RAM 2500 vs Nissan Navara

What's the difference?

Before the 1980s, when air travel was expensive, the humble Australian family car had to be able to tow a big boat or caravan in order to take the brood on holidays across our vast, sunburnt land.

Many turned to oversized American barges, like the Dodge Phoenix and the Pontiac Parisienne. People loved their massive dimensions, huge interiors, endless torque and look-at-me status.

And guess what? They still do. And even the same carmakers remain today, thanks to Chrysler’s Ram 2500/3500 Heavy Duty (HD) – which grew out of Dodge – and General Motors’ Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD.

Now, the Ram HDs, which were also the first of the modern American remanufactured trucks in Australia back in 2015, have come in for an overhaul.

How do the latest 2500/3500 stack up? Keep reading.

Developing a new motor vehicle from scratch costs billions which is why manufacturers are increasingly sharing vehicle platforms and technology to spread these ever-increasing costs across two (or more) strategically aligned automotive brands.

This ‘badge engineering’ strategy is becoming popular in the light-commercial vehicle (LCV) segment as evidenced by partnerships between Ford and Volkswagen with their Ranger/Amarok and Transit Custom/Transporter pairings, Isuzu and Mazda with their D-Max/BT-50 duo and Chinese contenders MG and LDV with their U9/Terron 9 tie-up.

Mitsubishi and Nissan have recently established a similar relationship, with Mitsubishi’s Triton donating its underpinnings for the latest Nissan Navara. We recently spent a week with Nissan’s new entry-level model grade to assess its credentials from a tradie’s perspective.