In a country that loves utilities, the Boroko Motors new Nissan Navara D40 offers a pretty good package of comfort, fuel economy and power.
We paid a visit to the BM showroom to have a look at the new model, the top of the range Nissan Navara D40.
BM launched sales of the D40 in mid July this year to much fanfare. The D40 came in two packages, the Luxury Model (LE) and the Standard Model (SE).
Both versions of the vehicle have turbo charge, 2.5 litre 4 cylinder diesel engine with an electronic 4WD system and 6 speed manual transmission.
Other features include ABS brakes, 80 Litre fuel tank, central locking system, double wish bone with coil spring front suspension and for safety sake ELR seatbelts and airbags for both driver and passengers.
The only difference is that the SE model has a single CD player, no grill and manual wind up/down windows. It also does not have fog lights, high mounted brake lights and sidesteps, where as the LE model has 6 stacker CD player compatible with your MP3 player, electric windows and remote controlled mirrors, fog lights in front, high mounted brake lights, rear and sidesteps, wider tyres and different styled alloy wheels.
The vehicle I had a look at was the LE.
The first thing I liked about the D40 was the amount of space in the cabin. There is a lot of shoulder room for passengers. Five people can get in, two in the front and three at the back and there is comfortable amount of space.
And for those who are tall, you don’t have to crane your neck uncomfortably just to fit in.
According to the specs on the vehicle, its cabin length is around 2.1 meters and interior height is over 1.2 meters - that is quite roomy for a light truck on the market.
Everything in the cabin feels big and comfortable with great padding in the interior. The seats are great and I dare say luxurious with 6 way adjustability for the drivers seat.
The vehicles windows (front side and back) are quite large, giving the vehicle a distinct look and also letting in a lot of light to the vehicle.
The vehicles mirrors are also large which I thought was great and helped navigation when you wanted to reverse park your vehicle for instance. The mirrors are also adjustable via a remote control switch on a panel on the driver’s door.
I also like how the handles to help you get in or out are nice and big, making them easier to grip.
The trailer at the back is also quite large which is a great feature of the vehicle because its compatible with the engine output. (What I mean to say, this car is built to carry considerable load).
The rear tray provides a load space measuring 2.36m2. It has a minimum width dimension between the wheel housings of 1130 mm and an internal bed length of 1511 mm.
As for power, as stated earlier, the Nissan Navara D40 is a turbo charge, 2.5 litre 4 cylinder diesel engine and can deliver up to 128 kW at 4000 rpm and achieving a superior 403 Nm at 2000 rpm, not bad for a 2.5 litre vehicle.
Thus the benefit to the layman would be that the vehicle has great fuel performance and a powerful engine.
It also boasts an electronic 4WD system which makes changing drives a lot easier - you can easily change to four wheel drive in a second.
The 6 speed manual transmission system (also comes in a five gear automatic system). One of the biggest advantages of having more gears is that it achieves better fuel economy as you don’t have to over rev the engine too much, you can coast on more gears. The transmission itself is quite powerful; you can easily coast up a hill on fifth gear so that’s good.
Boroko Motors and Nissan were always going to have a tough challenge trying to crack the PNG offroad market dominated by the Toyota’s Hilux but they may have achieved something of a breakthrough with this Navara D40.
Apparently most of the D40 LE’s have sold out in the country. The main customers have been corporate clients.
However I feel that families would love this car, especially because the comfortable spacious interior with thick padding which will help protect passengers should there be an accident. Also the powerful engine and the wide tray means that for a family outing in the village or on the beach (PNG style), this vehicle is a workhorse.
The LE is priced at K98,000.00 driveaway and the SE is priced at K96,000.00 driveway. Both vehicles come with a warranty of 2 years or 40,000 km, which ever comes first. Service is every 5,000km or 3 months again which ever comes first.
Most people prefer the LE because you can get more features for K2,000 extra.
My personal opinion is that it would make a nice family vehicle.
Cheers
