When Toyota and Nissan unveiled the new generation Hilux and Navara last month, bakkie lovers immediately turned their attention to 2026. Both vehicles are special to South Africans and consistently rank among the best-selling bakkies, with the Hilux being the country’s best-selling car. I had the last special-edition variants of the current generation on test for a week — the Toyota Hilux Legend 55, which celebrates 55 years of the Hilux, and the Nissan Navara Pro 4X Warrior.
This special edition is more than just an aesthetic upgrade. I wanted to understand where both brands can improve and what I would like to see in the new models. Then I also found out that Nissan is not bringing the new Navara to South African shores, which disappointed me, given that we are a bakkie-loving nation.
I took a look at the exterior, interior, the ride quality and value for money before deciding which special edition I would actually buy if I had the money. For the Legend 55, without changing too much from the original Hilux, Toyota has added blacked-out accents, badging around the car, a sports bar, a lockable roller shutter, underbody protection, and two-tone 18-inch alloy wheels with a machined finish and beefier all-terrain tyres. Basically, it’s a Hilux that took a few protein shakes and went to the gym.
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I quite like that Toyota has just beefed up the Legend 55 without spoiling too much of the next generation from an exterior perspective. It lets you focus on what the current Hilux is, but adds some style to make it an attractive bakkie. The Nissan Navara Pro 4X Warrior is a similar story.
Nissan has taken the Navara Pro 4X and sent it to lift some weights as well. The Warrior takes everything that the regular Navara Pro 4X has and adds a body-coloured hoopless bullbar with an integrated LED lightbar, a steel bash plate, unique wheel arch cladding, and Warrior decals around the vehicle. However, the Navara Pro 4X Warrior adds more than just aesthetic changes to the vehicle. For starters, it has a revised suspension developed by Premcar, which means the rings, dampers, and jounce bumpers have all been upgraded for better off-road performance.
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