Nissan Navara gets safety upgrades to prepare for battle

Nissan says it will “fight to the death” to protect its biggest-selling model – the Navara pick-up – from a raft of new rivals.

In the space of 12 months, the Nissan Navara will have gone from being one of the newest models in its class, to one of the oldest.

The Navara accounts for one-third of all Nissan sales in Australia and is by far the company’s biggest bread-winner.

But in the new year it will face a fresh challenge from the facelifted Toyota Hilux, and the all-new Ford Ranger and Mazda BT-50 twins, when production resumes normal capacity in the wake of the Thailand floods. An all-new Holden Colorado is also due mid-year.

Furthermore, the Navara will face competition from the top and bottom ends of the market, with the Volkswagen Amarok and Great Wall utes due to get automatic transmissions.

“You will see us fight to the death to keep Navara in a leadership position,” said Nissan Australia managing director and CEO Dan Thompson. “[New competitors] will challenge Navara but we don’t think it will hurt Navara.

“Navara has been under challenge for the last three or four years.
The level of competition over the next two or three years I don’t think is any different to what the Navara has faced over the last few years.”

To November, the Navara is second to Hilux in the 4x4 ute class, but sales are up by just 4.6 per cent, roughly half the growth rate of the category (8.8 per cent).

To cope with the interruption to production in Thailand, Nissan reverted to sourcing vehicles from Spain and Japan, as well as receiving limited supply from Thailand.

The other bottleneck is supply out of Spain of the flagship Navara 550. Nissan Australia says it could sell double the current rate of 100 per month of the $60,000 vehicle if it could get more.

“We’re looking at ways to stretch the Navara offering, … broaden the range,” he said. “We have plans to maintain our levels of sales.”

In addition to cutting the prices of some models, Nissan is poised to announce an upgrade to the vehicle’s safety rating to compete with newer, safer and better-equipped competition.

In early 2012, the Navara is expected to receive a number of structural changes that will elevate its current “average” rating of three stars to an “acceptable” rating of four stars, according to the ANCAP crash safety scoring system. The changes are not enough to gain a five-star rating, motoring.com.au has been told.

The Ford Ranger, Mazda BT-50 and Volkswagen Amarok score five-star ratings in Australia, while the Mitsubishi Triton and Toyota Hilux are currently rated at four stars.

The outgoing Holden Colorado only scores three stars, the same as the current Navara.

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