Travel under the radar

AS MONTHLY new vehicle sales numbers indicate, double cab bakkies work well as private family chariots for many South Africans.

And if you add a decent lockable canopy and alarm system, you can pack as much luggage as you’d like for those long, lazy holidays that are coming up.

After all, bakkies are not only an ideal choice to get to those hardto-reach places off the beaten track (thanks to part-time 4x4 models), they are also more rugged than car-based SUVs and crossovers.

In May this year, Nissan launched its latest Navara in South Africa, similar to the Titanium grade Navara it built in the previous generation model. It is not as extensively upgraded as it’s a standard top-of-the-range Navara. However, it has been spruced up with stickers and trim, and refined ever so slightly from a ride and handling perspective.

If you buy a Navara Stealth, you get cool silver and chrome detailing on the exterior, additional black trim pieces and fresh orange accents on the grill and front bumper, side mirrors and side steps.

The trim and orange accents are nice enough to look factory-fitted. They don’t look as shouty as many of the normal Ford Rangers we tend to see with aftermarket Raptor sticker kits.

The Navara Stealth’s hot two-tone colour scheme is carried through into the interior, with seats featuring black leather side bolsters and orange cloth inserts and stitching, giving the cabin a strong, modern feel.

It comes in two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive configuration and it features a twin-turbo diesel engine (shared with the Mercedes-Benz X-Class) with 140kW power and 450Nm torque. You can also get it with a six-speed manual transmission or a seven-speed automatic transmission. It also boasts a robust five-link coil suspension set-up at the rear that equates to a far less bouncy ride than its predecessor.

Part of the Navara Stealth package is Nissan Intelligent Mobility technologies that feature an Intelligent Key System, the Intelligent 4x4 System that assists drivers in smooth cornering by electronically adjusting power output to the front and rear wheels, and Hill Start Assist. The vehicle also comes with an Intelligent Around View Monitor that uses four cameras positioned at various points around the bakkie to give the driver a 360-degree, aerial view of the vehicle and its surrounds (very handy when blazing off-road trails too).