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08/04/2008
By EWAN KENNEDY
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Nissan Australia has greatly increased the range of body types on offer in its Navara D40 light commercials.
 Heading up the new choices is a spacious extended-cab, or King Cab in Nissan speak, variant. Using rear doors that hinge at the back makes for simply access through an area uncluttered by a side pillar. There are two occasional seats in the extended rear area. These fold down from the back as the area is normally used for secure stowage of cargo.
While the seats do have the safety of lap-sash safety belts and headrests, they are not the most comfortable we have ever sampled, being rather upright, and lacking in under-thigh support. Then again, they really are emergency-only units.
Of course, the big advantage of the squeezy seats in the rear is the added load-bed length when compared with the full dual-cab model.
King cab is offered in a sporty variant as well as standard models.
 The Navara D40 range is also available in cab-chassis format with a single cab. There's a bench arrangement of the left-hand seat. Like all in this class this seat is on the tight side so not recommended for a pair of blokes with expanded backsides. Our road testing was done two up and we found the driver’s seat spacious and fairly well shaped so it should be good for those who spend extended periods behind the wheel.
The ride is remarkably comfortable for a ute. Indeed, not just for a ute, there are some cars out there that cope less well with the vagaries of Australian country roads than does this big Japanese load carrier.
Power for these Navaras in 4WD format – the dual-cab continues in the range – comes from a hefty 2.5-litre turbo-diesel that produces 126 kW, and 403 Newton metres. We were impressed with this engine, not only in our sealed road running, where it climbs hills with ease, but also in off-road driving when we took it into some pretty tough conditions.
 Nissan Navara is one of the new era of utes that are not only hard working, but provide plenty of visual oomph. So the market is booming amongst tradies, sporting drivers, and those who simply like to look tough. These new D40 variants couldn’t have come at a better time.
The Nissan Navara D40 range, with prices (excluding on-road costs) is:
RX King Cab Chassis $38,160 (manual), $40,410 (automatic)
ST-X King Cab Chassis $41,160 (manual), $43,410 (automatic)
ST-X King Cab Ute $42,660 (manual), $44,910 (automatic)
RX Single Cab Chassis $33,660 (manual)
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