This Late Brake Show episode explains why Jonny bought a JDM Nissan Figaro for Mrs CarPervert (aka 'Chops'). 13-years after buying it, the Smith JDM jewel Nissan Figaro finally gets featured on TLBS and Jonny and Chops explain why they bought it, what they like, what they don't (+ includes a mini buyers guide for others), plus why the future for their little retro Japanese import involves an EV conversion.
The Nissan Figaro was launched at the 1989 Tokyo motorshow to fever-pitch interest, fuelled by a massive hype around European classic car imports to Japan during the ’80s. Nissan had already launched three other odd-ball retrospective styled vehicles under their ‘Pike Factory’ in-house coachbuild factory; Be-1, Pao and the S-Cargo van. But it was the Micra K10-based Figaro that proved to be the most popular, explaining why it exceeded the 8,000 projected sales and ended up with a lottery system to pick the 20,000 owners at random. Yeah, the little turbo-charged cartoon faced cabrio was the ‘it’ car of Japan. Sadly it wasn’t sold officially outside its native soil, hence why grey imports became rife in the late 1990s. The Figaro turns 30 years old next year, as all cars were built in 1991. All Figs are 2+2 seater convertible, RHD, automatic and have the 75bhp / 78lbft turbo charged MA10-ET 987cc 4-cylinder engine (as opposed to the normally aspirated 51bhp MA10-S of the other Pike cars). Figaros also came as standard with power steering, electric windows and genuine leather seats. Air conditioning was extra. Rare Figaro specific accessories include a parking stick, emergency flare, parcel tray, rear quarter panel shields, cabin air purifier, cup holders and boot organiser.
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