Nissan Navara 2024 review: Pro-4X Warrior - off-road test

The Nissan Navara Pro-4X Warrior, based on the SL Navara, only comes in dual-cab guise with either a six-speed manual gearbox ($68,265, excluding on-road costs) or a seven-speed automatic transmission ($70,765, excluding on-road costs). 

For your reference, the Pro-4X automatic is $61,405 (excluding on-road costs) and Pro-4X manual is $58,905 (excluding on-road costs).

Standard features on our test vehicle – a Pro-4X Warrior with a seven-speed auto – include an 8.0-inch multimedia touch-screen with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well as sat nav, dual-zone climate control, AEB, lane-keeping assist, around-view monitor and a rear diff-lock. 

Standard paint is 'Black Star'. Premium paint choices are 'White Diamond' and 'Stealth Grey' (on our test vehicle) at a cost of $650. As always, check with your dealer on up-to-date pricing.

The Nissan Navara Pro-4X Warrior is priced from $68,265, excluding on-road costs. (Image: Marcus Craft)

As part of the Premcar engineering upgrade more than $9000 worth of extras in the Warrior (over the standard Pro-4X) include a winch-compatible bull bar with integrated light bar, a Nissan Genuine Warrior-specific tow bar, a larger 3.0mm steel bash-plate, Cooper Discoverer All Terrain AT3 275/70R17 tyres (and a full-sized alloy spare), a 100kg GVM upgrade (now 3250kg), 260mm ground clearance (up 40mm, with springs and tyres making up 15mm and 25mm, respectively), 30mm wider tracks (to 1600mm), revised suspension with new spring rates and dampers (aimed at improving ride and handling), and a larger and taller jounce bumper for less impact harshness at full suspension travel.

But, beyond the engineering upgrades, what’s also interesting about the Pro-4X Warrior is what has had to happen behind the scenes, under Premcar’s direction, to get the vehicle to this stage.

Australia has some of the harshest driving conditions and road/track surfaces in the world. Chopped-up bitumen back roads, soft spirit-sapping beach and desert sand through to spine-rattling corrugations. 

Premcar has added a Nissan Genuine Warrior-specific tow bar. (Image: Marcus Craft)

And those surfaces and conditions put immense stress and strain on vehicles, drivetrains and components.

Premcar designs, manufactures and validates its vehicle work here in Australia in the harshest of conditions those 4WDs may face day in, day out for the term of their vehicular ‘life’. It’s not testing, it’s punishment.

Australia’s aftermarket sector is great – thriving and always innovating – but unfortunately, as in any industry, there are ‘cowboys’ out there and some of the modifications done to vehicles may be, shall we say, less than ideal and even illegal or non-compliant in terms of engineering approval. The work done to your 4WD may even void your vehicle’s warranty.

But, with Premcar’s Nissan collab, any engineering work or accessory fitment on the Pro-4X Warrior is all covered by a Premcar warranty that matches Nissan’s five-year/unlimited km cover.

Inside the cabin, the new updated dash – with an easy-to-use 8.0-inch multimedia screen, which has wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto – is the focal point.

The cabin is a well designed space, a neat combination of nice materials and good build quality. But even with leather accents, ‘Warrior’ branding and other nice touches, the cabin feels a bit old and a little smaller and squeezed for space inside than some rivals.

The driver's seat is eight-way power-adjustable, but the front passenger seat is four-way manually adjustable – and that’s disappointing in a circa-$71,000 vehicle.

Inside the Warrior's cabin, the new updated dash is the focal point. (Image: Marcus Craft)

There are plenty of storage spaces, cupholders, bottle holders and receptacles in which to place your everyday carry gear.

There’s a USB-A charge point in the console tray, and a USB-A and a USB-C in the centre console proper, as well as a 12V outlet in the console tray and one in the centre console.

The seats are quite comfortable and though some people might whinge about them being undersized I reckon they’re okay.

The Warrior's back seat passengers have access to directional air vents. (Image: Marcus Craft)

The rear seat, while comfortable enough, is really the realm of two adults only or three children. It’d be a bit squeezy for three adults.

There is a fold-down armrest with cupholders, as well as bottle holders in the doors, map pockets on the seat-backs, directional air vents but only one USB-A charging point on the back of the centre console.

Get ready for the teenage arguments over that!

The Pro-4X has the Navara line-up’s 2.3-litre four-cylinder twin-turbo-diesel engine, which produces 140kW at 3750rpm and 450Nm at 1500-2500rpm.

That's okay because that engine and auto work really well together, yielding more of a subdued, quietly effective partnership than an exciting one.

This ute has a part-time four-wheel drive system with high- and low-range 4WD, and a rear diff lock.

Under the Warrior's bonnet is a 2.3-litre four-cylinder twin-turbo-diesel engine. (Image: Marcus Craft)

For a vehicle that's been engineered as a hardcore 4WD, the Warrior is surprisingly decent on-road. 

Steering is nicely balanced, there’s plenty of visibility, the 2.3-litre engine offers lots of torque across a wide rev range and the coils-at-every-corner suspension set-up and upgraded (Premcar-tuned) dampers, all aimed at yielding a better ride off-road, does pretty well on sealed surfaces. 

But even with all of these changes it's still a Navara under the metal so it's not the most dynamic vehicle to drive on a sealed road. But I don't mind it. 

For a 4WD with such an in-your-face appearance, it's nice to drive and quiet inside, exhibiting noticeably better refinement than you might expect in something designed for the dirt and riding on fair-dinkum all-terrains.

Sure, it’s not as refined as some of its rivals, such as the Ranger or Amarok, but it does a pretty good job. 

The Warrior rides on Cooper Discoverer AT3s. (Image: Marcus Craft)

Premcar’s work has focussed on the wheels and tyres and the suspension with new springs and shocks, adding a 40mm total suspension lift.

It's Warrior-specific and aimed at yielding a more controlled, more compliant ride and more comfortable ride.

The benefit of that package is only clearly obvious when you hit dirt tracks or gravel roads that are minefields of deep ruts and severe muddy potholes. 

The Warrior’s suspension package takes the sting out of most harsher lumps and bumps. It’s not in the realm of something like a Ford Ranger Raptor, but it does okay.

When you're on the dirt, the Warrior has a nice, settled feel to it. In fact, it rides as smoothly as possible for a ute through pretty ordinary terrain.

The 40mm suspension lift is aimed at yielding a more controlled, more compliant ride and more comfortable ride. (Image: Marcus Craft)

The Warrior is wider and taller, so as well as having more ground clearance and better, more off-road-friendly angles – approach - 36 degrees, departure - 19 degrees and ramp-over - 26.2 degrees – you have a more natural, planted stance and it sits really well on tracks, giving a bit more control through trickier routes. 

Steering retains a nice lightness, so, for a reasonably big ute it gets around quite nicely. The turning circle is 12.5m, but this ute never feels too cumbersome to steer around on bush tracks. 

Low-range gearing is good (2.717:1) and there's plenty of torque across a nice spread of revs, so you can tap into that pretty much whenever you need to when low-speed, low-range, four-wheel driving.

It does have a rear diff lock, a crucial part of any 4WD’s track-tackling toolkit, as well as driver-assist tech such as hill descent control, which is adequately effective. 

Beyond any of its other mechanical or driver-assist tech attributes, what really sets the Warrior apart is its pure physicality that makes it suited to four-wheel driving.

The Warrior’s suspension package takes the sting out of most harsher lumps and bumps. (Image: Marcus Craft)

Raised suspension, better ground clearance (260mm), and a wider wheel track, among other things, give it stability and the ability to get up and over hardcore rocks steps and anything else you could likely point it at.

It has a listed wading depth of 600mm and I did have to cross two swollen creeks on this trip, while out and about taking photos of this ute, and it handled those moist challenges with ease.

Showroom-standard 4WDs often leave the car yard with road-friendly rubber, to give customers a comfortable and reasonably quiet ride, but those are far from ideal if you’re planning to use your vehicle as an off-road tourer.

The Warrior rides on Cooper Discoverer AT3s, which are very decent all-terrain tyres that offer plenty of bite in the dirt, aren’t too noisy on the bitumen and don't seem to affect ride and handling in any pronounced (negative) way. 

Niggles? The steering is not reach-adjustable, which means I couldn’t quite precisely dial-in my driving position, and the 2.3-litre engine becomes a bit noisy when pushed hard.

The Warrior receives a raised suspension, better ground clearance (260mm), and a wider wheel track. (Image: Marcus Craft)

In terms of packability for touring, it’s okay.

The tub is a decent enough load space, measuring 1509mm long, 1560mm wide, 1134mm (between the wheel arches), and 519mm deep (from the tub’s top edge to its floor).

It has a durable tub-liner, the 'Utili-track' load-restraint system (basically a rail mounted to each tub side wall with two moveable tie-down points in each rail), plus four fixed tie-down points lower on the tub’s inside wall. 

Our test vehicle had the soft fold-away segmented tonneau cover, which is a bit of a pain to clip into place when you need to close it but it does afford decent protection from the weather, even in heavy rain storms which we had to drive through on several occasions during our trip.

Payload is listed as 952kg. This Navara has a 100kg gross vehicle mass (GVM) upgrade to 3250kg and a GCM (gross combined mass) of 5910kg. Towing capacity is 750kg (unbraked trailer) and 3500kg (braked). 

The Navara line-up had the maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating from testing in 2015, but that rating has now expired. 

Safety gear includes seven airbags (dual front, front-side, curtain and driver’s knee SRS items), AEB, forward collision warning, lane departure warning, intelligent lane intervention, blind-spot warning, a surround-view monitor (with moving object detection), rear cross traffic alert and more.

The rear seat has three child-seat anchorage points and one ISOFIX point each on the left and right seats.

The Navara line-up had the maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating from testing in 2015, but that rating has now expired. (Image: Marcus Craft)

Off-road driver-assist tech includes off-road monitor, tyre pressure monitoring system, hill start assist, trailer sway control, hill descent control and an electronic locking rear differential.

This top-spec variant is missing adaptive cruise control and is not quite as comprehensively equipped with driver-assist tech as some of its rivals.