Building a 2022 Navara PRO-4X Warrior

Testing cars long-term is something we do regularly at 4X4 Australia. Rather than just having the car for the usual one week to do our driving, photography and filming, we get our long-termers for an extended stay so we get a true feel of what it’s like to live with the car and really get to know its good and not so good points. It’s surprising what you can learn about a car over a few months and more kilometres than you’d ever get in a week.

We were excited when Nissan offered us its halo model ute, the Navara PRO-4X Warrior for a long-term review. We’ve said in previous tests that we think the Warrior is the best out-of-the-box Navara ever, so we’re only too happy to get some more time and kilometres in one.

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Made in Melbourne

Nissan’s collaboration with engineering firm Premcar transforms a regular Navara PRO-4X in to the Warrior at its facility in Melbourne where a dedicated team hand-builds each car down an assembly line. We joined the line for a day to help assemble our long-term Warrior.

Premcar has been operating in Melbourne for more than 20 years and grew from what was Ford Performance Vehicles in to the stand-alone engineering firm it is today. Nissan’s Warrior program is just one of Premcar’s programs, but probably the most visible one as others entail behind-the-scenes engineering for a range of clients.

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Premcar currently employs around 85 people, 35 of whom work on the Warrior production line.

While some might think that what Premcar does with the Warrior is just the same as what happens at any aftermarket 4x4 accessory workshop, they couldn’t be further from the truth.

The work that the team at Premcar does is next level! It’s way above anything I’ve seen in any aftermarket workshop and this comes from the history of working with the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) such as Ford and now Nissan. Many of the team currently at Premcar have worked for OEMs in the past and have brought this level of skill and attention to detail to the job.

Our Warrior

Nissan gave us a choice of colour when selecting our Warrior (it only comes in three shades) but I used the opportunity to request a manual gearbox.

veryone has their own preferences and opinions on transmission choice and while automatics might make life easier, I like the interaction of a manual cog-swapper; and manuals are getting harder to find in new-car showrooms. So it took a little while for our Stealth Grey PRO-4X to arrive at Premcar.

The PRO-4X Navaras arrive complete at Premcar, straight off the boat from Nissan and ready to be transformed. The production line consists of nine stages before the newborn Warrior is wheel aligned, quality checked, road tested and ready for delivery to the Nissan dealer.

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At stage one, the original rear wheel and tyres and suspension are the first things to be removed. They are replaced with new coil springs and shocks designed and engineered to Premcar’s specifications to improve the ride quality and chassis control both on and off road and improve off-road capability.

The standard Nissan wheel arch trims also say goodbye at this stage and will be replaced with bigger flares at a later stage in the process. Some of the standard Navara parts go back to Nissan, while others are sent for recycling.

Also at this stage, the rear section of the tailpipe is modified to give clearance for the new tow bar and the centre crossmember is removed and has two holes drilled ready to accept the underbody protection plates farther down the line.

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It was here that I began to appreciate the attention to detail that is paid by all the staff on the line. After drilling the holes in the crossmember, the raw metal is touched up with paint to protect against any future corrosion and when I bumped a new front strut on the control arm when installing it on stage two, the bright red paint was again touched up to maintain protection.

Every single nut and bolt that is removed and refitted or replaced in the build process is torqued to specification using a selection of preset torque wrenches specifically located at each stage on the line. The team appears to find the right wrench for each bolt without looking, as everything is positioned where it needs to be to make the process as easy and safe as possible. They get the job done much smoother than my bumbling and fumbling for the right tools.

Premcar usually gets around 10 Warriors down the line each day, but on this day it was only nine. Put that down to my slowing the process down with our car.

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At stage two the standard front struts are removed and stripped, and the replacement struts assembled. Again, the springs and shocks were specifically tuned to Premcar’s specs, in this case the dampeners have a 44 per cent decrease in low-speed rebound to improve wheel travel and ride comfort, but a 55 per cent increase at high speeds to improve control. The standard bump stops are also replaced with ‘jounce bumpers’ that are more progressive than stock to better absorb shock at full suspension compression.

Our experience with driving Warriors to date has shown that Premcar has got the suspension just right on this car, creating better on and off road control and ride quality than the standard Navara and most any standard mid-size 4x4 ute.

The original front bumper, undertray and inner ’guards are removed at this point too and the plastic inner ’guards are trimmed in readiness to be refitted farther down the line.

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Stage three and with the front of the car fully exposed, it's time to start fitting the new front bumper. But before that we fit the wiring looms for the LED light bar and the new rear brake light that will go on as part of the sports bar in the cargo tub. Like everything that goes on to the Warrior, the looms are all made to OE specification and look factory in their installation.

The Australian-made and locally painted Warrior front bumpers are pre-assembled with their fog lamps, sealing strips and mounts to one side of the main production line, while we fit the mounting brackets to the front of the chassis. The heavy-duty mounts allow for adjustments side-to-side and up and down when the bar is lifted in to place and measurements are taken to make sure it’s all squared away before the bolts are torqued up.

With the front bar fitted and the front Warrior wheels and Cooper AT3 tyres in place, our Navara is really starting to look like a Warrior now and this also allows the installation of the bright red under-tray and underbody protection plates before moving on to the next stage. The new tow bar is also fitted here. This bar is different to a regular Navara part as it allows more space for the bigger spare wheel to match the new wheels on the car.

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Bigger wheels and tyres, a steel bumper and the capability to fit a winch to that bumper, all add weight to a car so the Warrior gets an added 100kg to its GVM and the new suspension is designed to manage that increased weight.

The next step is to cover those wider wheels and tyres with a new set of flares. Again, these are pre-assembled on site and ready to install.

The Warrior package adds a plastic cargo tub liner to the Navara so the team has to remove the internal tie-down points and Utili-Track mounts before fitting the liner. The sports bar can then be fitted and the wiring for the brake light that was fitted a few stages back, is plugged in.

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While that work is going on in the tray, the wiring for the light bar switch is threaded through a grommet in the firewall to allow the switch to be fitted on the dash. The gauge binnacle is also removed and a speedometer correction box is installed. This little electronic box accounts for the larger wheels and tyres now fitted to the Navara and calibrates the speedo accordingly.

The final stages of the assembly see the Warrior get its warpaint on in the decal bay, just so there’s no mistaking the identity of this ute. Then it’s on to the wheel-alignment hoist for final adjustments to bring the settings back to spec with the new suspension, wheel and tyres.

The road test starts with a visual inspection of every part that was touched as part of the Warrior build process. This includes checking for paint marks on all the bolts and fasteners signifying that they were torqued up to spec. A full-lock turn on leaving the car park will reveal any tyres touching inner guards that may not have been correctly fitted and the lap around the block includes a stretch of freeway that allows the speedometer to be checked against the GPS.

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Our Warrior passed all tests and was ready for delivery, but we couldn’t drive it away on the day. It still had to be registered and detailed, so we had to wait another week to get behind the wheel.

My day at Premcar following our Navara down the line, helping where I could but generally trying not to get in the way, was very interesting. Most impressive was the way the assembly line works, the attention to detail at every stage of the process and the pride and care shown by all of the folks that work on it. It’s a credit to all the staff and those behind the scenes that designed and engineered the processes and the car itself. As I said at the start, the professionalism shown by everyone is next level and far beyond anything I’ve seen in aftermarket workshops.

Premcar head honcho Bernie Quinn, told me later, “That’s because we’re not aftermarket. This level of workmanship comes from years of working directly with the OEMs, improving the vehicles so that the manufacturer can sell them.”

While we’ve previously reviewed the PRO-4X Warrior, this will be our first drive of one with the manual gearbox and we’re looking forward to hitting the tracks in it over the coming months. In fact, I think we’ll run it in with a good old fashioned road trip!