Toyota Hilux vs Nissan NP300 Navara - 2020 Midsize Pick-up Truck Comparison in the Philippines

Overview

The 2019 Toyota Hilux is one of the best-selling pick-up trucks in the Philippines, well-known for its extraordinary reliability. With its nameplate of Hilux introduced in 1968, the truck has been evolving for decades, building up its outstanding reputation.

The latest (8th) generation of the Hilux made its debut in 2015, and has been receiving some refreshments in recent years. The new Hilux is constructed body-on-frame, based on Toyota’s Innovative Multi-purpose Vehicle architecture, with upgraded exterior design, refined interior design and improved engines. 

The 2019 Nissan NP300 Navara is also a midsize body-on-frame pick-up truck made by a Japanese company. Although the birth of the Navara was in 1985, later than the Hilux, Nissan, however, has been accumulating its experience in producing pick-up trucks for over 80 years.

The current generation of the Navara was launched in 2015, based on the new D23 platform and comes with new powertrains. 

Exterior

To begin with, the 2019 Toyota Hilux differs a lot in exterior design depending on variants.

The lowest trim levels (Cargo, FX, Cab & Chassis and J), with plastic bumpers and steel wheels, are just workhorses, and can be even fitted with cargo boxes. But things are a lot different for higher trim levels, especially the Conquest variants. 

The E and G variants have a redesigned, sharply sculpted front fascia, bumpers and wheels. The side mirrors come with turn signals, and can be opted for body-colored or chromed. The whole body shares the same design language that is also applied on its bigger brothers, Toyota Tacoma and Tundra.

The Hilux Conquest flaunts its wildness with tons of rugged off-road reinforcements fitted. Exclusive LED headlights, bulging fenders, restyled bumpers, 18-inch black alloy wheels, anti-roll bars, aggressive-looking grilles...The Hilux Conquest must be an off-road beast.

The exterior of the 2019 Nissan NP300 Navara doesn’t have much of a difference per variant.

The ordinary model includes the base model (4X2 6MT), the EL and the VL. These trim levels share the same exterior design, and are offered with 5 color options. 

The EL and VL trims come with sports edition variants that provide honeycomb grilles, LED headlights, exclusive front skirts, anti-roll bars, exclusive 18-inch alloy wheels and a new color option. 

It’s not hard to choose a winner between these two trucks on their exterior. The 2019 Toyota Hilux wins, for sure (not the workhorse variants). The ordinary models of the 2019 Nissan NP300 Navara looks actually pretty luxurious when fitted with 18-inch alloy wheels, but the sports edition is just not that sporty, and not special enough. The 2019 Toyota Hilux Conquest, on the other hand, can definitely leave some impressions when seen on the road, and the non-Conquest mid-trim variants look kind of distinctive, thanks to Toyota’s design language. So, here’s the winner of exterior.

Winner: 2019 Toyota Hilux (base models excluded).

Interior

The main theme of the 2019 Toyota Hilux’s interior is “Command in Comfort”, classical Toyota style. The car-like interior design is also a part of Toyota’s Innovative Multi-purpose Vehicle architecture. 

Although the vehicle is on a truck chassis, and despite all the power or even hardcore off-road equipments that comes with this vehicle, the goal of its interior design is to make sure the driver and passengers can always ride in comfort. 

The interior of the 2019 Nissan NP300 Navara is designed with the same goal of being comfortable. The interior looks like a sedan, too. And with Nissan’s featuring astronaut-inspired spinal-support seats, the impression of truck interiors shall be blown away.

Both two trucks feature the same theme of interior design, and receive pretty much the same equipment. So it just depends on personal flavor.

Winner: no winner.

Engine and Performance

The 2019 Toyota Hilux offers two engine options: 2.4 L turbo diesel and 2.8 L turbo diesel, while the 2019 Nissan NP300 Navara has only 1 engine option available - the 2.5 L YD25DDTi.

Here are some basic specs on engine and performance of both vehicles:

From the figures, the 2GD-FTV engine on 2.4 L variants of the 2019 Toyota Hilux produces less power than the normal version of the YD25DDTi engine on the base and EL variants of the 2019 Nissan NP300 Navara. But, the 1GD-FTV engine that fits on the 2.8 L variants of the Hilux is more powerful than the high power engine on the VL variants of the NP300 Navara. That means 1 point for each model, and the winner depends on variants compared.

Winner: no winner.

Pricing

Let’s take a look at the price chart of the two trucks:

To compare, the start price of the non-workhorse variants (the EL and VL) of the 2019 Nissan NP300 Navara is similar to the corresponding variants (the E, G and Conquest) of the 2019 Toyota Hilux at around ₱1,200,000, but the highest trim level of the NP300 Navara (4x4 VL 7AT Sport Edition) costs ₱200,000 less than the highest trim level of the Hilux (Conquest 2.8 4X4 A/T). But the Hilux Conquest 2.8 comes with more hard-core off-road gears, an exclusive exterior design and the most powerful engine, while the NP300 Navara 4x4 VL 7AT Sport Edition doesn’t change a lot, compared with lower variants. 

Thus, the extra cost of buying high trim levels of the Hilux is no nonsense, and considering the wider price range and more variants the Hilux offers, it should be the winner.

Winner: 2019 Toyota Hilux.

Fuel Consumption

The 2.8 4X4 variant of the 2019 Toyota Hilux has the heaviest weight and the highest power output. An hour of highway drive at 90 km/h returned 14.4 km/L and fast city paces at 60 km/h read 10.2 km/L. Low-speed crawlings in heavy traffic, however, returned 7.2 km/L, while the 2019 Nissan NP300 Navara VL with less weight and less power output returned 6.8 km/L. The fast-paced drive read 12.2 km/L and highway drive returned 16.2 km/L. 

Although the test results show that the 2019 Nissan NP300 Navara VL may be more fuel efficient than the 2019 Toyota Hilux 2.8, the Hilux 2.8 doesn’t fall far behind. For the heavier weight, more power and more displacement that the Hilux 2.8 comes with, this little difference in fuel consumption isn’t really significant.

Winner: no winner.

Conclusion

With so many variants of both vehicles that differ a lot from each other, it would be a hard choice to decide which truck is better. For the aspects compared above, the 2019 Toyota Hilux is the winner, with better exterior (except for base model) and better pricing. But the 2019 Nissan NP300 Navara is definitely not a bad one - it is just not that characteristic as the Hilux.