If anything revealed how badly Toyota undercooked the new HiLux, it was the following week, when the discombobulated sack of unmoored organs that had become my body was deposited into my next test car - the new Nissan Navara.

You can read the review of the HiLux for my full thoughts, but - as another ute - I was prepared for more of the same in the Nissan. Jittering and jiggling and shuddering over every single little bump.

True, I had nothing in the tray of the HiLux to settle it down, but I didn't in the Navara either. And it took me until the end of the street to realise the Navara felt like a spa in comparison.

It delivers the best handling of any ute I’ve tried. It doesn’t feel like a ute at all; it rides better than many SUVs.

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The Aussie touch?

The Nissan Navara has stood out since 2015 in this respect, like someone who eats pizza with a knife and fork. It chose to adopt coil springs for the rear suspension, when all of its opposition from the dawn of the dray cart has stuck with leaf springs.

Nissan discovered in short order why the status quo existed: early complaints surfaced about the Navara turning into slop whenever you carried anything heavier than a pot plant. 

But the determined engineers stuck at it. The D23 Navara even attracted Mercedes-Benz, who borrowed the platform for the X-Class. We’ll gloss over how that ended though.

For this new generation, Nissan went further.

Snazzy wheels on the ST-L version. Photo: James Coleman.

On paper, the 2026 D27 Navara is a rebadged Mitsubishi Triton, sharing the same platform, chassis, powertrain, and sheet metal through the corporate alliance. 

But instead of twiddling their thumbs, Nissan's engineers rang up Premcar - the Aussie engineering firm behind the fierce Warrior versions of the Navara and Patrol. Premcar developed heavier-duty dampers and then proceeded to hammer them through 18,000 kilometres of local testing.

Within a few hundred metres of my driving on Liverpool roads, the payoff is obvious. And while a pram was my only luggage for the week, Nissan claims the days of sagging under load are gone too.

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The bad

Because the ride was so good, I was in a much better mood to deal with the Navara’s boss baddie: the driver-monitoring system (DMS).

I remember this in the Triton - how you would peer to your side at an intersection (in obedience to every traffic law there is), or check your mirrors, or adjust the radio, and it would scream at you to "Please pay attention".

Thankfully, Mitsubishi soon launched a software update to drug the electronic nanny into a more benevolent stupour.

But Nissan’s engineers must have still had their heads under the wheel arches during that memo. Because the Navara’s DMS is only mildly better. It definitely couldn't cope with my sunglasses, choosing to interrupt me every few minutes to complain the camera was obscured.

And to shut it up? You must toggle through steering wheel menus: Settings, Driver Assistance, Drive Attention Alert, and Driver Monitoring. Every single time you start the car. Taking your eyes off the road to disable a system designed to keep your eyes on the road. Genius.

The only way to shut up the DMS. Photo: James Coleman.

The verdict

Once the red mist parted, however, I could see a handsome, if familiar, exterior design. Fuel economy from the 2.4-litre twin-turbo four-cylinder diesel was excellent too, averaging 8L/100km.

While we wait for Premcar to hopefully cook up a Warrior version, four models are on offer: the SL ($53,348), ST ($56,765), ST-X ($63,177), and Pro 4X ($68,418). My ST-X featured a black and grey leather interior, heated seats, wireless Apple CarPlay, cool "Navara" branded tray panels, snazzy 18-inch alloys, and terrain modes for everything from Gravel to Rock.

Best of all? It costs less than Toyota’s dray cart.

Check out the 2017 Navara SL currently online in our Commercial & 4x4 auction: CARBIDS Listing