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Market Finds: Pao! Buy this Nissan!

Pao! Buy this Nissan!

By Petrolicious Productions
June 9, 2014
6 comments

The car: 1989 Nissan Pao! (editor’s note: the exclamation point is ours)

Price: $9999 OBO

Location: Washington State, USA

Original Ad: Click here

Americans don’t often get to sample Japan’s most interesting offerings. How long did we do without the Nissan Skyline GT-R? Even home-market variants of familiar vehicles like the Honda Civic typically look much better in their non-U.S. incarnations.

So a tip of the hat to Petrolicious reader Mr. Johnny Dixon for the head’s up on this Nissan Pao. Looking like a baroque Japanese wagon with a heavy dose of cute, it’s basically the completely pedestrian Nissan Micra underneath, another car never available in the U.S. Powered by a 1.0L four-cylinder and shifted by a five-speed manual, the seller says the Pao “… can actually go on the interstate highway, just not in the left lane!” although driving in the passing lane with a RHD vehicle would be somewhat disconcerting anyway. For a heavy dose of utility with a high fun quotient, the 12-foot Pao could be considered a modern Japanese iteration of the Citroen 2CV (dare we say Renault 4?) that can be serviced at the same place as your GT-R.

If you know of a great, stylish car for sale and would like us to feature it, please let us know!

Petrolicious makes no claim as to the accuracy of the information contained in the car’s original listing, nor will it be held responsible for any errors in said information. If you’re interested in this car, do your homework and research it extensively before you buy.

Tags 1.0L Four Cylinder/ Classifieds/ Nissan/ Pao/ Washington
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Johnny
Johnny
8 years ago

Price has been lowered to just over $6,000!

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Antonio Maldonado
Antonio Maldonado
8 years ago

One curiosity. Nissan is a Japonese brand. That… everybody knows. What probably a few people know, is that the portuguese arrive to Japan by sea about 500 years ago, and set there a colonie, so. some japonese words came from the portuguese language (5th language most spook in the world). That´s the case of the word Pao, which gave name to this car, and which means … bread! Indeed … is what this car lookslike!

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Benjamin Shahrabani
Benjamin Shahrabani
8 years ago

Now that a lot of these cars are over 25 years old, we’ll probably be seeing more of these cars that were denied to us folks in the USA turning up here.

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RJ Mundt
RJ Mundt
8 years ago

These are quite common in Tokyo. To be honest, I never even knew the maker or name of this car till I saw this article though I see them almost daily. Another great Nissan is the Figaro. A couple of funky cars!

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Matthew Lange
Matthew Lange
8 years ago

These are quite a familiar site in London although like the US they were never officially imported here new. Judging by the ones I have seen (and the closely related Nissan Figaro) watch out for rust. I don’t think Nissan ever intended these to still be on the road this long and skimped on the rust prevention.

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Antony Ingram
Antony Ingram
8 years ago
Reply to  Matthew Lange

I expect you’re right. Given the styling, and the concept behind this, the Be-1 and the Figaro, I think Nissan saw them as short-term fashion accessories more than long-term ownership propositions.

To be fair though, I probably see more Figaros than I do regular superminis from the late 80s and early 90s. No small car seems particularly long-lived from the era…

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