The Nissan Be-1 is one of the original Japanese “Pike cars,” a wonderfully odd little design experiment that came out of Nissan’s Pike Factory styling group in the late 1980s. Underneath all that cheerful retro bodywork is much more ordinary hardware from the K10 Nissan March/Micra, which means front-wheel drive, simple mechanicals, and a tiny […]
It isn’t often that you see a Nissan offered for sale across the street from Honda’s North American headquarters. Don’t recognize that spot… it’s okay, I’ll explain — that bridge is the railroad crossing bridge just southeast of the American Honda Motor Co HQ in Torrance, California. I know the spot well; I’ve driven by […]
This next feature is a rear-drive Japanese sport-luxury bruiser with 330 horsepower, a proper gearbox, and just enough depreciation to make bad decisions feel financially sophisticated. This G37S coupe is what happens when a 370Z grows up, gets fancy leather seats, but still makes bad decisions on the weekends. Find this 2009 Infiniti G37S offered […]
Our next feature is a 1997 Infiniti Q45t, the Touring version (which wasn’t a wagon, but instead was a sorta-sport package) of Infiniti’s second-generation flagship sedan and the American-market relative of the Japanese Y33 Nissan Cima. Power comes from Nissan’s VH41DE 4.1-liter DOHC 32-valve V8, which pushes 266 hp and 278 lb-ft of torque to […]
There is a term in the automotive world that doesn’t get used very often these days, but is very descriptive of a type of car from a bygone era which I think we’ve got in this next thing: it is called a magazine car. These are cars that are modified to be featured in a […]
The first generation Datsun 240Z is one of the great Japanese sports cars: long hood, short deck, straight-six power, rear-wheel drive, independent suspension, and styling that made European GTs look expensive and fragile. These have gotten expensive in the past decade, but today’s example doesn’t look that bad for the asking price. Find this 1971 […]
The Nissan Sentra SE-R is one of the great cheap-thrill compact cars of the ’90s: small, light, front-wheel drive, manual, and powered by the excellent SR20DE. The formula was simple but brilliant: take an economy Sentra coupe, add a rev-happy 2.0-liter twin-cam four, 5-speed manual, limited-slip differential, and proper suspension tuning. Suddenly, Nissan had a […]
Today’s next feature looks like it just drove out of a dust storm while fleeing burning man. It is a first generation 240Z with flares, stance, and rough edges… oh yeah, and a huge wing. It leans hard into that desert-runner, Mad Max vibe without losing the bones that made these cars great in the […]
The late-1980s Nissan Pulsar NX was less a single concept and more a modular experiment in what a compact car could be. Coupe, T-top cruiser, or wagon-like “Sportbak,” it blurred body styles in a way few manufacturers were willing to attempt, all on a simple front-wheel-drive platform. To say that the Nissan Pulsar is odd […]
The first-generation Nissan Pathfinder, known internally as the WD21, arrived in the mid 1980s as Nissan’s answer to the growing demand for compact, truck based SUVs that could handle both daily driving and real off road work. Built on the same ladder frame as the Hardbody pickup, early Pathfinders combined simple mechanicals, available V6 power, […]