Three-quarters front view of a Grey and White, 1991, Nissan Figaro, on display at the Deal Classic Car Show 2022


The Nissan Figaro is a front-engine, front-wheel drive, two-door, 2+2, fixed-profile convertible manufactured by Nissan for model year 1991, and marketed in Japan at Nissan Cherry Stores. A total of 20,073 Figaros were produced by Nissan in the convertible's single year of series production—all with right hand drive. As a fixed-profile convertible, the upper side elements of the Figaro's bodywork remain fixed, while its fabric soft top retracts in conjunction with a solid panel with a defroster-equipped glass rear window—as seen in other fixed-profile convertibles, including the original 1957 Fiat 500 and the Citroën 2CV. With its design variously attributed to Naoki Sakaiand/or Shoji Takahashi, the design recalls that of the Gutbrod Superior, a German fixed-profile convertible marketed from 1950-1954. Nissan introduced the Figaro at the 1989 Tokyo Motor Show, using "Back to the Future" as its marketing tagline. Based on the first-generation Nissan Micra, the Figaro was manufactured at Aichi Machine Industry, a special projects group which Nissan would later call "Pike Factory", which also produced three other niche vehicles: the Be-1, Pao, and S-Cargo. Aichi had originally built independent kei cars like the Cony 360 until Nissan assumed operations in 1966, and was also the original manufacturing location for the first generation Nissan Sunny. Based on the Nissan March (Micra) platform the Figaro uses a (987 cc) turbocharged engine Because of its origins at Pike Factory, Nissan's special project group, the Figaro (along with the Nissan Pao, Be-1 and S-Cargo) are known as Nissan's "Pike cars," and represented a design strategy that adapted "design and marketing strategies from other industries like personal electronics."[4] In 2011, design critic Phil Patton, writing for the New York Times, called the Pike cars "the height of postmodernism"[4] and "unabashedly retro, promiscuously combining elements of the Citroën 2CV, Renault 4, Mini, and Fiat 500".[4]


Size: 5299px × 3190px
Location: Betteshanger Country Park, Sandwich Rd, Deal
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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