Right On The Button
by David Finlay (15 Mar 06)

Owning a Nissan Navara is a very good way of making friends. As soon as word got around that I had one for a week's testing, suggestions for uses to which it might be put started flooding in - which is how, for example, I ended up towing a trailer load of lobster creels across three miles of forest track to a fish farm.

I very nearly had to tow a horsebox the following day, owing to a suspension collapse in someone's (old-model) Land Rover Discovery. As it turned out, my services were not required, and I must say I was quite pleased about that, since I have never had to transport any animal larger than a cat, but I have no doubt that the Navara would have managed the task with ease.

In its press material for the current Navara, Nissan devotes a lot of space to pointing out how practical it is. The 172bhp output of the 2.5-litre turbo diesel engine is class-leading, there's an impressive 2.63 square metres of load area (2.9 if you choose the King Cab option), you can two a 2600kg braked trailer, and if you go off-roading the approach and departure angles of 29 and 22 degrees respectively are going to prove useful.

That applies to all Navaras, but in the case of the range-topping Aventura tested here Nissan is also making bold claims that it represents a credible alternative to an SUV. There's a slight irony here, in that Nissan already builds an SUV - the Pathfinder - which is mechanically almost identical to the Navara.

Thanks to the workhorse requirement inherent in the design, which has led Nissan to use a ladderframe chassis, neither is especially refined on the road - the Navara still less so because it has leaf springs at the rear rather than the Pathfinder's coils.

All the same, the Navara is unusually well-poised on tarmac compared with other pickups. And where the Aventura version in particular really scores, in on-road terms, is in its high level of standard equipment. This includes items which make up the Hitech and Premium Packs available as options on other Navaras, namely DVD satellite navigation, an MP3-compatible audio system, Bluetooth mobile phone connectivity, an electric sunroof, heated and electrically adjustable front seats and leather upholstery.

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