The Nissan Figaro Is a Crazy Retro Japanese Tiny Convertible

This is a 1991 Nissan figuro and it is strange and quirky to say the least. The figurine is a

tiny

car much smaller than a Mini Cooper, but it's also a

retro

car meant to evoke the 1950s, when cars were huge. That's just the beginning of the weirdness. with the figure and today I am going to review this car and show you all its quirks and features before we start. Great news, this figure is currently for sale and is being auctioned live on cars and bids. This is a ridiculous car, but. very cool with a

convertible

top and a design that is sure to turn heads wherever you go and can be yours in cars and deals, so once you finish watching this video click the link in the description below to visit the live auction of this

crazy

Nissan figure. where you can bid on it and buy it only on cars and bid at the right time for the ccs and the features of the Nissan figure and I'm going to start with an explanation of what exactly this is and how it came about.

A Japanese car company created a

retro

'50s car in the '80s, complete with a

convertible

top and chrome Tru trim, so I'll take you back to the mid-to-late '80s. Nissan has a subcompact car called the March, in some markets it is called micro, but in Japan it was called March and it didn't sell very well, so Nissan ran an internal competition among its designers to create a slightly different facelifted version of the March that would add interest and make it sell. That car was called B1, that is. I would like to be or not to be-1 and it was a March but with a different body that looked retro, cool, funky and modern and people loved it, suddenly, this compact car that was not selling so well, this new one appeared special.

B1 edition version and there were queues out the door trying to get one, so Nissan came up with the idea of ​​making weirder retro cars based on the Nissan March and that's exactly what Nissan did over the next few years, they released three further. Weird little retro inspired cars based on the post B1 gear and they all came out of Nissan's Pike factory which is a bit of a misnomer because there was no special factory set up to make these cars, they were built together with a Nissan partner. Instead, the term was applied simply to make them seem cool, special, and distinctive and create some mystery.

The factory Pike cars were the Nissan pow which was a hatchback like the Nissan March but weird with a totally

crazy

look that was distinctive and special and exciting there was also the Nissan cargo. I had one of these cars, it looked like a snail and it was called sargo because it was a cargo vehicle and S Cargo in French means snail, it was very smart and wonderful and I loved mine. but by far the most desirable, most exciting, and best-known Pike Factory car is this one, the figure that came out last after all the others.

Now the figure was Pike Factory's only convertible car and was probably the most over-the-top of the retro designs it was. very special and was a huge success when it was announced that Nissan only planned to make 8,000 units of the figure, but the demand was so significant that they ended up building another 12,000 units for a total of 20,000 and even then it was so popular that they had to create a system of lottery to decide who was given the opportunity to purchase a figure. It was a huge hit in Japan in the late 80's. Now there are many fantastic quirks about the strange and wacky figures.

I'm going to cover them all in this video, but one of my favorites is the colors. To you, this car may look green, but no, it's actually spring. You see the figure comes in only four colors and each one was meant to represent a season in the calendar of the year, so this green color. which I think was technically called Emerald Mist was the color of spring, there was also a light blue that was summer, there was a gray that was winter and there was a kind of light brown that was fall, the four colors that represent the four seasons and those things only.

Going weirder from there now, one of the Figo's most distinctive quirks is its design and specifically its '50s-inspired design language, which utilizes many of the tropes and touches of '50s vehicles. The best The 80s chrome trim is long gone, but it was common in the 50s, so the figure has a top chrome strip and a bottom chrome strip that It really emphasizes the 50s design language. It also had large circular lights in the front, just like 50s cars did. in the rear, just like 50s cars did again to mimic that era design, then there were the wheels which you can see which are white with a silver plate in the middle and were meant to represent the white wall tires that were common on cars from the 50's.

I actually didn't sell it with rims. whitewall, that didn't exist anymore and when you replaced the tires it ruined the look of the car, so they turned the wheels into some kind of imitation whitewall tire with a chrome hubcap or wheel cover. in the middle to further recall that point of 50s design language and the chrome continues on the bumpers, you can see a chrome front bumper here, just like the old big chrome bumpers on 50s cars, well , here it is on a car from the late 80's early 90's. but it looks the same on the back, you had another chrome bumper that looked perfect and wonderful.

Actually the figure is a pretty amazing version of a 1950s car reduced to the dimensions of a late 80s/early 90s Japanese car, if you told AI. to make you a car from the 50s but very small in Japanese, this is exactly what I would show you. The crazy thing is that Nissan actually built it and beyond the '50s look of this car, there are some other interesting exterior quirks, one of which was that there was no Nissan. badges or markings anywhere on this car above the license plate in a chrome frame you had a printed figure, but not Nissan on the front, it also said figure with a special distinctive emblem and it didn't say Nissan, but it was very very small, that was what you did.

There is no other Nissan logo anywhere on this car, even the key doesn't say Nissan, it says figuro in the same distinctive font, letting everyone know that this was something special, something different from a regular Nissan, but that's when you go inside. the figurine that really hit you with a burst of 50s retro madness and wonderful and amazing features you just open the door and the first thing you see is the seat, this padded leather seat with lines down the center looks exactly as you would I've gotten into a car from the 50s. Nice piping on the sides.

This really looks like a bucket seat from a 1950s car, which you would expect from a retro 1950s car. The steering wheel has a thin rim and three painted spokes. A thing that again REM reminds you of exactly what you would have found in a 50s car, but the especially good thing they have done here is the wonderful use of chrome throughout, for example the gauges, tachometer and speedometer . It has this chrome trim like it would have had back then, these switches to turn various things on feel like old school 50s style switches to turn things on instead of the plastic buttons that would have been around in the early 1950s. 9s, even the CL climate controls have this chrome faceplate, as you can see, and then painted switches that you move them from side to side, interestingly, the climate control screen is all in English, it's almost like they know that This crazy car would one day be highly desired in the United Kingdom, where it is very popular, and in the United States, and would eventually find its way there.

So English made more sense for the presentation of this material. Next, take a look at the radio which, of course, is in the center control console. The radio tuner dials here are old school chrome, which you would normally see on an old 50's model. The painted radio and buttons take that point even further, plus the clear circular buttons in the center have a feel similar to an old school radio, something you definitely wouldn't have seen in the late 80s and early 90s, also similar to a car from the 50s are the turn signal actions you can see are painful and very thin, those were two common features of cars of that era, the actions of the turn signals and that's what you have here in the figure to imitate the warning lights, as you can see.

On the side are individual chrome-rimmed warning lights, like the ones you had when warning lights started being developed on cars in the '50s and '60s. It works, even the font they use on the gauges is some serious old fashioned school in the past. The font is not something you would have used on the 880s with its italics and orange numbering, it suited the feel of this car and then there was the DE flu logo, you can see it on the floor mat, kind of like this floral design that appeared everywhere. In this car's location you can see that the design is also repeated on the horn in the center of the steering wheel.

The chrome surround on the speaker shares that floral design. Same thing on the window switches. The power window switches have the same floral design, not only. The typical window switches and chrome door handle surround also have the same flower design you saw in those other places. If you look deeper, you'll see it in other places. The climate control faceplate, the edges have those kind of flowers. design curve like you saw in other places and even the pieces of the stereo that you turn, these little chrome tabs that come out of the dial, share the same floral design that you saw in many other places, you can also find that floral design on the threshold of the door.

Inside this car you have this chrome strip like you would on a '50s car and it ends with this sort of three-pointed flower just to make the point and give you some '50s continuity, but what you're definitely interested in more of the figure is the top and how it works and what it does so here's the deal right now as you can see the top is down and I can stick my hand out the roof Glorious and it's all open air but if you want to put the top on, start in the driver's footwell where you see a little switch, you pull that switch towards you and the top trunk releases, you go back there, you lift the top trunk and that's where the roof is stored and from there you raise the roof. of the top trunk, you take the top part and pull it completely over the car and glue it roughly in place and then you close the top trunk, then you go back inside the car and close it manually.

This is a multi-step process. that's a bit annoying and requires you to get out of the car and it's the same when you put the top back down, first you have to unlatch the upper trunk in the driver's footwell with that switch and then open it again. In the top trunk, you make sure the top has already been unlatched on the inside, then you push it back and then insert it into the top trunk until it is completely in place and then you close it, it's an annoying process that requires you to manually pull a switch, unlatch the roof, send it back, get out of the car, open the top trunk, put the top on and close it, it's a long process and therefore a bit of a pain, but the benefit is that when the top down isn't just sitting back there, bunched up and looking ugly, it's actually inside the upper trunk, so the lines of the car are preserved, the ridiculous styling of the car remains the same and that's a pretty cool benefit , the real downside to the convertible top on this car, however, is that even when the roof is down and you're in convertible mode, the roof rails on the sides, all sides of the car are still in place.

This was also a 1950s design feature, it is intended to imitate the citrone 2cv. On the Fiat 500, both cars had large roofs that could be folded back and the sides stayed in place, but it doesn't feel as convertible as you might want, that's how the top works in the figure and by the way, okay worth pointing out. Keep in mind that when you lower the roof, there is an extra step you have to do that you don't do when you put it back on. Specifically, you need to put this piece of leather in place. Now, technically, you don't have to do this.

It's more aesthetic than anything else, but the car looks better with the leather on and if it starts raining with the roof down, you don't want water getting in, so it stays like garbage out of the upper trunk area, but that It's the convertible top method on the Nissan Figuro, but there are still more features of the Figuro to cover. Let's start with the back seat, whichyes it exists, it is tremendously small, it loses the stuffed style of the 50's front seats, but it is there if absolutely necessary for a chinchilla, that is the back seat, it is very small, although there is infinite headroom with roof down, so I guess there is that benefit now.

The other interesting thing about the figure is that it has a trunk, the upper trunk takes up 2/3 of the back of the car. and the trunk is only given the last third, but it exists to open it, you put the key in, you turn it and then it lifts up like the engine cover on a Volkswagen Beetle or other rear-engined cars of this era, it's also something like that. a throwback to the 50's if you think about it but you lift it up and you can see there's room there there's also a spare tire so there's not a lot of room and it's not exactly carpeted and it's not exactly easy to get to because you have to lift this up and then there's an attachment that you can put into place, but even then you have to reach all the way down to get your stuff out.

It's not exactly designed to be as practical as possible, but again you have extra storage in the back seats since they can't be used by humans and finally we move under the hood in the figure that is front hinged, you open it this way and reveals the massive powertrain, specifically a 1L 4-cylinder turbocharged engine that generates approximately 75 horsepower. and 75 pound-feet of torque, this is where the car differs significantly from 1950s vehicles in that it is such a small engine, although the total amount of power is not that different nor is the acceleration when you think about it but that's the powertrain in the figuro now all figuro models were front wheel drive and all figuro models had an automatic transmission the figuro was never made with a manual this was also true for the

nissan

cargo the other really cool Pike Factory car, they were only automatic, but the B1 and pow were available with automatic or manual transmission, so if you wanted to roll your own Gears in a Pike Factory car, you had to get one of those, no you could do it here. 75 horses and an automatic.

This wasn't made for thrill driving, but it's still an exciting car. Driving the Nissan Figuro and what a ridiculous car. You can see I have the roof open or off. I'm not sure of the correct terminology. but it's a wonderfully magical outdoor experience, as you can imagine, especially if you've been following my channel for a while. I love this car. I had another Pike Factory car. I had an S cargo for myself, the S cargo is the most interesting of the Pike Factory cars, but there is no doubt that the figure is the most desirable on the market, they sell for the most money, they are in the most demand because it is a convertible and because for many people the figure looks better.

Certainly every effort was put into it to make it different, special, unique and exciting. The S cargo, as cool as it was on the outside, was actually a pretty traditional car on the inside, obviously this is not the case at all. Have you seen, what is the driving experience like? Well, we're right, and Drive, obviously all the figures were, as they were sold new in Japan and we're automatic transmission, which again, all the figures were as a result, you might think. The car isn't particularly fun to drive, but that's not the case; On the contrary, it is quite exciting to drive for several reasons.

Number one is that at any given moment, you are very aware of what exactly you are driving while you are driving this car. like you, you realize very easily that you are in something absurd and ridiculous and that adds to the fun a lot of absurd and ridiculous cars inside don't really let you remember that they are absurd and ridiculous, it's more for the people of Por outside, but this car looks over the top of the Easter colored body, you can see it clearly and you have this whole interior that looks like the 50s in this ridiculous, goofy way, so this car looks wonderfully absurd and feels wonderfully absurd when you look at it.

You're driving it, which is a lot of fun and adds to the fun. Then you have the open roof situation, which is obviously cool. You have a completely open roof. Now I admit it feels a little more claustrophobic or closed off. than a normal convertible because the sides here stay in place which is a bit disappointing but the benefit of this is that for them obviously cheaper to manufacture which meant a cheaper price when the car was sold new and I'm sure there is a security. The benefit of having these things still here keeps you a little less windy, but you get a full convertible experience, uh, in terms of the feel and the wind, especially when you turn around and look around, it's really cool. .

This now, from a pure driving experience perspective, this car is of course not particularly engaging or exciting, that's not really the point of this car, although it's fine in terms of drivability under acceleration, it holds its own. traffic pace, no problem, it's not too slow, it's not too much. you're worried about dying when you're driving and behind a yurus you don't feel considerably smaller than you are, but you don't, it's not like you're riding a bike here, um or on a smart cross blade, generally speaking, it feels good on the highway, um, but it's a car that I would definitely like to limit to, you know, shorter distance driving around town, that kind of thing, that's what it's for, that's where it's most fun, you get out on the highways.

It's not the original intention of this car and I don't think it would really reward you with the driving experience, but it is a very nice little car and it is fun to drive because it is so cute and so small and so ridiculous even though it may not really be nice to drive in the traditional sense, it's certainly not a sports car, you're certainly not tearing it up, but you're sitting behind this fantastic '50s style dashboard with this kind of thin rimmed steering wheel and chrome accents everywhere. and an open roof and it feels special and honestly, as much as I don't like driving right-hand drive cars, cars that generally apply to performance cars where you're really trying to enjoy them in this car, I think which kind of adds to the novelty is like, hey, I've got this ridiculous car, it's got a ridiculous look, a ridiculous roof, a ridiculous backstory and it's also okay, and it drives, and that makes it even more ridiculous.

The fun thing about this car is that it's basically impossible not to have it. It's fun when you drive it, it's basically impossible not to smile and not think it's cool and cute, and I love cars like that, it might not be the same way, you know, have fun, it's my Countach, it's the same. deal on the Countach you get in that car it's impossible not to have fun this is the same thing it just comes from a totally different angle but at the end of the day the smile on your face is still the same and it still makes you happy to drive um and I love it That, I love cars that just make you happy and this is definitely one of them, what a ridiculous little creature, and that's the Nissan figuro.

I love this thing, it's hilarious, cute, weird, twisted and strange. and I've always wanted to review one and I'm so glad I did and now you can buy it at cars and deals and now it's time to give the figurine a score from Doug and Doug's score is here 45 out of 100 which puts the figurine here vs some kind of cars similar to the figuro it does well in this company even though the E1 and the cappuccino are much more driver focused the figuro is not as fun to drive as those cars but it is much more comfortable and still the same a joy, but in a totally different way, the figurine really is a small, fun, exciting car and attracts a lot of attention for its price.

It may not be a supercar, but it will still make you smile at all times. you get behind the wheel or even when you see it parked in your garage for