Nissan SA has hopped on the cab-and-a-half bandwagon with a King Cab version of its big Navara bakkie that's been available only as a double cab since its 2005 launch.
The front doors open normally; small back doors (affectionately known as "suicide" doors) open rearwards to get at the storage area behind the seats. This (quite decent-sized) space will take more than the proverbial briefcase and laptop, swallowing golf bags, labradors or many other items you'd rather not have sliding around the load box.
The King Cab is available as either a 4x2 with a 106kW/356Nm, 2.5-litre turbodiesel or as a 4x4 with the same engine boosted to 128kW and 403Nm. It was the more powerful version we tested and, as long as I wasn't in too much of a hurry, I enjoyed its gutsy power delivery.
Apart from turbo lag which can catch you out if you change gears at too-low revs the engine delivers good cruising muscle and acceptable acceleration.
Torque is the order of the day - the kind that snacks on steep hills and will tow boats and caravans without raising a sweat. It's reasonably refined, too, producing an audible diesel clatter without sounding as if it belongs in a mielie field.
The six-speed manual gearbox is slick and power-assisted steering ensures direction changes are effortless, making the Navara fairly accessible and easy to drive despite its bulk.
The King Cab is available only in middleweight XE specification with power windows and mirrors, remote-controlled central locking, front-loading CD player and aircon but lacks such luxuries as cruise control, leather steering wheel wrapping and multi-disc audio system as found in the higher-spec, double cab models.
Optional Garmin-based touchscreen satnav is available at R10 000. It integrates audio, Bluetooth and a DVD player in a large touch screen in the dashboard. Never mind that it was faulty and radio channels kept changing by themselves, the system was generally user-unfriendly and the tiny touch-screen icons seemed to have been designed for fairy fingers.
Trying to work out the system from the confusing user's manual was little help. Back to the drawing board, Nissan.
The Navara is pitched as an upmarket lifestyle bakkie but its beefy ladder-frame chassis and solid rear axle on leaf-springs give it solid workhorse credentials - even more so in this two-seater version which has a load box 330mm longer than that of the double cab with the same one-ton payload and class-leading three-ton towing capacity.
VERDICT
Nissan calls its Navara XE King Cab a "hardened street-fighter all dressed-up for an evening's fun". I can't disagree but please fix that audio/satnav system.