Nissan Navara Warrior wraps up production

After six years and more than 10,000 vehicles, production of the D23 Nissan Navara Warrior has wrapped up at Premcar’s Melbourne facility ahead of the introduction of the next-generation ‘D27’ Navara. The Aussie-engineered Warrior gave the D23 Navara a rugged flagship and led to an expansion of the Nissan-Premcar relationship to include the Patrol and the local chassis tuning of the new D27.

The first fruits of the relationship between Nissan and Australian engineering firm Premcar, the Warrior provided an off-road focused flagship to battle the likes of the Ford Ranger Raptor and Toyota HiLux GR Sport.

First revealed in late 2019 as the N-Trek Warrior, a revised suspension package and more aggressive wheels and tyres resulted in greater capability and a 40mm lift, while a hoopless bullbar was added for extra toughness (and clearance).

Backed by Nissan, the Warrior retained the standard Navara’s 3500kg braked towing capacity and, crucially, the backing of its five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, which has now extended to 10 years/300,000km if you service with authorised dealers.

A total of 1398 N-Trek Warriors were built over a two-year period (106 manual, 1292 automatic) before being replaced by the facelifted Pro-4X Warrior, which was joined in 2022 by the cheaper SL Warrior.

The Pro-4X Warrior was by far the most popular, with 6864 produced (525 manual, 6339 auto) while the SL Warrior added a further 2032 (199 manual, 1833 auto) for a total of 10,294 sales.

With Nissan selling 55,215 Navaras between 2020-2025, Warriors accounted for almost 20 per cent of the total volume. In carsales’ testing it was clearly the pick of the Navara variants, especially for those who wished to tow or venture off-road.

“Together with Nissan, we set out to create the world’s toughest Navara, and that’s exactly what we achieved with the D23-generation Navara Warrior,” Premcar CEO Bernie Quinn said.

The success of the D23 Navara Warrior program led to the same treatment being applied to the Y62 Patrol, and while a Warrior version of the new D27-generation Navara has not yet been confirmed, the presence of a ‘concept’ at the new model’s global reveal suggests it’s a case of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’.

The relationship between Nissan and Premcar has also become closer; the Japanese multinational tasked the Aussie engineering group with tweaking last year’s Infiniti QX 80 Terrain Spec concept and handling the tuning of the new Navara’s suspension setup.

“The Warrior programs in general have been transformational for Premcar, in that we have boosted our local manufacturing footprint in Australia and now internationally,” Quinn said.

“I’m very proud that we’ve been able to further demonstrate that Aussie vehicle development and manufacturing is still able to thrive in such a competitive and volatile environment. It shows that if you create the products that consumers really want, people come running.”

The new Nissan Navara will launch in the coming months, with news on Premcar-enhanced Warrior variants of both it and the new Y63 Patrol expected later in the year.

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