My impressions/review of the np300 so far.

Thought I would give my np300 comments so far and how I got there, I previously had a d22 navara which had all the bells and whistles and decide id swap that for a gu patrol ute, after 5 years with each of the 4wds I wanted to go back to a dual cab. I saw the NP300 was the best of my last 2 4wds being put together.
I got a really good price on my NP300 basically paid what dealer demos were going for, I had the vehicle fitted with a suspension kit, tjm bulbar,tjm bash plate and tjm snorkel before picking the vehicle up.
Im very happy with the suspension lift altho it isn’t as high as I wanted it has taken a lot of the body roll out of the vehicle and is still a nice smooth ride a lot more comfy then either of my last 2 4wds.
Overall im very happy with my new st auto, it’s a smooth comfy 4wd,great headlights, should be pretty good offroad with the diff lock and coil suspension, it’s easy to drive and love the way it looks, would I recommend someone buy one??? Yes I would.
I’ve got a couple bar things that I have noticed, firstly the fuel tank showing empty but has 20L is very annoying, the fuel economy is nowhere near what is stated, on my first 1050km’s of the vehicle its average is 11.2L/100km in that time 350km of that was delivery from Rockhamton and even then the fuel economy was 10.3 on the dash. Im off on a 800km round trip on Friday so I will be able to get an accurate fuel economy then. The speedo I believe is actually 4km out according to the guy who dropped it off, so doing 100 on the dial your actually doing 96km/h, not a big deal bigger tyres will fix that. The remove key beeper is friggin annoying, I don’t like there is 3 holes in the bottom of the air box. The horn on the steering wheel goes all the way to the bottom of the wheel and its easy to bump it when spinning the wheel a lot with 1 hand.

If I had my time and money again would I still buy it…. Yes I would

New snorkle head looks way better

Nice looking snorkel. How is the steering ratio/feel?

Its a bit heavy but dont really have an issue with it

to be honest i like my new navara but there are some annoying things and therefore i would probably never buy a nissan again. i would consider a toyota (again) or even a hyundai or kia especially if they offered a ute. possibly a mazda or subaru

the downfalls are the following

1. poor nissan after sales support - i guess its fair to say this is similar to all new vehicles and i assume is not as bad as holden/ford/jeep/chrysler/mercedes benz/volkswagen
2. the fuel tank computer read out is so way off
3. the tub liner is thinner than the my old ute which was made 20 years before so it warps in the heat
4. the turning circle makes it difficult in tight areas, i notice it most when doing a full turn on a small round about
5. the windscreen spray only squirts up about 10cms.


most of these things the engineers should have noticed. why it didnt pass is beyond me.

indio2010 said:

4. the turning circle makes it difficult in tight areas, i notice it most when doing a full turn on a small round about

most of these things the engineers should have noticed. why it didn't pass is beyond me.

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That's the one that really gets me. The D40 has the turning circle of a small Air-craft carrier. They surely knew but done nothing. Read- saved money. I believe the NP300 is no better at all and over 5 turns lock to lock making the rack ridiculously slow. In this day and age this is some kind of joke by Nissan.

Tappet said:

That's the one that really gets me. The D40 has the turning circle of a small Air-craft carrier. They surely knew but done nothing. Read- saved money. I believe the NP300 is no better at all and over 5 turns lock to lock making the rack ridiculously slow. In this day and age this is some kind of joke by Nissan.

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try doing a u turn!! it ends up being a 3 point turn every time

Im used to it now i driven utes with worse turning circle

The turning circle in the NP300 is better than the D40's (not by much but enough).

Kickars2 said:

Im used to it now i driven utes with worse turning circle

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and were they all nissan navaras?

i have driven a a mitubishi tritons, a older style holden rodeo and a volkwagen amarok and many hiluxes and by far i can say that the navara is the worst.

I personally don't mind the steering/turning circle. That said I learnt to drive in an FJ cruiser with armstrong steering, so pretty much anything is a step up.

I can generally back it into a spot at the local woolies in one manoeuvre. As for u turns, streets around Orange come in 2 sizes, barely wider than the np300 is long or wide enough you could have 3 lanes each way. I just back into someone's driveway if I want to turn around, been doing that for years out of habit.

Coming from a D22 previously, the NP300 has a much better turning circle.

Robbo9 said:

Coming from a D22 previously, the NP300 has a much better turning circle.

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Comming from a d22 everything would be better

7 months down the track I'm still super happy with my decision.

I've added 265/75/r16 mtz's which threw the economy out at first but I'm getting around 700kms to a tank, however a noticeable power loss with the bigger tyres.

Really impressed with the offroading ability at stock height,it really stretches about in the rear and the locker has made easy work of everything I've tried.

Power wise it is equal if not better than the ranger with same size tyres.

Much prefer the np300 than my old D40

indio2010 said:

to be honest i like my new navara but there are some annoying things and therefore i would probably never buy a nissan again. i would consider a toyota (again) or even a hyundai or kia especially if they offered a ute. possibly a mazda or subaru

the downfalls are the following

1. poor nissan after sales support - i guess its fair to say this is similar to all new vehicles and i assume is not as bad as holden/ford/jeep/chrysler/mercedes benz/volkswagen
2. the fuel tank computer read out is so way off
3. the tub liner is thinner than the my old ute which was made 20 years before so it warps in the heat
4. the turning circle makes it difficult in tight areas, i notice it most when doing a full turn on a small round about
5. the windscreen spray only squirts up about 10cms.


most of these things the engineers should have noticed. why it didnt pass is beyond me.

Click to expand...

I'm with you on this one, it will be my last nissan, I went to trade it in with 7000km on it. a few more annoying things that are an oversight by nissan
1: tornau cover leaks, so much that everything was drenched when we drove melbourne to Gold Coast in the rain.

2: rear locking bar to the tornau cover, I've broken 6 clips so far. And am fed up with nissans piss poor design, so il just leave them broken.
3: terrible fuel economy (15L/100) towing and 11-12 not towing
4: gutless power when in the heat. Hoping a diesel chip will fix this.
5:rear locker only works in 4low.
6: brakes are worse than the d40
7: got left stranded with no turbo boost in qld, boost solenoid had crap in it, throwing error codes and now turbo power.
8: terrible suspension
9: normal sunglasses don't fit in the holder(unless you wear small prescription glasses)
10: very thin paint, I've got more stone chips/scratches in 4 months than my d40 had in 3 years.

11: very loud/rattling engine, loud ticking on decelaration, apparently normal for this car.
12: rear sliding window trim keeps falling off. They used double sided tape to secure it. Pathetic.

After 500 km of owning it, the hose to the intercooler blew off, leaving me on the side of the road and had to get my wife to bring some tools to fix it.
If I had my time over I would have kept my d40. Apart from the car looking good, it's a pathetic work car, clearly nissan designers have never stepped into the real world.

Check steering on my D23 4x4 ST-X, lock to lock is 3.75 turns. Manual states turning circle is 12.4 Meters, I believe that is the same as the new Hilux and less than the new Ranger and Amarok. Steering is on the firmer sided but still a real joy to drive.

Mgmd40 said:

I'm with you on this one, it will be my last nissan, I went to trade it in with 7000km on it. a few more annoying things that are an oversight by nissan
1: tornau cover leaks, so much that everything was drenched when we drove melbourne to Gold Coast in the rain.

2: rear locking bar to the tornau cover, I've broken 6 clips so far. And am fed up with nissans piss poor design, so il just leave them broken.
3: terrible fuel economy (15L/100) towing and 11-12 not towing
4: gutless power when in the heat. Hoping a diesel chip will fix this.
5:rear locker only works in 4low.
6: brakes are worse than the d40
7: got left stranded with no turbo boost in qld, boost solenoid had crap in it, throwing error codes and now turbo power.
8: terrible suspension
9: normal sunglasses don't fit in the holder(unless you wear small prescription glasses)
10: very thin paint, I've got more stone chips/scratches in 4 months than my d40 had in 3 years.

11: very loud/rattling engine, loud ticking on decelaration, apparently normal for this car.
12: rear sliding window trim keeps falling off. They used double sided tape to secure it. Pathetic.

After 500 km of owning it, the hose to the intercooler blew off, leaving me on the side of the road and had to get my wife to bring some tools to fix it.
If I had my time over I would have kept my d40. Apart from the car looking good, it's a pathetic work car, clearly nissan designers have never stepped into the real world.

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I'm very happy with my 2014 titanium, they have ironed out all problems. With the NP300 it will take some time to fix the issue as always with the first of!

Cheers Justo