Overview

Some people drive their ute to take their kids to school, others to commute and some wags even load the tray with tools and go to work.

If you’re in the first two categories, turn the page. The Nissan Navara ST isn’t for you. This is for the third category – the one where load haul is critical and tow ratings are tested, where seat warmers are for wimps and hi-fi audio pointless because you’ll be on the phone barking to the concrete truck driver about site access.

That’s the way it was in the beginning of ute-dom. Now there’s a whole range of utilities from prima donna carriages down to the hose-out models that flourish in an environment clothed in vinyl.

The Navara ST is not quite at the hose-out level. It’s accommodating, has the basics, is warm and dry in winter and from the outside, looks tough yet neat and crisp.

In a lot of ways, the new Navara for 2026 is not even a Nissan. In alliance with partner Mitsubishi, the latest Navara used chassis and drivetrain, plus cabin design and tech, to present a model called D27 that is more powerful than its D23 predecessor, carries a bit more, and has a bit more comfort.

Thanks to a lot of work from Australian automotive engineering concern Premcar – they of the Nissan Navara Warrior and Mitsubishi Triton Raider – even the base-model Navara for 2026 gets suspension work to make it smoother and handle better than before.

It’s hoped that this overhaul of the Navara will lift sales. The Vfacts year-to-date July figures show the Navara 4WD has sold 2468 units, down 49 per cent on the same time in 2025, while the Triton 4WD is up 3.3 per cent at 9850 units in the seven-month period.

Now that they have, literally, the same footing, there’s little reason Nissan can’t sell quite a few more. On paper, the utes from the same mother are similar. As is pricing. The Navara ST dual-cab here is $56,765 plus on-road costs. The Triton GLX+ equivalent is $53,990 plus costs.

But brand loyalty (remember that?) may be the only way to decide which is best for you.

No surprise that there’s no designer name attached to this one. The Navara fits the mould of a three-box vehicle with a hole in the back. It looks like pretty much every other ute on the market.

But its design is efficient and meets the target buyer, adding to its appeal with a less flamboyant grille design than in the past.

The ST gets alloy wheels, side steps and a sports bar, but no tub liner or tonneau.

Inside it’s simple cloth upholstery and black dashboard, with an 8.0-inch touchscreen and physical buttons and controls that mean no searching the screen and no need to take off your (work) gloves.

The audio is a simple unbranded unit but it has wireless connectivity to CarPlay, and needs a wire for Android Auto. There’s a USB port up front and one for the guys in the rear.

Nissan has fitted seats that, while looking pretty simple, are surprisingly comfortable and supportive for longer trips. The company has, in fact, always been pretty good at seats.

Cabin room is up to the dual-cab ute genre with space for five adults. There’s also two child seat tethers (no central anchor).

Nissan has a five-star rating for the 2026 Navara thanks to features including autonomous emergency braking system (including in reverse), cycle and pedestrian detection, blind-spot monitor, two Isofix and two top-teather anchors (seat centre does not have an anchor), lane assist with lane keeping and lane departure warning, tyre pressure monitor, eight airbags, 360-degree camera, front and rear cross-traffic alert, speed sign recognition, front and rear park sensors, and trailer sway control.

ANCAP gave it an 86 per cent rating for adult occupant protection; 89 per cent for child occupant protection; 74 per cent for vulnerable road user protection; and 70 per cent for safety assist features.

Nissan has a 10-year, 300,000km new-car warranty program – but only if the car is serviced annually at a Nissan dealership. Otherwise, the warranty is for five years or unlimited distance.

The roadside assistance is free for the first 12 months and if the car returns annually to Nissan for servicing, is extended to 10 years.

The capped-price service program costs $499 a service for a period of five years. The schedule is 12 months or 15,000km.

Driving impressions

Australian engineering firm Premcar has improved the suspension in this latest Navara, benefitting general ride comfort and handling which makes the ute more civilised for drivers doing long distances.

Much of that work has been the replacement of the factory-spec dampers (shock absorbers) at the front and, in conjunction with that, a tuning program on the electric-power steering system. This is the first Navara with EPS (previously hydraulic) and is a result of the cloning with the Triton.

For Premcar, it made the job of tuning a better suspension system a tad easier because it could better match the new damper action with the steering system.

Cleverly, the Navara comes with three suspension tunes. The SL and ST workhorse models, for example, get firmer shocks and a four-leaf rear suspension to handle the higher payload of a trade-focused vehicle running on 17-inch wheels.

So if you think I’m going to get misty-eyed about the comfort of the new Navara ST, you’re knocking at the wrong house.

Sure, it’s better than before. So much so that it can mask the fact that the Navara no longer has the suppleness of rear coils.

The upside is that the Navara will now track down a country road with better confidence and less steering wheel vagueness, and curve the bend with better control, better steering feel and less inclination to bounce the rear end if it hits a mid-corner bump.

It has a payload rating of 1047kg which is up 23kg on the D23 but down 46kg compared with its Mitsubishi donor. It will also tow 3500kg (with a trailer kit), so Nissan has covered the basics.

The tray is longer (by 47mm) that the outgoing D23 model, and 1545mm wide with 1135mm between the wheel arches – all the same as the new Triton, surprise, surprise.

The Navara sits on a 3130mm wheelbase and has an overall length of 5320mm, making it a stretch for many garages and carports.

It’s also a bit of a handful fitting into most shopping centre car bays, with its length being awkward but mainly its wide 12.7m turning circle making it hard to manoeuvre.

It has a 228mm ground clearance, up on the old model, and a decent 30.4-degree approach angle.

In the dirt it is as accomplished as its peers. The ride is firm (and really needs weight in the tray) but controlled, with positive feedback from the steering on hard packed dirt surfaces.

On bitumen the ute handles well and it’s really just the engine and gearbox that take the edge off the drive experience and show it to be a bit lacking compared with rivals.

Most of this centres on the lazy response of that Mitsubishi engine. It’s got all the right words attached to it – two turbos, 2.4-litres, and 150kW/470Nm – but it just feels like a laggard.

I’ll mention that one of my favourite utes is the Kia Tasman because its drivetrain perfectly matches the expected use of the vehicle in everything from a city snarl to a soft-sand beach. It is a pearler, but clearly has a face that doesn’t look like one.

The Navara engine is also noisy and only feels relaxed when cruising at around 80kmh to 100kmh.

It’s not too bad on fuel, though. The thing weighs in at 2140kg (a bit porkier than the D23 and up 32kg on the Triton) which doesn’t help, but Nissan claims 7.7 litres per 100km while the test average 8.2 L/100km. It does also need some AdBlue (there’s a 17-litre tank) which will up your running costs.