Poetry In Motion: 1989 Nissan Stanza Sedan vs 1986 Nissan Stanza Wagon

Happy Friday, Autopians! Another week in the books, and what a week it has been. I’ve been stuck at home all week due to the weather, but it looks like we’re turning a corner now. For the last day of this weird week, I want to show you two examples of the same car, courtesy of the folks in the Underappreciated Survivors Facebook group.

Yesterday, we went down to Cow Town and looked at a horned Lincoln and a spotted Neon. I assumed the hot-rod Lincoln would run away with it, but lo and behold, the little Neon won. I realize that many of those votes were qualified with “despite the automatic,” but still, it’s nice to see a car I really like win one.

And yes, that’s basically the same three-speed automatic Chrysler had been using ever since the K-car days, and it’s similar in design to the rear-wheel-drive Torqueflite automatics that date all the way back to the 1950s. Who cares? Maybe I just don’t have very refined taste (actually, I know I don’t), but I’m perfectly happy with a simpler version of something, if I can rely on it. I don’t need fancy stuff like a fourth gear.

Now then: It’s hard to remember, when you see a beat-up Altima weaving in and out of traffic, or when the rental company tells you all they have left are three Versas, but Nissan used to be a respectable automaker. Perpetually lagging behind other Japanese makes in sales, Nissan made and sold some really good cars thirty or forty years ago. But they weren’t memorable cars, except for the fast ones. Today we’re going to sing the praises of the neglected middle child of Nissan’s lineup, the Stanza, and remember that at least one version had a really great trick up its sleeve.

1989 Nissan Stanza GXE – $3,000

Engine/drivetrain: 2.0 liter overhead cam inline 4, four-speed automatic, FWD

Location: Rochelle Park, NJ

Odometer reading: 32,000 miles

Operational status: Ad doesn’t really say, actually, but I assume it runs and drives

1982 was a big year for Nissan in the US. The brand name change from Datsun to Nissan began, and along with it, the model numbers were replaced with actual names. Two of those, the Sentra and the Stanza, were all-new cars. The front-wheel-drive Stanza replaced the rear-wheel-drive Datsun 510 which replaced the 710, though all three were called the Nissan Violet and/or Auster in Japan. I can’t help but wonder if its sales might have been better if Nissan had not kept changing the names of things.

The Stanza is powered by Nissan’s fuel-injected CA20E four-cylinder, putting out 105 horsepower. Its performance was on par with similar cars of the day, which is to say slow. This one has an overdrive automatic, but even a manual Stanza is pretty pokey. This car sounds like the quintessential “little old lady who only drove to church” car; it has had only one owner, and covered only 32,000 miles. It’s practically a time capsule.

This car makes me miss the days when car interiors came in more colors than just black or gray. Common practice was to make the inside match the outside, like this one. It does make junkyard-diving for parts a bit more difficult, of course; you can always find the missing or broken piece of trim you need, but never in the right color. This one doesn’t appear to need anything, but there is an odd wear pattern on the driver’s seat, like the owner had something in their pocket all the time or something. At least it’s not worn through.

Outside, it’s straight and shiny, as you’d expect from a garaged car with so few miles. It may not be the most exciting thing on four wheels, but it’s also a practically new thirty-five-year-old car, cheap.

1986 Nissan Stanza Wagon – $2,250

Engine/drivetrain: 2.0 liter overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD

Location: El Cajon, CA

Odometer reading: 104,000 miles

Operational status: Only says “great on gas,” so I guess it runs and drives?

The four-door sedan wasn’t the only Stanza model available, though. This is the Stanza Wagon, which was known as the Nissan Prairie in Japan. Though they called it a wagon, this is in some ways closer to a van; it has sliding doors on both sides (more than a decade before Chrysler’s minivans), but there’s more: There is no B-pillar. Open the front door and the sliding door, and you’re faced with a massive hole in the side. This makes it incredibly easy to get people – or stuff – in or out, but I imagine you couldn’t get away with it these days, with modern side-impact standards.

The doors latch at the top and bottom, so they can be opened independently; you don’t have to open the front door before the rear door, like on a Honda Element or a Saturn coupe. It’s a really neat bit of engineering. The basic platform on which this clever, upright body rides is not the same as the Stanza sedan; it’s related to the smaller Nissan Sunny (Sentra in the US). It does, however, have the same CA20E engine. This one is a five-speed manual, and also pretty low mileage. It has had a “bunch of maintenance” done to it, which I presume means it runs well, but once again, the ad is light on details.

This is a California car, and I almost didn’t need the ad to tell me that. It has no rust, but the paint is baked to a chalky, matte finish. The only shiny paint is inside the door sills and under the hood. But personally, I’d take faded and chalky over rusty any day. Inside, it’s at least as clean as the red one, and once again, matches the outside.

It also has some wonderful ’80s touches like the grid pattern on the instrument panel, and speakers mounted in the ceiling in the rear. According to the seller, it sounds pretty good, too. So once again I have to ask: What would you play in it? Me, I’m thinking Level 42, specifically the World Machine album. No reason; it just seems to fit.

So there you have them: two different cars, about the same age, with the same engine, but very different overall. You can’t go wrong either way, I think, so it comes down to personal preference. Shiny old-lady sedan, or cool but faded wagon?

(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)