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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.
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!
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…