Nissan Navara vs Mercedes-Benz Sprinter

What's the difference?

The Nissan Navara Pro-4X Warrior is a purpose-built adventure vehicle and it’s ready for action as is.

It drives nicely on-road – making those long necessary road-trip days on bitumen less of a chore – and is impressively capable off-road.

Buyers benefit when companies such as Premcar complete top-quality conversion work on vehicles with their design, development and testing undertaken in Australia and all of that work and the fitment of accessories are then covered by a comprehensive warranty.

There will always be 4WD enthusiasts who prefer to cherry-pick their own aftermarket accessories for their off-roader – because researching and hunting is a lot of fun. But there will also be just as much demand for the convenience of adventure-ready 4WDs that are capable of being driven straight out of a car dealership and into the Simpson Desert.

And the Nissan Navara Pro-4X Warrior is one of those vehicles.

It has its niggling faults like any vehicle but the Sprinter panel van is a well-designed vehicle overall. It’s fit for purpose and worthy of consideration if you’re in the market for a heavy commercial van. That is if you have about $90K to spend, which is around $40K more than its closest competitor - and that one comes from China.

This is the coolest and toughest Navara on the mainstream market.

The Warrior is 1895mm high, 1920mm wide, 5350mm long (with a 3150mm-long wheelbase) and has a listed kerb weight of 2298kg.

It is taller than a standard Navara, with 40mm more ground clearance than its Pro-4X stablemate and the wheel track has been extended by 30mm (from 1570mm to 1600mm) giving it an aggressive posture.

The bullbar, eye-catching red steel bash plates, wheel arch flares, chunky Cooper Discoverer All Terrain AT3s and black stainless-steel double tube sports bar with sail panel all add to that tough appearance.

This is a sizeable vehicle that’s almost 7.0 metres long (6967mm) and more than 2.0 metres wide (2020mm) and with its ‘High Roof’ design stands more than 2.6 metres (2663mm) tall. If you tick the ‘Super High Roof’ option that raises height to 2878mm.

It rides on a sprawling 4325mm wheelbase with strut-type coil-spring front suspension, a robust leaf-spring live rear axle and four-wheel disc brakes.

Our only gripe in the cabin relates to the single USB outlet, which is awkwardly located inside the dash pad’s lidded central storage bin with no cut-out in the lid to route a device cable through. Placement near the central dash controls (like its smaller Vito sibling which has two USB ports) would be much better.

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.

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 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!

With a 2372kg kerb weight and 4100kg GVM, this Sprinter van has a substantial 1728kg payload rating. It’s also rated to tow up to 2000kg of braked trailer and with its 6100kg GCM (or how much it can legally carry and tow at the same time) that means it can haul its maximum payload while towing its maximum trailer weight.

The huge cargo bay, with a solid timber floor that looks long enough for landing light aircraft, has a cavernous load volume of 14 cubic metres.

It’s accessed through a large kerbside sliding door with 1260mm-wide opening, or symmetrical glazed rear barn-doors with 180-degree opening for easy forklift access. There’s internal lighting front and rear and the walls and roof are not lined.

Tall people can stand without stooping given the 2009mm internal height. With a 4351mm floor length and 1350mm between the rear-wheel housings, the Sprinter can carry up to three 1165mm-square Aussie pallets or up to five 800 x 1200mm Euro pallets, secured with a choice of 12 load-anchorage points. There are also handy net-type storage pockets in each rear barn-door.

Plenty of cabin storage starts with a large-bottle holder and upper/lower bins in each front door, plus full-width overhead storage shelves with a lockable compartment on the passenger side, four small-bottle/cupholders in the lower central dash, two more small-bottle/cupholders and three ‘clamshell’ lid bins in the top of the dash-pad, an open storage shelf on the lower passenger-side dash and another sizeable enclosed compartment beneath the passenger seat.

Our test vehicle is officially known as the Sprinter 419 Van LWB. It’s equipped with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine, nine-speed automatic transmission, long wheelbase and rear-wheel drive, for a list price of $87,021.

Our example is fitted with the optional 'Campervan Package' (not that we’d choose to camp in an empty shipping container) which brings an upgraded front axle load rating, comfort seat pack with swivel function, chrome grille, additional dash-pad storage bins with hinged lids, long-range 93-litre fuel tank and electronic enhancements.

Ticking this options box costs $2838 which bumps the list price to $89,859. Our test vehicle is also fitted with an accessory mesh-type cargo barrier.

The Sprinter panel van is clearly built for work with its all-weather vinyl cabin floor, 16-inch steel wheels with 235/65R16 tyres and full-size spare, side marker lights and ample dark grey plastic where bumps, scrapes and high wear usually occur including the bumpers, door mirrors/handles and lower body sides.

However, in stark contrast it also offers numerous creature comforts including keyless start, a delightful leather-rimmed and height/reach adjustable steering wheel with paddle-shifters and multiple remote-control functions, as well as heated and power-folding door mirrors with truck-style lower wide-angle views.

There's also a driver’s instrument cluster with colour display, black fabric bucket seats with fold-down inboard armrests and multiple posture adjustments, adaptive cruise control, DRLs and a two-speaker multimedia system with 7.0-inch touchscreen and multiple connectivity including Apple and Android devices.

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.

The 'OM654' is a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel that meets the toughest Euro 6 emissions standards using AdBlue.

With two-stage turbocharging and auto start/stop technology, it produces 140kW at 3800rpm and 450Nm across a 1000rpm-wide torque band between 1400-2400rpm which showcases its flexibility.

The smooth-shifting nine-speed torque converter automatic offers the choice of sequential manual-shifting using the steering wheel-mounted paddle-shifters, which could be handy when hauling heavy loads particularly in hilly terrain.

Fuel consumption is listed as 8.1L/100km on a combined cycle. 

Fuel consumption on this test was 9.9L/100km. That’s fine considering we included a lot of high- and low-range 4WDing during this test’s hours-long off-road section.

The Warrior has an 80-litre fuel tank, so, going by those fuel-consumption figures I’d expect an effective touring range of about 778km, but remember that figure includes a built-in 30km safe-distance buffer.

That's a fair travelling distance for a contemporary dual-cab ute, but keep in mind that your fuel-consumption will be higher than that because you'll be carrying a lot more gear than we had onboard during our test.

That included vehicle-recovery equipment, a portable air compressor, tool bag, puncture-repair kit, a tyre deflator as well as food and water.

Heavy commercial vehicles are not required to provide fuel consumption data. Even so, when we stopped to refuel at the end of our 247km test of which about one third of that distance was hauling a heavy payload, the dash display was claiming a surprisingly frugal combined average of 9.9L/100km (with auto stop/start switched off).

This was close to our own figure, calculated from fuel bowser and tripmeter readings, of 10.5 which means you could expect a ‘real-world’ driving range nudging 900km from its optional 93-litre tank.

There’s no ANCAP rating required for Heavy Commercial vehicles but the Sprinter has many safety features highlighted by four airbags, AEB, blind-spot and lane-keeping assists, crosswind assist (crucial in a van with such a wall-like profile), trailer sway control and more.

There’s also adaptive cruise control and a reversing camera, but omissions which should be standard are rear cross-traffic alert and rear parking sensors.

The Navara range is covered by a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty and capped price servicing. That’s adequate in terms of years, not the best, but the unlimited km factor is in its favour.

Service intervals are set for 12 months or 20,000km. Capped price servicing is available for up to six years, with prices ranging from $574 for the first service through to $916 for the sixth service. The annual average is $703.50. Not particularly cheap.

The Sprinter is covered by a five year/250,000km warranty including five years roadside assist.

Scheduled servicing is every 12 months/40,000km whichever occurs first.

Capped-price servicing for the first five scheduled services during warranty period totals $7130, or a pricey average of $1426 per service.