NAVARA MADE RIGHT

NISSAN’S D23 Navara has never quite been what the doctor ordered sales-wise compared to the front-running Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux. In fact in the 4x4 ute sales race it has also trailed behind Mitsubishi’s Triton, Holden’s Colorado and, more recently, the Isuzu D-Max. By contrast, the D23’s predecessor, the D40 Navara, was second only in sales to the then all-conquering Hilux.

To help address this, and hopefully get more customers in to its showrooms, Nissan Australia has joined up with Premcar, the current embodiment of Prodrive and Ford PerformanceVehicles. The brief was to make the D23 more off-road ready than the standard factory offering … and to also look the part as a more serious 4x4