- Doors and Seats
5 doors, 5 seats
- Engine
1.6i, 4 cyl.
- Engine Power
81kW, 147Nm
- Fuel
Petrol (91) 6.7L/100KM
- Manufacturer
FWD
- Transmission
Auto
- Warranty
3 Yr, 100000 KMs
- Ancap Safety
NA
1993 Nissan Pulsar Review
No GPS, No Bluetooth and No Keyless entry, why in 2015 would you want or even need such an outdated car??
- Reliable Engine, Servicing/ Running Cost, Comfortable to drive
- Body Roll, Age of plastics
The pulsar is as tough today as the day it rolled out of the dealership when it was new, Nissan made their small family city runabout a car for the masses and it was, almost everyone you meet either had or knows someone that had a pulsar such was the reliability and suitability built into such a small package.
With the arrival of the N14 Nissan changed the pulsar it was no longer the boxy looking N13 but it wasn't a ground-breaking departure, with soft flowing body lines that introduced the pulsar as a friendly car to do the school pickup for families, for Nanna to turn up to bingo in style and everyone in-between.
This particular pulsar has been a reliable work horse for 22 years and has only had a few minor hiccups (but what 22 year old is perfect) Over the cars life time it has racked up 185,815 Kilometres and gets 350-400 kilometres to a tank of fuel, With soft flowing lines outside the interior is just as friendly soft touch plastics and buttons make the pulsar comfortable to use on a daily basis.
A quiet 1.6 litre engine sits under the bonnet and only makes itself known under hard acceleration, this pulsar being an automatic does not help when going up hills but that should be less of an issue in the manual version. Comfortable seats up front help the pulsar's cause but the rear passengers might get a little grumpy after some time as the seat is set in a really awkward position of not quite high enough and a little too close to those up front.
On the road the Pulsar is a handy little mover with enough power to quickly get up to and hold the speed limit around town, but with its great around town abilities the pulsars prowess on highways is pretty cumbersome with the toque seeming disappearing as you reach the top of its range making overtaking a bit of an issue, and high speed corners aren't friendly to the pulsar either with it having some noticeable body roll at anything over 80 km/h, But in all fairness to the pulsar it was designed as an around town car, a trip to the shops here and there and the school pick up.
Now the Pulsar is not without some misdemeanours, the rear seats means long distance road trips are uncomfortable for rear seat passengers and the pulsar is starting to show signs that it is 22 years old with some of the plastics fading and becoming brittle, and that lack of high end toque makes long distance drives a little tiresome on the car and driver.
So why in 2015 do I still have this outdated car?
Even without GPS, Bluetooth and keyless entry the pulsar still does a phenomenal job of getting from A to B reliably, an engine that has survived 22 years and still runs well is something to hold on to, fuel for a week is $50 and the services are cheap and not to frequent, most cars in the sub $5,000 category are destined for the scrap yard but the 1993 N14 Nissan Pulsar is a fine example that cheap doesn't always mean destined to be scraped.
This pulsar even without some of the new mod cons still does everything it was designed to do so it means you can spend more time enjoying the places the pulsar can take you whilst knowing the pulsar will get you home safely.