Nissan Navara Warrior 2020 review walkaround

I'm Tom Baker, this is Chasing Cars, and this beast here is the new Nissan Navara N-Trek Warrior. The N-Trek Warrior is an Australian-developed flagship for the Navara range for 2020, and essentially it's a response to exploding demand in the premium pickup or ute segment here in Australia. Over the last few years, utes that cost over $60,000 have formed an of the market. More than a fifth of sales now are for utes in this really high price range, and that's because people are more and more using these cars as lifestyle vehicles, as family transport, rather than just workhorses or off-roading vehicles. So Nissan are keen to get in on that action, similar sort of action to Ford with the Ranger Raptor, Holden with the Colorado Extreme, and Toyota with the Hilux Rugged X. We don't know what it'll cost yet, but it'll probably be around that Colorado Extreme $70,000 AUD sort of level, which is definitely pricey for a Nissan Navara, but you are getting a stack of extra kit on top of the flagship of this car already. A lot of it has been built here in Australia, and it's assembled here at the Premkarn facility in Epping in Victoria, and as you can see, the aesthetic of the car has substantially changed. It's on a 40mm lift, 15 of that is a basic suspension upgrade and a lift of the car mechanically. Another 25mm is from the 32.2-inch Cooper Discoverer tyres, so the whole thing looks pretty serious. The track is wider, we've got this integrated body-coloured steel bar here at the front, a 16 LED light bar that's completely integrated, and a 3mm stainless steel bash plate underneath as well. The stuff you can't see is wholesale changes to the suspension, so we've got a completely custom spring and damper setup on this car, which is not only designed to make it more capable off-road, but it's actually designed to make it more sporty and better handling on-road, but that's a claim that we'll have to test when these cars start hitting the Australian market in December this year, just before Christmas 2019. But the N-Trek Warrior, it's kind of a cool story in the reinvigoration of Australian manufacturing. Premcar have created 40 jobs here in Australia to design, develop, assemble this package for the Navara, and they think they're going to make around 10 a day. So, we've got some footage that we can show you of the testing of the car, all done here down under. What we can also do is check out the interior and the kind of package you get inside the Warrior. Here in the cabin of the Warrior, it's largely the same sort of affair as the N-Trek that it's based on. Not that that's a bad thing. The orange highlights look very cool, there's stitching in the steering wheel, it's on the floor mats, and also the cloth insert in the fairly comfortable seats. What's different is the N-Trek Warrior sort of emblazoning on the headrest, so you don't forget which trim you bought, but otherwise, this car does benefit from fairly recent updates to the Navara's technology inside. There's now a fairly big touchscreen in this car, replaces the really little old touchscreen that came before. There's Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, so it feels more up-to-the-minute in terms of connectivity. Plus, you get a color screen in front of you too, and you're sort of benefiting from the fact that the Navara has a pretty car-like cabin for the pickup or ute segment. It doesn't feel too trucky in here. I actually think it's quite decent. Plus, the backseat, you can fit three adults because the Navara has one of the more spacious second rows of this segment. Here in Australia, demand for utes that cost over $60,000 has gone up by 40% in just one year. These pricey pickups now make up almost a quarter of ute sales. That's big coin for vehicles that are essentially pretty agricultural. But, where there's demand, Nissan Australia want to be there. There's no global Navara flagship along the same lines as the Ford Ranger Raptor, so instead, Nissan has done it themselves here. Along the same lines as the Toyota Hilux Rugged X, what happens is a top-shelf Navara N-Trek arrives from Thailand before the vehicle is stripped and reassembled here at Premcar, the former performance Ford tuner in Melbourne. 40 new Australian jobs support the production line that will refit around 10 Navaras a day to Warrior spec. The Warrior was designed, developed and tested entirely within Australia, with the majority of durability testing concentrated at select off-roading locations around Victoria, including the outback tracks at Big Desert and mixed conditions at the Australian Automotive Research Centre. Many of the parts fitted to the Warrior, including the bespoke, slightly softer suspension and damper package, are Australian manufactured, but those that were sourced from overseas were chosen for their optimal fit, quality and compliance with the Navara, Premcar says. The vehicle is 40mm wider than the standard Navara thanks to the wider track from the beefy Cooper Discoverer all-terrain tyres, and in the flesh, the stance is quite different and considerably more dominant than your run-of-the-mill Navara U. Under the bonnet is still the same 2.3-litre twin-turbo four-cylinder Navara engine, with Nissan opting not to try and source a six-cylinder. In fact, the X-Class V6 is not even an option for the Navara, according to senior Nissan Australia sources. Sad. Nissan say the dynamics are significantly improved on-road too, manifesting in better ride quality from the downsized 17-inch wheels, better steering and enhanced road holding, but the off-roading capability is clearly where the main focus lies. Nissan say the additions to the Warrior total around $10,000 in value, so we should expect to see this car priced at around $70,000, but we'll find that out next month. The complete list of changes to the Warrior takes in the Cooper Discoverer 275-70R17 tyre package. Those 17-inch wheels are a unique design, painted in black, and you get a matching full-size spare wheel and tyre. You get the bespoke Prem Cartoon Munro spring and damper package, the hoopless body-coloured steel bullbar – it's the only body-coloured one in its class – a 3mm stainless steel front bash plate, the integrated Heller 470mm-16 LED light bar, a re-engineered towbar crossmember, dark orange fog lamp bezels with integrated bark busters, unique tailgate decals and side Warrior decals, and all of this falls under the Navara's 5-year warranty here in Australia. Production commences in November, and we should have our hands on a Navara Warrior for a proper road test shortly after. If you haven't subscribed to Chasing Cars, please do so below the video and hit the notification bell and you'll never miss one of our full-length, detailed news pieces like this, reviews and comparisons. Leave me a comment below, let me know what you think of the Navara Warrior, and as always, thanks for watching Chasing Cars.