2022 Nissan Navara PRO-4X Warrior: Sand driving

We've said it before – the PRO-4X Warrior is the best Navara ever from Nissan. That’s why we chose to secure one as a long-term tester so that we could spend some more time with it.

If you’ve been following along, you would have seen us follow our car down the production line at Premcar before we took delivery of it, and no sooner than it was delivered we took to the highways in search of sandy tracks.

While we’ve reviewed the PRO-4X Warrior already, our car was ordered with the six-speed manual gearbox, and we were keen to see how it performs on a road trip.

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Powertrain & performance

All PRO-4X Warriors are powered by Nissan’s 2.3-litre bi-turbo diesel engine, but you have the choice of a seven-speed automatic or a six-speed manual transmission. We chose the manual for our test car because we like manuals and admire that Nissan still gives buyers the choice, even if automatics are preferred by most Australian buyers.

The engine’s 140kW and 450Nm are modest by class standards but the Navara gets along without fuss, helped by the broad torque band afforded by the bi-turbocharger arrangement. The modest outputs are also helped by the manual gearbox, with its more direct feeling and no power-sapping torque converter.

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The shift feel of the gearbox is positive, precise and always easy to operate. The same can’t be said of the transfer case which, like most modern vehicles, is selected via an electronic dial and not the old transfer lever. It shifts easily between 2WD and high-range 4x4 while you’re on the go – when, for example, you’ve just departed the highway for a loose gravel road; but shifting in to low range can be frustratingly difficult.

On a few occasions during this drive we weren’t able to select low range when we needed it. Vehicle stopped, gearbox in neutral, clutch in, and no matter how many times we tried, it would not select low range. Even after moving the car forward and back to try and get it to engage. We did eventually get it into low, but only once we were back on flat ground and not when we needed it while rescuing a bogged car or when driving in soft sand. This is a common fault of these electronic switches, but this case is one of the most frustrating we’ve found.

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On-road ride & handling

Our plan for this drive was to hit some beaches in the Warrior and, as there are very few options to legally drive on a beach in Victoria, that meant a few hours on the highway heading north. In these conditions it's hard to fault the Warrior; it gets along at the highway speed limit at around 2250rpm in top, the cruise control does its job without any radar interference, the stereo provides the tunes, and the kilometres pass on by.

Get off the highway and on to the twisties and the Navara performs admirably considering it rides on all-terrain tyres and raised suspension. The Premcar suspension does an excellent job of controlling the ute over rough back roads and through mountain bends. This suspension is the key to what makes the Warrior so good.

The car eats up the miles so well that I was surprised at how often I had to stop for fuel. The PRO-4X has an 80-litre tank and it felt like it was sucking through it quickly, but measuring the consumption revealed figures around the 10L/100km mark. What became obvious is that the distance to empty figure on the dash is more like the distance to reserve, as there was still at least 10 litres of fuel in it once the DTE reached zero. I drove 80km on zero and it still only took 70 litres, so the touring range amounts to about 800km on the open road.

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Off-road

The off-road element of this drive was on the beach and, with the LT tyre pressures dropped to an appropriate 18psi, we hit the sand. It's worth mentioning here that the PRO-4X has a tyre-pressure monitoring system on the dash and, while it tells you that the tyres are low on air once you drop them, it doesn’t emit annoying warning beeps while you’re beach driving.

Aside from the aforementioned trouble selecting low range, which could get you stuck in the wrong conditions, the Warrior ate up the beach. Again, the suspension does a superb job of soaking up the bumps and ruts, the added ground clearance meant it never scraped the sand, and the Cooper AT3 tyres provided plenty of floatation over the softer sections.

When in low range we found that second and third gears were well-suited to the heavier sections and when turning around, without punishing the clutch.

We’ve got this Warrior for six months, so we’ll be exploring different terrain in that time.

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Cabin & accommodation

The PRO-4X Warrior is the halo model in the Navara range and the cabin is well-appointed, but if you want power-adjustable and heated front seats you have to make do with the ST-X model. I know I’m going to miss the seat heaters as Melbourne slips into winter hell. Don’t knock ’em until you’ve had them!

The leather-trimmed seats are firm and flat and take a bit of getting used to, but once comfortable I had no trouble spending long days behind the wheel. The lack of steering reach adjustment is an issue for anyone my height (185cm), but you get used to it.

The Navara’s dash is easy to read and use, with just the right amount of info and not too much you couldn’t care less about. The controls are also simple and easy to operate, with big buttons for the dual-zone temperature control and tactile dials for the audio volume and tuning functions.

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A good-sized screen is there to view the audio controls, rear-view camera and around-view cameras, which can be handy when driving off-road as they show what’s directly in front of the car.

With no rear-seat passenger for this trip, we were able to fold the seat up and stow recovery gear in the under-seat bins and also carry our luggage where it was secure. The PRO-4X’s factory window tint is quite dark, protecting your kit from prying eyes when parked.

Practicalities

With its uprated and raised suspension that works exceptionally well, AT tyres, metal underbody protection plates, and steel front bumper with inbuilt LED light bar, the PRO-4X Warrior is ready to hit the tracks no matter where you want to go.

It would be nice if the front bar had provisions for auxiliary lights and antennae mounting, so they are things you might want to work around. And while the cargo tub has a liner and handy adjustable tie downs, it would be nice to have a dedicated 12-volt power outlet in there to power a fridge.

Unlike the other factory hot-rodded 4x4 utes on the market, the PRO-4X retains its full 3500kg towing capacity and has a 961kg payload, so there are no compromises there. It’s also available with a choice of manual or automatic transmission – all key factors in helping us select our next drive car.

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Nissan has a range of factory accessories available for the Navara over and above what are fitted to the Warrior including an intake snorkel, Warn winch and canopy. The Navara is popular enough that the aftermarket suppliers also cater for the Navara very well. A full bullbar might be a consideration for owners wanting to do a lot of outback miles, and a set of rated front recovery points are essential; but, really, the rest of the Warrior package does an ace job.

Summary

At a smidge less than $70K (+ORC) the PRO-4X Warrior represents a lot of ute for the money. It’s not the biggest or most powerful ute in the class, but it is a vehicle that you could comfortably drive out of the showroom and travel anywhere in Australia without having to fork out for essentials like light-truck tyres and quality suspension.

The Warrior package is professionally engineered, tested and installed to full OE standards which no aftermarket supplier seems to be able to do, and it’s this full integration of components that makes it a winning package.

We reckon the bi-turbo engine feels more responsive when mated to the manual gearbox, and it has been great to log up the miles in a stick-shift 4x4 ute. We’re certainly looking forward to exploring more varied off-road terrain in the Warrior.

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Nissan Navara PRO-4x Warrior specs