrain and highway sorts and from unladen to most payload capability.
The Japanese automaker says it has been engineering and evaluating vehicles domestically for nearly 4 many years.
The brand new Triton-based Navara is more likely to transfer to Mitsubishi’s 150kW/470Nm 2.4-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine, which represents a bump in energy and torque over even probably the most highly effective D23 Navara, which places out 140kW and 450Nm.
Nissan is predicted to offer the Navara distinctive front- and rear-end styling, although the cab, doorways, bonnet and entrance quarter panels seem like shared with the Triton.
Given the shut relation, it’s possible Nissan will ditch coil-spring rear suspension fully – though that is now way more widespread in utes than on the launch of the outgoing Navara.
Sharing mechanicals with the Triton, nonetheless, might see the Navara inherit Mitsubishi’s Tremendous-Choose four-wheel drive system which incorporates a mode permitting the automobile to be pushed in four-wheel drive on sealed roads.
Authorities approval paperwork printed final month present Nissan will proceed to supply a selection of rear- or four-wheel drive, guide or computerized transmissions, and single, King and dual-cab configurations.
The Navara is an important automobile for Nissan Australia, and is at present its second best-selling automobile behind the X-Path. Final yr Nissan delivered 10,063 examples, which noticed it outsold by the likes of the Mitsubishi Triton (18,077) and Mazda BT-50 (15,164), not to mention the top-selling Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger.
Whereas its gross sales have been up in comparison with 2023, Navara gross sales have trailed off since their early 2010s heights – in 2012, for instance, Nissan delivered 26,045 Navaras domestically.
It would subsequently be possible the model will wish to keep away from a repeat of the suspension points that affected the outgoing D23 Navara early in its run.
Launched in 2015, the D23 moved to coil-sprung, five-link rear suspension in four-wheel drive variants – pretty uncommon in a phase the place leaf springs have been the norm.
However criticism of its tuning led to a Collection II replace in 2017, bringing revised shock absorbers entrance and rear and revised rear dampers, all supposed to enhance not solely experience consolation but in addition lateral stability.
Nonetheless not glad, Nissan launched an up to date Collection III Navara in 2018 with additional adjustments to enhance experience, dealing with and steering.
The next yr, Nissan Australia’s first Premcar-tuned automobile – the Navara N-Trek Warrior – was launched. This variant was subsequently adopted by the Professional-4X Warrior and SL Warrior, with Premcar additionally working over the Y62 Patrol.
Earlier this yr, Premcar, Nissan Australia and Nissan South Africa introduced a joint collaboration to see the Aussie specialist improve Navara Professional-4X Warriors in South Africa for the native market.
Premcar can hint its roots again to the 1997 launch of the Tickford Automobile Engineering-enhanced Ford EL Falcon GT, adopted by the 1998 TS50, TE50 and TL50, and the 2001 Mustang transformed domestically to right-hand drive by Tickford.
FPV (Ford Efficiency Autos) was then shaped in a three way partnership between Ford and Prodrive, which purchased out Tickford, and Prodrive additionally collaborated with Mazda Australia to create the MX-5 SP, and with Toyota Australia to create the TRD Aurion and HiLux.
After it developed the supercharged 5.0-litre ‘Miami’ V8 for FPV’s Falcon-based vary, Prodrive turned Premcar in 2012 and produced a succession of highly effective Falcon-based sedans within the dying days of the homegrown giant automobile.
Not like Walkinshaw, which has the same origin story, Premcar doesn’t remanufacture autos in right-hand drive, although its CEO Bernie Quinn teased earlier this yr “it’s fairly possible at some stage you’ll see one thing about this from Premcar”.
MORE: Discover the Nissan Navara showroom
MORE: Skilled Insights: Q&A with Premcar CEO Bernie Quinn
