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Toyota Carina DX TA60: faithful as a dog?

Autoweek user review on Toyota Carina DX TA60 – Carina Sightings

January 23, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

I did happen to read a review of a 1983 Toyota Carina DX TA60 some time ago on the website of the Dutch car magazine Autoweek. This review spoke fondly about the car and how well it pulled their caravan. That reminded me of the many vacations I spent in my father’s Carina DX TA60 wagon with the same colour.

1983 Toyota Carina DX TA60 - You got to love that dog sitting next to it! — 1983 Toyota Carina DX TA60 – You got to love that dog sitting next to it!

This is the full (translated) review:
Used the Carina for over 11 years. Never had any issues.
Spent many vacations with the caravan in hot climates. Never budged. As it’s rear-wheel-drive it’s ideal for pulling caravans. In my memory one of the best cars I’ve owned. Already 20 years have passed since I sold the car. Not because it didn’t run anymore, but because the inner wheel wells were rusted through. Water was entering the cabin through that.

Is this Nissan Cefiro A31 whaling the Japanese salaryman? – Commercial time

January 21, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

The 1988 Nissan Cefiro A31 was offered as a sporty four-door saloon alternative to the Toyota Cresta and Chaser competitors. It shared many components with the Skyline (R31), Laurel (C31) and Leopard (F31) of a similar generation. The drivetrain and rear multi-link setup were shared with all four of them and the front strut-based suspension with the Laurel. If you squint your eyes, you will also conclude it shares its design with the beautifully styled 1988 Nissan Silvia S13.

Nissan Cefiro A31 (top) looks like a Laurel C31 with a Silvia S13 (bottom) nosejob

So can we conclude the Nissan Cefiro A31 is just a Nissan Laurel C31 with a Silvia S13 nosejob? Perhaps it does. Judging from the various ads I found online it’s rather aimed towards the sportier image of the Silvia than the dull salaryman image of the Laurel. Most ads tend to highlight this. Most of them. Most of them except this one featuring a whale:

Can you guess how many Nissan Be-1s have been imported?

Nissan Be-1 car statistics – How many are left?

January 20, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

I think it’s very interesting to find out how many are left of a certain car and the Nissan Pikes cars always had my attention. I recently found a website that scaped the Dutch license plate registry and aggregate cars. This, in turn, allows me to scrape their site and pull my own statistics out of it. That’s how I recently found out there are 269 Nissan Figaros registered in the Netherlands.

Nissan Figaro I encountered in Kensington, London

So I thought, why not create a How many are left series where I highlight a certain car or set of cars and try to figure out how many are left? Today I’ll kick off with the Nissan Be-1, which was the first of the Nissan Pikes cars.

Nissan Pikes “Factory”

Crazy 1JZ modified Carina TA60 in Pakistan – Carina Sightings

January 18, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

I happened to stumble across a TikTok video with a crazy modified Carina TA60, but I couldn’t find out who created it. That’s the issue with TikTok: you don’t really follow people, you just scroll random stuff that interests you. Today I finally found two videos of this crazy build on Youtube!

Crazy 1JZ powered Toyota Carina in Pakistan

Crazy 1JZ powered Carina

The company in question is Sbc Modifier in Pakistan. They do crazy builds like crafting a Rolls Royce bodywork on top of a Toyota Corona, a Mustang with scissor doors on top of a Kia Spectre and a Dodge Challenger on top of a Datsun Sunny B210.

Three Celebrity Nissan Figaros – Down on the Street

January 16, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

There is an unusual amount of Nissan Figaros driving in my home country the Netherlands. An even more unusual amount of Nissan Figaros is driving in my hometown. Why is that? That’s because the Nissan Figaro has a Celebrity status in the Netherlands!

Pikes cars: the Figaro

The Nissan Figaro started out as one of the Nissan Pikes cars. It is a retro-inspired car and the last and final of the Be-1, Pao, S-Cargo and Figaro quartet based on the March K10 platform. I know the Rasheen is missing, but I simply discard it for simplicity. With around 30,000 Figaros built, it’s hardly a rare car to come by in Japan. Especially with its retro styling, it will stand out against the crowd.

Nissan March Rumba – March-athon

January 14, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

The Nissan March Rumba was sold alongside the Bolero. So today in the March-athon series we’re covering everything about the Rumba and comparing it against the Bolero. But first something else. I was wondering if ChatGPT could outdo itself and make an even better joke about the March Rumba:
Why did the Nissan March Rumba refuse to dance?
Because it didn’t want to “auto-mambo” and preferred to keep its moves in “park-ison!”
Yes, ChatGPT definitely outdid itself!

Front view of 1998 Nissan March Rumba K11

What’s a Nissan March Rumba?

As you may have guessed from the introduction and the photos, the Nissan March Rumba is a retro-styled variant of the Nissan March. It became available from November 1998 onwards and was, alongside the Bolero, for sale until the end of the K11. Similar to the Tango and the Bolero, the Rumba is also a musical style (and dance) and this fits in within the March’s musical note lineup.

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