Nissan Navara Warrior 2022 Tow Test

As we’ve detailed in previous articles and our launch review, the 2022 Nissan Navara PRO-4X Warrior is all set up to tackle Australia’s harsh landscape.

Created in partnership with local engineering and design firm Premcar, the Navara Warrior is a flagship model with off-road modifications that include a colour-coded Safari steel front bar with integrated LED fog lights and Hella light bar, steel front bash plate, 3mm-thick steel underbody protection plate, 40mm suspension lift with Monroe shocks and coil springs, and larger and taller jounce bumpers.

Wheels are 17-inch alloys with Cooper Discoverer 275/70 all-terrain tyres, with a matching spare slung under the rear.

A tow bar and associated wiring kit are fitted as standard.

Inside, there’s leather trim for the seats, steering wheel and gear-shift lever, keyless entry and start, dual-zone climate control, sat-nav, a 7.0-inch digital instrument display, 8.0-inch colour touch-screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, Bluetooth, three USB-A and one USB-C connectors and six-speaker audio.

The steering column only has adjustment for rake (not reach), and electric- adjust heated front seats you see elsewhere at the premium end of the ute market are absent here. At least the manual adjustment for the driver’s seat includes seat height and lumbar.

Available only as a dual-cab 4x4, but soon to expand with a more affordable model based on the SL (rather than PRO-4X) model grade, Warrior pricing starts at $67,490 plus on-road costs for the six-speed manual or from $69,990 plus ORCs for the seven-speed automatic tested here.

The Warrior is covered by Nissan’s five-year/unlimited-kilometre factory warranty, while Premcar covers its modifications identically.

The service intervals are 12 months/20,000km, and six years of Nissan capped-price servicing currently totals $3624. That doesn’t include a $32 charge to replace brake fluid scheduled every two years or 40,000km (depending on your driving patterns).The service intervals are 12 months/20,000km, and six years of Nissan capped-price servicing currently totals $3624. That doesn’t include a $32 charge to replace brake fluid scheduled every two years or 40,000km (depending on your driving patterns).

The safety suite of the 2022 Nissan Navara PRO-4X Warrior includes autonomous emergency braking (AEB), forward collision warning and a driver fatigue alert, blind spot warning, intelligent lane intervention, rear cross traffic alert, reverse parking sensors, around-view monitor with moving object detection, high beam assist, rain-sensing wipers and tyre pressure monitoring.

There are seven airbags, including a driver’s knee airbag, second-row child seat top tethers and ISOFIX child seat attachment points.

What you don’t see on any Navara is adaptive cruise control (ACC), and like many popular utes in the class, the Navara has rear drum brakes, not discs.

The Navara has a five-star ANCAP rating, but this dates back to 2015 under less stringent assessment methods than used today.

The 2.3-litre twin-turbo four-cylinder diesel in the 2022 Nissan Navara PRO-4X Warrior is generally responsive and not overly raucous for a diesel ute in solo driving.

It doesn’t suffer much turbo lag at all, and while it has the expected meaty mid-range of a turbo-diesel, it clearly doesn’t feel like a performance diesel as better competitors do.

The seven-speed auto does a good job of swapping gears and has the benefit of a towing mode to better hold gears when under load.

This would appear to be quite an efficient powertrain, with less than 8.0L/100km achievable in light, unladen cruising conditions.

We averaged 18.1L/100km towing our 2600kg Jayco caravan we borrowed from Jayco Sydney, which included performance testing and idling for photography, while the overall average settled to 16.1L/100km with some easy highway towing at 100km/h thrown in.

The Navara seems quite efficient for its class, and with our 16.1L/100km average and its 80-litre fuel tank, a towing touring range of about 450km (with a 50km safety margin) looks achievable.

The 2022 Nissan Navara PRO-4X Warrior has a kerb weight of 2298kg, payload is 952kg and gross combined mass (GCM) is 5910kg.

Like key competitors, the Warrior can tow 3500kg (braked) and have a maximum 350kg on the tow ball.

Like many utes in this class, the Navara has weight compromises when towing a heavy trailer. If you were to tow the maximum 3500kg, you would have just 112kg left for payload in the Warrior before exceeding GCM.

When we hitched up the Jayco tandem-axle van (with a tare weight as tested of about 2600kg and a tow ball download of 200kg), the front of the Navara rose just 6mm and the rear drooped 25mm – quite acceptable figures on both counts.

Motoring up to speed on the freeway was done with some trepidation, given the way previous D23 Navara utes have felt at more than 80km/h with a heavy caravan behind.

Yet the work done by Nissan and Premcar on the suspension would seem to have had a positive effect on towing stability; while the Navara did not feel completely settled at 100km/h, it was far more stable than any D23 Navara we’ve tow-tested before.

There were no unexpected ‘tail wagging the dog’ moments. Even when moving the steering wheel slightly side-side at 100km/h (admittedly, quite tentatively), the caravan did not react with the sudden and serious yawing motion it would on the D23 Navara previously.

Where the Warrior is no different is in towing performance; it is no powerhouse, with speed dropping from 90km/h to 73km/h on the test hill-climb. Engine braking downhill saw a slight rise to 73km/h, holding third gear.

On the flats or slight inclines the Navara seemed happiest to hold fifth gear, revving at about 2200rpm, with the occasional upshift to sixth or, rarely, seventh gear.

The 2022 Nissan Navara PRO-4X Warrior is a great improvement on any past D23 Navara for towing stability.

On test it was far less likely to yaw with a heavy trailer sitting behind it when touring at up to 100km/h.

It also appears to be economical when towing, although engine performance for hill climbing and overtaking are not by any means class-leading.

How much does the 2022 Nissan Navara PRO-4X Warrior cost?
Price: $69,990 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 2.3-litre four-cylinder twin-turbo diesel
Output: 140kW/450Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel: 8.1L/100km (ADR combined)
CO2: 213g/km (ADR combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2015)