1992 Nissan Stanza review | Car Reviews

Like millions of other citizens of the planet, I am confined to property due to the fact of the coronavirus pandemic. The good thing is, the magic of the Net makes it possible for me to continue my get the job done and communicate with all of you.

The trouble is that the press autos that are made out there to us just about every week for street tests are also in confinement.

A catastrophe? No. In the grand plan of items, not in the minimum. Right now, there are items that are a great deal a lot more critical than a assessment the most up-to-date edition of the Toyota Corolla, let us say.  

Nonetheless, there’s no opportunity we are going to cease our street tests. Given my mad really like for previous vehicles, you can depend on me to present you with a couple gems when we wait for items to get again to some type of normal.

And to get started, why not go with the motor vehicle I am turning to in these most unusual moments to get all over when I do depart the residence? That would be a… 1992 Nissan Stanza.

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A premonitory order
In the summertime of 2018, during a single of my many virtual trips all over the Net, I came across an advertisement for this 1992 Stanza. Five items caught my awareness: the rarity of the model, its small mileage (90,600 km), the simple fact that it is geared up with a five-pace manual gearbox, its pretty acceptable total ailment, and last but not minimum, its price tag of $one,650.

What’s a lot more, the motor vehicle was found literally 5 minutes from wherever I was at that moment. For the price tag asked, did I have anything at all to drop by acquiring a backup ride at that price tag? Nope.

A take a look at to the garage wherever it was parked was swiftly arranged and a couple minutes afterwards a offer was struck. The working day in advance of I took possession, a freak incident resulted in a shattered again window. The price tag was renegotiated down below $one,000 and with the enable of a good friend in the car areas organization, I was capable to uncover the ideal replacement section. Over and above that, a couple repairs to the front suspension were being essential, but in the conclude I located myself with a motor vehicle in fantastic mechanical ailment, at a price tag of beneath $two,000.

And some thing explained to me that this motor vehicle was going to provide me a single working day when I actually essential it. I could under no circumstances have guessed beneath what situations.

Ahead of I get to my assessment, a small background of the Stanza is in purchase.

The ancestor of the Altima
In situation you didn’t know, the Stanza is the ancestor of the Altima. In simple fact, the 1992 edition I now personal was the last for the model.

The Stanza’s origins extend again to the early 1970s in Japan in the kind of the Nissan Violet, a motor vehicle marketed below in Canada beneath the name Datsun 510. The name Stanza initial appeared elsewhere in the earth some time all over 1977, but it was not until eventually 1982 that it made its debut below. That was when the Nissan name changed Datsun, which had been used considering the fact that the brand’s inception.

When the 1982-1986 technology of the Stanza came on the current market, it was a affordable accomplishment. In 1982, Nissan marketed 59,152 Stanzas in the U.S., an improve of 27% around the last year of the Datsun 510. Nonetheless, even with a record year in 1985 with sixty four,398 sales, the model lagged at the rear of its competitors, particularly the Mazda 626 (92,839 units), the Toyota Camry (128,132 units) and the Honda Accord (268,420 units).

Regardless of its undeniable features, the Stanza under no circumstances pretty lived up to commercial expectations. The bigger Maxima did far better when it joined the Nissan lineup. A new technology of the Stanza was released in 1987, but it endured from an underwhelming powertrain and was before long changed, in 1990 to be exact, by but yet another new edition.

The hurt, however, was finished. The Stanza was on borrowed time and it was with a totally redesigned motor vehicle in 1993, the Altima, that the Japanese automaker was eventually be capable to depend on a key participant in the mid-dimensions sedan segment.

My Stanza
Its background will make of the Stanza a marginal motor vehicle, and a single that that has come to be rather uncommon around time. Earlier mentioned all, it is really not at all sought following by collectors, in simple fact it is really worthless on the current market. Contact me mad, but I like the sound of all that just wonderful!

And which is why I do not wait to use it in all forms of situations and situations. In contrast, I would not dare consider out my 1967 Dodge Polara or any of my other previous autos at this time of year. And there’s the simple fact my ’92 Stanza is not accurately in showroom ailment.

Even now, it has been rather very well-preserved, for an unloved previous model. As you can likely guess, it is been given its share of rustproofing therapies, which certainly aided it make it in a single piece to 2020. The bit of use and tear it displays is very well inside of motive. Exact applies within, wherever the seat materials are not torn, just light and stained in some places the steering wheel has lost its primary lustre. The dashboard, even though, is in pretty superior ailment and the instrument panel is as superior as new.

The air conditioning performs like a charm, as do the radio and cassette participant. And that of program was the fantastic excuse for me to drag a couple artifacts out of a shoebox in my closet so I could pay attention to the things I’d used considerable time putting on my tapes in my teenagers. Magic!

At the wheel
That’s all exciting, but the greatest section of experiencing this motor vehicle starts the moment I get at the rear of the wheel and consider it on the street. The push is not similar to any supplied in contemporary autos, for the previous Stanza arrives up very well small in conditions of electrical power, house, technological innovation, comfort, braking capacity, managing, soundproofing, gas economy and a host of other factors.

And none of that issues, due to the fact the car’s connection to the street is as immediate as could be. Indeed, the steering is electrical power-assisted, as is the braking, but the “assist” section is not intrusive. Look at that to modern vehicles, which most often give you the impression of driving a pc on wheels. Below, there’s just no doubting the a single in control of the vehicle is… you.

Mechanically, Nissan made some changes for this last technology of the model, so that electrical power is truly pretty satisfactory thanks to a two.4L four-cylinder engine superior for 138 hp and 148 lb-ft of torque. And lest you believe which is outrageously puny, people figures are pretty much the exact same as people supplied by the present Nissan Qashqai and its two.0L four-cylinder (141 and 147).

Generous torque will make all the distinction in creating for a positive push in second and 3rd equipment, you can actually experience it when you are in decreased RPMs. With the ideal harmony of equipment modifications, the electrical power out there can be thoroughly exploited and the model’s functionality is downright astonishing.

Nissan’s official gas usage score for the ’92 Stanza was ten.7L/100 km in the city, 8.one L/100 km on the freeway and nine.8L/100 km blended. Since proudly owning the motor vehicle, my regular score has been nine.five L/100 km.

Not lousy at all, for an 18-year-previous motor vehicle.

Summary
That’s good, but in the conclude the smile caught on my experience when I get at the rear of the wheel of this Stanza is what is actually well worth its bodyweight in gold. In this time of test-motor vehicle deprivation, as I consider a break from the most up-to-date, tech-weighty miracles of automotive engineering, I am completely having fun with my uncomplicated motor vehicle, my previous tapes and the remarkable visibility, so a lot far better than in a lot of of the vehicles generated nowadays.

And, most importantly, all for fewer than $two,000. Let us say which is well worth at minimum a corner of that major smile pasted on my experience.

We like

Extraordinary visibility
Manual gearbox
Worth for revenue
Satisfactory usage
People asking me: “What the heck is this model?’
Fun to push
The cassette participant
Electric power windows nevertheless functioning
The heater is effective
More affordable than a cruise

We like fewer

Cruise control has checked out for superior
The inside clock doesn’t screen just about every working day
Air conditioning no for a longer period performs
Driver’s side doorway wants a severe adjustment
The brakes are jumpy
Awkward rear seats
Weak battery
Demands some get the job done to get again into major condition (like all of us!)
No protection functions to discuss of
It price tag me a lot more than a week in Cuba

The levels of competition

Honda Accord
Toyota Camry
Mazda 626
Chevrolet Corsica
Pontiac Tempest
Ford Tempo
Mercury Topaz
Subaru GL
Buick Skylark

1992 Nissan Stanza photos