SANDSTORMER

Nissan bucks the trend with its new Navara bakkie

ERG Chebbi near the town of Merzouga is easily one of the most breathtaking places I’ve clapped my eyes on. According to local elders, this “sea” of dunes didn’t exist 80 years ago, claiming that winds carried every single grain of sand here in the last eight decades. The area gained fame when it played host to the Dakar Rally years ago; and there I was, about to tackle the reddish brown giants that lay just ahead. Except, of course, I wasn’t in some high-performance race truck or a purpose-built dune buggy, but rather ensconced in the air-conditioned, Suv-like interior of the all-new Nissan Navara. The unique landscape was chosen to highlight the offroad capabilities of Nissan’s latest charge, and what a choice it was.

In these harsh conditions, the fleet of bone-stock Navaras – on road-biased footwear, no less – really impressed with the ever-rising and -falling dunes providing little hindrance to the all-wheel-drive bakkies. Even inexperienced drivers in the international contingent, some of whom had never driven on sand, were able to make steady progress. Impressive approach and departure angles ensured that traversing even steep dunes didn’t result in any unwanted scraping of bodywork. On that note, South African-spec Navaras will ride even higher than the Europeansourced cars we drove on the launch, which will improve these critical angles.

A large part of the driving ease is due to the new, 2,3-litre biturbo diesel engine. Sequential turbocharging ensures a wide spread of torque; 450 N.m is delivered between 1 500 and 2 500 r/min, which allowed us to stay in the meat of the power band. Making life even less stressful was the optional sevenspeed automatic transmission which took the guesswork out of gear selection in this unfamiliar terrain.

One of the technical highlights of the new Navara, of course, is the much-talked about multilink/ coil-sprung rear suspension. Nissan has ditched the typical