Contributed
The Nissan Navara after the trials. In the foreground are test drivers Rory Daley and Shelly McLaggan. In the background (from left) are The Gleaner's Mario James, Fidelity Motors' David Crawford and Joe Elliot. The Navara is available at Fidelity Motors for $3.7 million.
Mario James, Gleaner Writer
Last week, we hit the Lydford mines in a pair of 'trail-ready' vehicles, the Nissan Navara and X-TRAIL, your intrepid reporters (myself and the indomitable Shelly McLaggan from Power 106, along with the Herald's Wheels Editor, Rory Daley) having been fêted for a weekend to try these new vehicles.
After the Maguaritaville feed, traversing the treacherous mine access road was an experience in itself; the road seemed to have been cut years ago and has fallen into neglect; only heavy units use it now, as there are chasms that are big enough to swallow your average family sedan.
It is an uphill climb to the mine, and over time water has eroded the marl surface, which was never paved to begin with. One side of the road was flanked by a conveyor belt that had to be at least five miles long and was used to carry alumina to port in Ocho Rios.
Midway up the trail, me having started with the SUV, we switched mounts, and I was installed in the Navara. This is an imposing half tonner; all business and purpose. It is built with a lot of beef in the suspension and drive train, and it shows when taken off road. With its two point five litre turbo diesel hammering out 150 hp and a monumental 270 lb ft, it gives up nothing to the X-TRAIL in terms of performance.
Ride quality
What surprises, though, is the ride quality. Make no mistake, this is a work truck. With double cab versatility and a payload that is only exceeded in class by Mitshubishi's L200 Sportero, it should ride like a work truck. But it just doesn't. Navara has, subjectively, what has got to be the best ride in class. Toyota's Hilux with nearly the same spec will jolt the fillings out your head. But the ride in this truck is just as pliant as the other unit in this test. It is a SUV 'dat have use'!
And it was fun to drive, too. Going up Lydford's serpentine, rocky surface, the team encountered more than one set of S-bends. Power on, we found the truck tail happy, the rear axle able to do power slides at will (270 lb ft!) Navara could literally be steered under throttle on the marl road. This truck has better front/rear distribution than a lot of sedans, and half of the vehicle is an empty bed! After reaching the quarry, which is basically a clearing, the heavens opened and turned the open spaces into a mud lake in minutes. Undeterred, we splashed on, only to find that the entrance to the designated 'playground' (a rather large flat land expanse) was blocked by a huge boulder. So we played where we were; the truck has a propensity to hang the tail out, and with a touch of opposite lock, would drift (sideways) all day long. When we had stopped playing, there was almost as much dirt and detritus in the car as outside of it.
Interesting feature
The X-TRAIL has an interesting feature called 'Hill Descent Assist', which allows the vehicle to engage the ABS down steep slopes and control the speed down the decline without driver assistance (well, the driver still has to steer). The system did take a while to engage, though, as if it didn't like the weather. But when it got over its 'wet weather blues' and engaged, it did work and should take out the scare of pointing your pride and joy down places where the road just seems to fall away. The Navara had no such feature, its ABS/speed sensor lash-up was ensconced in a thing called the skull, its synapses surrounded by neurons, not silicon!
By and large though, we stopped playing in the mud and cooled our heels at a little Shangri-La called Murphy Hill, which is a cosy little inn in the hills above Ocho Rios, in the hilly St Ann interior. The team was regaled by tales from Cowboy, the rustic barkeep, about the folks who stayed there, of daredevils who leapt off the mountain and hang-glided their way on to one of the beaches below. Our county's 'No Problem' attitude could be personified by what seemed to be the inn's mascot, a huge German Shepherd whose size and strength belied his gentle demeanour. Real class act, this dog.
After a day's hard play in the mountains, we sank back to the level of the plebeians and returned to Ochi, where we each were given a room at the infamous Hedonism III, a place where the goings on are better left unchronicled!
In the morning we found that our mounts were whisked away by the notorious St Ann's man, HardcoreEP (er, that's Rory Daley to you guys) who had the audacity to tief di cyar dem an run off to Dover (the raceway), where he had his way wid dem on di track and surrounds. How he got race car drivers to comment on the vehicles at that hour Sunday morning Is beyond me. We only heard that that was done, and saw him at lunch beaming from ear to ear and wallowing in his sea of one-upmanship.
We checked out and drove the cars back to town, tired, but by no means bored, reaching Pegasus at a little after four in the evening. So our sojourn came to an end, having put almost 250 miles on these mechanical horses.
What's the verdict? Both vehicles have four-wheel drive drivelines, and are capable of dealing with the rigours of the trail. But the way in which they go about their business is as different as night and day.
Old-school truck
The Navara is an old-school truck, built with a transfer case that is not computerised, manufactured under the philosophy that the driver of the truck knows how his vehicle should react in adverse conditions, and act accordingly. It is also appointed in a purposeful manner, the plastics used, while not glamorous, are easily cleaned and not easily broken.
The XTRAIL is the antithesis of this, its design philosophy being that the car should protect the driver from himself, its computerised all-wheel drive system doing all the decision making. The inclusion of the descent control reinforces this conclusion.
It is big, and has seven leather seats available as an option, so it is more family-oriented. But with more and more families opting to buy pickup instead of a SUV or sedan, the Navara is an intelligent choice. It is enviro-friendly, fun to drive, with great power and economy. People might still think it is an invalid choice as family transport being a truck, but its exceptional ride blurs the lines between the categories.
mario.james@gleanerjm.com
