Nissan Navara tows tank in new TV ad

By Anthony Crawford | September 24th, 2012

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Nissan has done its best to stand out in the ultra competitive market of Australian ute sales, with its latest Nissan Navara television ad showing the 170kW/550Nm ute towing a battle tank out of trouble.

The advertisement centres on the pulling power of the Nissan Navara‘s range-topping 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6 being enough to provide a full-size 50-odd-ton Centurion battle tank with a pull-start in order to restart its engine.

Nissan Navara – The Tank – TV Commercial

The Nissan Navara is currently in second spot in ute sales this year with 17,361 vehicles sold, trailing the dominant Toyota HiLux by 10,224 units, with the Mitsubishi Triton in third at 11,988 vehicles sold.

Read CarAdvice’s review of the Nissan Navara here.

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PIZZA

This ute is very popular in US…can see it everywhere
- MisterZed
  
  It’s not that popular – the full size pickups in the US outsell the compacts by a huge margin. Even Toyota’s Tacoma outsells the Navara (called Frontier over there) about 2 to 1. I think Frontier is the 2nd best-seller, out of about… 4?
Sumpguard

$63,000 plus ORC - Too Dear!
- Wantmypatrolback
  
  You can get the same motor in the ST-X for under $50K – check car sales.
  - Lotsofmoneyforanissan!
    
    Must be a typo!! All the rest are above $60k
Artyysings

ummmmm,. drop the clutch, on an automatic transmission that Tanks use!! good one nissan, think you got the target right in your sights so to speak…
Speen24

WOW great ?!?! Nissan Navara can only tow 3000kg. Holden Colorado 3500kg, Mazda BT50 3350kg, Ford Ranger 3200kg….. great advertising….
- Amlohac
  
  So in a sense, Nissan are falsly advertising its tow capacity?
  
  Surely if the normal “joe” were to try and yank 50 tons up a dirt road and break the arse out of the ute, Nissan wouldnt come to the party in terms of a warranty claim?
  - Guest
    
    Do you think some office boy turns into a drill bit to get a reem of reflex paper? What about flying around in Woolworths as you’re doing your shopping?
    - Amlohac
      
      You’re telling me you CANT fly? Jesus you suck at life then hey?
      
      Cater for the people with the lowest common sense, as they are the ones who will look at that and whinge they couldnt pull their battle tank out of the mud with their Navara. They are the same people that whinge about car ads that show people driving “too fast” or “illegally” no matter how many fine print warnings they put on the bottom of the ad. So you know they exist…
- MisterZed
  
  Ford F-Series heavy duty = 5500kg towing. The Nissan is a very cute toy, though. Nice for the kids to play with until they get a real truck.
- MisterZed
  
  Ford F-Series heavy duty = 5500kg towing. The Nissan is a very cute toy, though. Nice for the kids to play with until they get a real truck.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Karl-Sass/100000921334936 Karl Sass
    
    Pfft Volvo FH16 prime mover can tow 100 tonnes, wipes the floor with any F series.
    - MisterZed
      
      Oh really Karl? And can you drive a Volvo prime mover on a car license, park it legally on the street (and in your garage), and how much does it cost by the way? Because an F-250 is about 30 grand.
      - http://www.facebook.com/people/Karl-Sass/100000921334936 Karl Sass
        
        I was highlighting that the comparison between the Navara and F series is just as ridiculous as comparing it to a truck. Equally the Navara handles better and is much more economical than the F series.
        Horses for courses, Mister Z.
      - MisterZed
        
        Well, when Nissan are asking $62,990 for their top of the line Navara, one can’t help but compare it to the F-Series, which, by the way, also cost $62,990 when it was last sold here.
  - Robert Ryan
    
    I find these US “Tow” figures as about as realitic as a Navarra towing a tank.
    - MisterZed
      
      Why are so many tow trucks F-series then? When was the last time you saw a Navara tow truck?
- Aquahead
  
  Both the BT-50 and Ranger have 3,350kg towing capacity.
whatthe….

A tank towing a tank.

Or are Nissan proposing putting a 120mm canon option?
- Sinkankan
  
  100mm cannon, the biggest shotgun used in the Vietnam war.
  - Blue
    
    Not so… The us had 155 Mils.
Westie

But a VW ToeRag can pull a passenger jet, if we believe the ad jockeys. Bit much tugging going on, methinks.
Can’t quite remember what I used last time I needed to tow start a Centurian…
- Wantmypatrolback
  
  It really did that BTW – but it needed 8000kw of ballast and a new rear end, but the motor did the work.
ABCDEFG

These kind of ads are for smallbois/fanbois. If you know ur stuff, You would know the coefficient of friction between the ground and rubber is about 1. So a 2,000kg 4WD could pull a max force of 2,000kg (19,600N) on the rope.
- Wantmypatrolback
  
  Nonsense, I have pulled a Hilux with Camper trailer up and down muddy slopes that had a combined weight of 3500kg with my Patrol which is only ‘rated’ to 2500kg.
  
  I then towed it another 50km to a service center (where it had water int he engine). Write off.
  
  I had no troubles with traction.
  - Lotsamoolah
    
    Sorry but you obviously phailed. He’s referring to the horizontal pulling force from the tow bar, not the weight of the trailer being towed.
    - tiddy
      
      phailed?
      - Sumpguard
        
        Sarkazzzm!
rampracer

Mitsubishi Motors New Zealand did a similar ad back in 1988. It was a TVC for the locally-assembled MItsubishi V3000 (similar to a TN Magna but with the narrow body and the 110kW/230Nm 3.0 V6 engine), where the car towed an Australian Staghound tank. The ad carried the tagline “More tow than an Aussie tank” and turned out to be very successful.

It was repeated in 1990, this time with not only the tank in tow, but an XF Falcon as well…

A great commercial and worth viewing if it can be found anywhere.
Car Fanatic

Arty is right, two forward gears, one reverse fully auto transmission. Thing is you’d be hard pressed to stall the engine on a centurion and that Navara would have gone nowhere.

False advertising, sue them. At least VW really did tow a Jumbo
Aquahead

I think you would only do it once with the hand grenade Nissan driveline….
- Phil
  
  Considering 40,000kms is often as much as you’ll get out of the Navara clutch under normal conditions, I wonder how many kms is now left on the clutch of that particular Navara?
  - Sumoisadog
    
    It is an automatic (7speed) – 550 is auto only ….
Basil Exposition

Next time I need to tow a tank, I’ll get a Nissan.
ginger bread man

its all a bit of beating the chest if you ask me, most of these vehicles have the same gvcm so the extra 350kg to 500kgs they claim to tow comes from where? your vehicle if you do the math on the holden colorado and you are some one who does tow 3500kg you better hope the driver is a very light person in weight and does not need to carry anything in the tray or need to take any passengers with them as they will be illegally towing.
my pick would be the Isuzu D-max can tow 3000kg while also being able to have a fully laden vehicle.
MisterZed

Normally I would suggest reporting an ad like this but I’d actually let this one slide, because that’s what Nissan want – for the ad to get complaints and get free publicity from it. Just let people watch it themselves and realise the stupidity of it. Hopefully it will backfire for them. We know that Nissan are 2nd place only because they still sell that rubbish 3rd world D22 Navara that’s nearly 15 years old now.
LN

Shame this Nissan is a lemon. Look at how many faults this car has.
- ABCDEFG
  
  This is a Renault. What do you expect.
Ahunter

The tank was plastic…….
Sinkankan

A Centurion weighs thirty tonne plus, a Leopard recovery tank needed low gear to move these ex WW11 tanks, and that was with two 24mm wire ropes.
What hope has a puny NIssan 4wd of even budging this tank, maybe just maybe if the tank had it’s tracks removed and it was sitting on a level concrete pad with just it’s road wheels.
This is blantant false advertising, and believe it or not there is actual laws to protect us against these false claims.
Mind you you can buy a Toyota HIlux and drive it over a cliff and find it three days later, and still drive away.
- Blue
  
  52 tons plus.
Blue

Centurion Tanks Aust Mark 5/1 weight over 52 tons. They can NOT jumped started ..Its impossible. They also do not have an auto gear box .
I drove one for many years including in Vietnam.
Meh

Really? Of course it’s not f@#%$ real…it’s an ad for cryin out loud…it’s not supposed to be grounded in fact. Just like every other ad you see, Hilux’s survive salt water, Colorados aren’t parked in grandstands of stadiums being demolished, Hyundais aren’t good looking, they don’t blast furnace Toyotas to test them, Honda robots don’t work out in a gym and so on, let it go FFS.
Markxe2003

stupidd navarra owners, live up triton
Spaarky

I can’t believe a car company would disrespect our troupes this way. if war was just as easy as sending a 4WD in I’m sure our government would have already implemented this solution. To take such a complex issue and make a mockery of it is disappointing.

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Nissan Navara tows tank in new TV ad

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