Nissan Navara traverses Africa without a single squeak or rattle

Despite hard core off-road enthusiasts’ tendency to modify their vehicles for the real tough stuff, conquering the unknown can be done straight off the showroom floor. The Nissan Navara is a prime example.

To celebrate its 60-year presence as a light commercial vehicle supplier in Africa, the Japanese carmaker this year embarked on what it calls Nissan Daring Africa 2024. A convoy of five Nissan Navara bakkies and one support vehicle in the form of an X-Trail left the manufacturer’s assembly plant in Rosslyn, Pretoria in March with the ultimate goal of reaching Egyptian capital Cairo.

Nissan Navara up for any adventure

The significance of the start and finish points being that Rosslyn is Nissan’s light commercial manufacturing hub for Africa, while Cairo is its passenger car production hub. Creating awareness of Nissan’s continental presence, set to further grow soon, was the main goal in the seven countries the convoy set off to traverse. These include Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya and ultimately Egypt.

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The convoy left South Africa through Komatipoort into Mozambique, were it passed through capital Maputo and headed north, a trek wic included a good amount of driving on sand.

The entered Zimbabwe via the Eastern Highlands and Africa’s second highest waterfall, Mutarazi. After a stop in Harare, the Nissan Navaras and X-Trail headed north over the Kariba Dam and into Zambia.

Conquering Africa

Traversing the Luangwa Valley, the crew headed for Lake Malawi and into Tanzania. They drove around Mount Kilimanjaro and then past Kenya’s Amboseli National Park into the capital Nairobi.

As all Nissan’s objectives have been met over the first 7 000km of the journey, some of the bakkies have been relieved of its duties as the convoy is preparing for the homecoming leg to Cairo.

One of them was a Nissan Navara in 2.5DDTi double cab PRO-4X 4×4 guise. It was driven back along the same route before arriving straight out of Africa onto The Citizen Motoring’s doorstep. While we have reported extensively on the Navara since its launch two years ago, this particular one was rather significant. It went straight from the assembly line up to Nairobi and back to Johannesburg and had just a tad over 14 000km on the clock when it was delivered to us.

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Nissan Navara passes test

Apart from a few essentials for the wilderness in the form of a spare tyre in the roof, shovel, plastic tracks and tanks on the back, this Daring Africa Nissan Navara does not feature one mechanical enhancement. And remarkably, we could not hear one squeak or rattle. Which, according to the fleet manager, is the state it arrived in.

“When you think about it, these vehicles have travelled 7 000km without a single mechanical issue. Not even a flat tyre wile travelling over some of the toughest road conditions imaginable. It is an incredible achievement,” says Maciej Klenkiewicz, Independent Markets Africa Managing Director.

Trusty diesel mill

The Nissan Navara PRO-4X 4×4 is powered by a 2.5-litre turbodiesel engine. It produces 140kW of power and 450Nm of torque and is mated to seven-speed automatic transmission. It is slightly dated and sounds more unrefined than its rivals nowadays. But its proven its reliability and that is key on our continent considering its vast dimensions.

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The cabin is also showing its age. But it kept its drivers comfortable for long distance and that was all that mattered.

Judging by the amount of attention our Nissan Navara got through all the equipment strapped to it and the Daring Africa 2024 decals, it must have been a hit throughout its journey. And wasn’t that the exact purpose of the exercise?