Nissan Navara Calibre

[phutoie2]

For those who follow the Thai pickup truck market here (I do!), this week in our town the annual OTOP street fair is happening, as every year all the local dealers have their cars on show. At the Nissan stand something called a 'Calibre' on display, yes Nissan have finally joined Toyota/Mitsubishi with the Prerunner & Triton Plus in knocking out something described as the 'urban utilty pickup'.

If you havent already guessed, its available in Black, been ridiculously jacked up a few extra inches and has been fitted with bigger tyres (255/70's now). No change's to the already grunty enough 144ps 2.5 YD series engine Price a reasonable 715,000baht for the 4 door model (Not sure if there is a King Cab version), that comes in at 10,000 Baht cheaper than the LE Double cab manual transmission.

It did have cloth seats, as all Navara LE's have leather, hence the lower price I guess.

Also at the show attracting a lot of attention from the local's the new Mitsubishi Pajero sport, the one on display had the 7 seats fitted and leather seats plus auto gear box, 950,000 Baht according to the pretty young thing showing it off.

The Toyota stand had a special grey livery 4x4 auto Vigo and the new smart cab Vigo. Finally the Isuzu boys had a solitary Highlander on display, times are hard at GM I here!. No money!!

A quick update on my own Nissan Navara LE king Cab 4x2, now owned for 19 months, 40k km on the clock, just done a holiday to Samui driving from central Petchabun. Replaced the OE tyres with wider 245/70 Maxis Bravo, a much smoother ride with little noticable effect on fuel consumption. A few annoying squeaks and rattles from inside the cab when going across rough roads but overall quite pleased with it

I noticed that Nissan have increased the price by 30,000 baht since I purchased mine, but at 619,000 Baht with 69 Baht to 1 X GBP when I bought mine, perhaps its best feature.

ps: What ever happened to Mike the Vigo man? I always enjoyed his contributions to TV motor forum.

[rixalex]

ps: What ever happened to Mike the Vigo man? I always enjoyed his contributions to TV motor forum.

Me too. I think you'll find he moved back to the UK. Why that means he doesn't post i'm not sure - perhaps he's joined the rat race and is too busy.

The Nissan Calibre looks nice and beefy in the ads. Haven't seen one in the flesh yet though. My guess is that they'll make a good used purchase as Nissans don't hold their value so well.