There’s a lot riding on Nissan’s new Navara, and the Japanese firm has leaned on partner Premcar to ensure the new-generation ute is suitable for Australian conditions.
Premcar has already fettled the current Navara and Patrol, with even more off-road-capable Warrior versions available in Nissan Australia showrooms.
Now, Nissan Australia has confirmed it has relied on the Australian automotive engineering specialist to test the new Navara’s suspension.
The new-generation ute, closely related to the recently launched Mitsubishi Triton, will be revealed on November 19, 2025 ahead of an Australian launch during the first half of 2026.
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“In Australia and New Zealand, the ute is just part of life – the weekday workhorse, the weekend adventurer, even the school drop-off,” said Tim Davis, senior manager at Nissan Australia for local product development and enhancement, in a teaser video on the new Navara’s development.
“So we can’t just take a ute from another market and assume it’ll fit. It has to be fine-tuned because the conditions we face are totally unique to this part of the world.”
Nissan says Premcar’s testing covered “the full spectrum of use cases”, including a range of terrain and road types and from unladen to maximum payload capacity.
The Japanese automaker says it has been engineering and evaluating cars locally for almost four decades.
The new Triton-based Navara is likely to move to Mitsubishi’s 150kW/470Nm 2.4-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine, which represents a bump in power and torque over even the most powerful D23 Navara, which puts out 140kW and 450Nm.
Nissan is expected to give the Navara unique front- and rear-end styling, though the cab, doors, bonnet and front quarter panels appear to be shared with the Triton.
Given the close relation, it’s likely Nissan will ditch coil-spring rear suspension entirely – even though this is now much more common in utes than at the launch of the outgoing Navara.
Sharing mechanicals with the Triton, however, could see the Navara inherit Mitsubishi’s Super-Select four-wheel drive system which features a mode allowing the vehicle to be driven in four-wheel drive on sealed roads.
Government approval documents published last month show Nissan will continue to offer a choice of rear- or four-wheel drive, manual or automatic transmissions, and single, King and dual-cab configurations.
The Navara is a crucial vehicle for Nissan Australia, and is currently its second best-selling vehicle behind the X-Trail. Last year Nissan delivered 10,063 examples, which saw it outsold by the likes of the Mitsubishi Triton (18,077) and Mazda BT-50 (15,164), let alone the top-selling Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger.
While its sales were up compared to 2023, Navara sales have trailed off since their early 2010s heights – in 2012, for example, Nissan delivered 26,045 Navaras locally.
It will therefore likely want to avoid a repeat of the suspension issues 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, fairly unusual in a segment where leaf springs were the norm.
But criticism of its tuning led to a Series II update in 2017, bringing revised shock absorbers front and rear and revised rear dampers, all intended to improve not only ride comfort but also lateral stability.
Still not satisfied, Nissan launched an updated Series III Navara in 2018 with further changes to improve ride, handling and steering.
The following year, Nissan Australia’s first Premcar-tuned vehicle – the Navara N-Trek Warrior – was launched. This variant was subsequently followed by the Pro-4X Warrior and SL Warrior, with Premcar also working over the Y62 Patrol.
Earlier this year, Premcar, Nissan Australia and Nissan South Africa announced a joint collaboration to see the Aussie specialist enhance Navara Pro-4X Warriors in South Africa for the local market.
Premcar can trace its roots back to the 1997 launch of the Tickford Vehicle Engineering-enhanced Ford EL Falcon GT, followed by the 1998 TS50, TE50 and TL50, and the 2001 Mustang converted locally to right-hand drive by Tickford.
FPV (Ford Performance Vehicles) was then formed in a joint venture between Ford and Prodrive, which bought out Tickford, and Prodrive also 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 range, Prodrive became Premcar in 2012 and produced a succession of powerful Falcon-based sedans in the dying days of the homegrown large car.
Unlike Walkinshaw, which has a similar origin story, Premcar doesn’t remanufacture vehicles in right-hand drive, though its CEO Bernie Quinn teased earlier this year “it’s quite likely at some stage you’ll see something about this from Premcar”.
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