Britain's biggest-selling 4x4 pick-up truck is being recalled so that an airbag problem can be corrected, after the vehicle received an “extremely poor” safety rating.

The Nissan Navara received only one star for the protection it offered its occupants in a crash test conducted under the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP).

Identification of the slow deployment of the airbag on the car has prompted Nissan to contact 6,700 buyers of the 2008 model, made between May and December last year, advising them to take the car to their local dealer.

Owners of older vehicles will be contacted in a second phase of the scheme, which began this week. Although their vehicles are not affected by the airbag problem, Nissan said that it would be updating the airbag deployment on every Navara on the road since the start of production.

More than 29,000 of the Navara pick-ups have been sold since its launch in Britain in January 2005 .

Brian Carolin, European senior sales and marketing vice-president, said: “At Nissan we take vehicle quality and integrity extremely seriously, so when the issue of the slightly delayed airbag deployment on model year 08 Navaras was identified we immediately developed a counter-measure.

“We also initiated a service campaign, inviting all owners to have updated software applied to the airbag control unit of their vehicle, so that those owners can continue to use and enjoy the Navara in total confidence.”

Nissan has provided Euro NCAP with a Navara with the modified airbag control unit for retest. The results are expected at the end of March.

After examinaing the original, Euro NCAP concluded that, in the front impact test: “The Navara's passenger compartment became unstable in the impact and would have been unable to withstand greater loading.”

It went on: “Protection of the driver's chest was rated as weak, owing to the extent to which the chest was compressed, combined with the threat posed by the unstable passenger compartment. The passenger's neck was bent rearwards in the impact, presenting a high risk of life-threatening injury.

“The airbags and seatbelt pretensioners were triggered late in the impact and readings from the driver dummy's head also indicated a high risk of life threatening injury.”

The Navara is popular with safety-conscious families seeking an alternative to conventional 4x4 models. Its advertsisements say that driver and passenger airbags are fitted as standard to give “peace of mind that comes from knowing that you and your passenger are protected in the event of a front impact”.

The 2.5 litre diesel-powered truck — priced from £17,615 and weighing two tonnes — scored only one out of a maximum 16 points in the front crash test.

The Navara was not the only pick-up vehicle to receive low marks from Euro NCAP. The Isuzu D-MAX/Rodeo gained only two stars for adult occupant protection as it had “an unacceptably high risk of life-threatening injury to the chest region”. Isuzu said thatits engineers were investigating the poor showing.

A third pick-up, Mitsubishi's L200, performed much better and was awarded four stars for adult occupant protection.

Aled Williams, project manager at Euro NCAP, said: “There are more and more of these vehicles on the road bought increasingly as passenger-carrying vehicles by people who like the image and believe they will provide high levels of safety for their family.

“We are disappointed that some manufacturers have not invested the same levels of development in the safety of these models as they have done in regular mainstream passenger cars. We would expect manufacturers to provide a high level of protection for all their customers — not just for some of them.”

The demand for pick-up trucks has been fuelled by a loophole that allows buyers to claim back the 17.5 per cent VAT tax paid on purchase if registered as a business user.