Tell me about: the Nissan Navara

Conscript · 29 Jun 2013 at 10:59

Situation: my girlfriend owns a horse and we share a car. Now I don't know if anyone here is in the same situation, but this is an enormous pain in the arse. We've agreed we need to get a second car - I'm not getting what I want from the car ownership experience whilst I have to share it with her, and an MX5 isn't really a practical tool for equine maintenance.

The owner of the farm where her horse is currently stabled is apparently selling his Nissan Navara. Its a 56 plate with about 46K on the clock. The only thing wrong with it is the clutch may well need replacing soon (apparently premature clutch wear is a common problem on this era of Navara - I need to check this out further). However due to this guy being pretty loaded, he's decided he just wants to get rid and buy a new car.

Webuyanycar offered him £6.5k so he has said to my GF that if we want it, it's ours for £6.5k.

This appears to be a good deal for that amount of car and mileage (I gather it's top spec). I am a little suspicious - I can't imagine anyone getting rid of a car just because the clutch is starting to slip in top gear, but the GF knows him well and said he just cant be bothered. He is rich enough that clutch wear is enough of an incentive to get rid and buy something new. I'd be able to test drive and inspect the car anyway as I would be driving it as much as she would.

In a few months we will easily be able to afford to buy it off him and fix the clutch. My GF is keen but I am wary that the ownership of it might not be as easy as she thinks.

Whilst it's an ideal tool for someone who owns a horse (and I'd be tempted to pinch it for carrying my bike around), it strikes me that owning something so big might end up being a huge liability. I'm guessing it's not going to be cheap when it breaks, but how likely is it to break? A heavy, diesel engined 4WD vehicle sounds like a mechanical nightmare to me even if it is Japanese, but maybe I'm being overly cautious. It's great for hauling stuff, but it seems like it might be a pain to own if she ever has to go into town and park the thing. It has recently had fresh tyres, but when it comes to replacing them again, what are prices like for 4x4 tyres? I've never been interested in owning a 4x4 and usually wouldn't consider it, but the deal does seem pretty good for a vehicle ideal for what the GF wants - I just keep thinking about some of the above factors and trying to weigh up the long term cost of ownership (both financially and practically).

I wondered if anyone here owns/has owned one and might be able to give me a quick run down of their experience with it? Anything in particular to be wary of when buying, any known problems, things of that kind? Any input appreciated, I know next to nothing about owning such cars

Firestar_3x · 29 Jun 2013 at 11:33

On an 06 plate the engine shouldn't be at risk, but check to make sure.

http://www.navaraownersclub.com/2009/10/the-infamous-d22-engine-problem/

A friend uses a Mitsubishi Warrior for her horses and box, does the job fantastically well.

Matt82 · 29 Jun 2013 at 11:36

My sis was using a Mitsubishi pick up too, it was immense. I did some work on it are everything seemed very robust, no nonsense hardware. If I were to pick a Japanese diesel pick up for zombie-nuclear apocalypse it would be a Mitsubishi definitely

sovietspybob · 29 Jun 2013 at 11:39

I looked into them a few months ago, going to be building a house soon and also would be really useful to tow a track car etc.

From what i read up they do seem the pick of the bunch, quite thirsty though 30mpg seems around the average but earlier ones can be a bit more economical for some strange reason.

Running costs didn't look to bad, tyres were about 150 each for proper ones, brakes etc were all cheap. The leaf springs in the rear seem to collapse over time especially if its been loaded up often but there are aftermarket kits out there for around £300 if i recall.

As for the price he wants, i've had deals like that before as some people care so little about money they'll happily throw thousands away... My wifes current clio 197 for example, guy at work wanted a cheaper to run car, went onto webuyanycar who offered him a stupidly low price so i jumped in and offered him that in cash and a week later we have a clio 197 in good order for 1.5-2k less than market value.. He now has a mk5 golf diesel which apparently saves him tones on his 8 mile commute to work...

Conscript · 29 Jun 2013 at 16:55

Firestar_3x said:
On an 06 plate the engine shouldn't be at risk, but check to make sure.

http://www.navaraownersclub.com/2009/10/the-infamous-d22-engine-problem/

A friend uses a Mitsubishi Warrior for her horses and box, does the job fantastically well.

It's a 56 plate so hopefully it's okay, but thanks for that link! I'll have a read and note the engine number when we look at it.

Matt82 said:
My sis was using a Mitsubishi pick up too, it was immense. I did some work on it are everything seemed very robust, no nonsense hardware. If I were to pick a Japanese diesel pick up for zombie-nuclear apocalypse it would be a Mitsubishi definitely

I'm only considering this Nissan because it's available for a good price - I wouldn't of even dreamed of something so big usually, so if we don't go for it, we probably wont be looking at similar vehicles by other manufacturers. Hopefully they all share a penchant for reliability though.

sovietspybob said:
I looked into them a few months ago, going to be building a house soon and also would be really useful to tow a track car etc.

From what i read up they do seem the pick of the bunch, quite thirsty though 30mpg seems around the average but earlier ones can be a bit more economical for some strange reason.

Running costs didn't look to bad, tyres were about 150 each for proper ones, brakes etc were all cheap. The leaf springs in the rear seem to collapse over time especially if its been loaded up often but there are aftermarket kits out there for around £300 if i recall.

As for the price he wants, i've had deals like that before as some people care so little about money they'll happily throw thousands away... My wifes current clio 197 for example, guy at work wanted a cheaper to run car, went onto webuyanycar who offered him a stupidly low price so i jumped in and offered him that in cash and a week later we have a clio 197 in good order for 1.5-2k less than market value.. He now has a mk5 golf diesel which apparently saves him tones on his 8 mile commute to work...

That's very useful, thanks. I did look up the MPG briefly; we can probably live with 30MPG - it would mainly be used for stables duties, and as of today the GF is moving her horse to a new stable which is only 5 or so miles away. I just can't help thinking it's a bit overkill when most of what she needs to lug around can be fit in the back of a decent sized hatchback. But the deal is tempting so we are seriously considering it.

Kobi · 29 Jun 2013 at 17:30

I've got one, only had it about 7 months so i cant tell you what it costs for repairs. Mine hasn't skipped a beat though. I really do have a love hate relationship with it though. General driving around, i love it, getting muddy and driving over bumpy roads. But parking in town though can be a right pain and i drove from the east coast of scotland to the west, again bumpy roads were fine, but i thought the seats weren't great and my back was in agony. But i could have the seat in a stupid position. The Nav's are HUGE and sometimes big spaces are still a pain to park in.

The Nav is meant to be a better drive than the l200, i wouldnt say their is much in them, plus the 4WD in the l200 is much better. As in, the l200 can be driven in 4WD all day every day, wherever. The Nav needs to be deep mud/snow/ really slippery conditions to use the 4WD.

dod · 29 Jun 2013 at 20:04

we're on our third one, use them for horses too. No problems whatsoever. The 55 plate we had was probably the best of the bunch. Round about then they changed the power output of the engine to conform with emissions regs I seem to recall.

commited · 30 Jun 2013 at 03:59

When I was faced with having to pick a 4x4 pickup in 2008 as a company vehicle, I test drove the L200, Hilux and the Navara and picked the Navara as it felt like it was leagues ahead of the others. In 2011 I used a Triton in Australia (same as the L200 I believe?) and it was no where near as nice as the Navara pool car we had also.

I've noticed that a lot of people use Volvo estates (850/960) in the Equine circles and as you can pick these up for pennies it might be worth a look. A 4x4 isn't always necessary for towing, I used to get by fine with my 530d.