(first published 11/21/2011) You want to talk turkey? Let’s start with the only vehicle where the manufacturer tried to buy back every single one that had been sold, to be sent to the crusher, because they kept self-immolating. In 1994, Nissan offered top Blue Book values or more for them (up to $7k), as well as $500 discounts on new Nissan vehicles, after four recalls couldn’t fix persistent engine fires. But apparently, a few die-hards wanted to keep their Nissan Vans, although this is the first and only one I’ve seen in decades. And I’ve been saving this one for two years, just for Turkey Week. I wonder if it’s gone up in flames since then?
The Nissan Van’s problems are highly ironic, given that the very similar Toyota Van (above) has become perhaps the ultimate roach in places like here, having long ago replaced the VW Bus as the rolling box of choice for certain segments of the population. It’s a rugged and durable as it gets. I promise a full CC on them shortly. So what went wrong with Nissan’s?
There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with Nissan’s Vanette, which is just another representative of that class of Japanese vans that are/were to be seen all over the developing world, as well as in Japan. Simple, rugged, with mediocre dynamic qualities, to be sure, their ilk in varying sizes are still being made by the millions in China today.
But when the minivan explosion in the US hit hard in 1985, with the Caravan/Voyager twins, the Japanese suddenly found themselves on the outside looking in. So they quickly adapted their work horse vans to conform to US safety standards, which explains their ant-eater front ends. Power trains were also beefed up, given American’s preference for automatics and air conditioning.
And this is where Nissan stumbled, big time. They shoehorned in the larger 2.4 L Z24i engine into the engine bay that had previously been occupied by smaller and more austere engines. Combined with fuel injection, A/C, etc, the engine bay became prone to overheating and engine fires, especially when a leaky valve cover gasket allowed oil to spill on the exhaust manifold. But that was only part of the problem.
Four recalls were initiated to solve the overheating issues, which also contributed to the fires. A whole new cooling system was part of the recall, including new radiators, fans and warning system. But problems persisted, and Nissan started offering to buy back owners’ problematic vans. When word of that got out, a class action suit was initiated, which led to the settlement offer of the buyback of all vans.
That only came to about 33,000 vans, sold in 1987 and 1988, mostly in California. The debacle cost Nissan some $200 million. So if you’ve never seen one, it’s understandable. I wasn’t supposed to either.
My family had an ’87 XE van that my parents bought used around 1990. We put a lot of miles on it, but I also remember spending an awful lot of time at a Nissan dealer with my dad while all the recalls were being done.
By the time they told us they were doing a buy-back of the vans, the Quest had been around for a couple of years–a van that was actually designed to be a minivan. My dad said to the Nissan rep, “Why don’t you swap this van for a Quest? It’s good PR, and my family would have the van they originally believed we were buying.” He recalled that they got a little hot-headed and said something like, “We can’t just be giving away new vans!”
So, at that point, he was DONE with Nissan, took the money and purchased a VW Vanagon.
Well… I have acquired a gem of an oldie ’88 GXE from inheritance of my Father. I am not physically able to maintain use of it, I must part ways with it. Here are a few photos below…….
$13,000
If interest arises call me – Jonathan at (318) 709-4174
Note: the purple color what can look to be as a big scratch on the bottom side of the slider is a thread behind my camera lens it absoulty is not a scratch.
Hola me podrías ayudar con el número de parte del filtro de aire por favor saludos
My parents had one when I was a child
hola..tengo una xe en Argentina..no se como habra sobrevivido..
Reading these comments makes me feel rather bad because I had a Plymouth Cricket (Hillman Avenger in England) and I still have a 1988 Nissan Van. Kind of makes me think that I have bad judgment in cars–of course, that might explain the Sterling 827si, the Austin America and the many Renaults that I owned over the years.
I had an ’84 Toyota 7-pass.van, bought it used in ’86 and put 100k+ trouble-free miles on it. Gutless but great, that was our “moon-unit”.
I immediately recalled the 1923 air-cooled Chevys and 1973 Citroens with the Comotor rotary engines as other examples of cars that the manufacturer tried to pull off the road, but I see others beat me to it. But wasn’t there also some brouhaha about the Lancia Beta Montecarlo sold in the UK that were pulled off the market for a whole year to fix brake problems? I thought Lancia bought back some defective cars, but I can’t find anything online about it with a quick search. Two other examples would be the 1960s Chrysler Turbine Car and GM’s EV1, both of which the manufacturer took back and crushed most examples; of course neither of those were actually sold to their end users and they were recalled so the dealers wouldn’t have to supply parts and service, not because of safety defects.
Anyway back to the Nissan van – the local Nissan dealership used one of these as a courtesy vehicle to take service customers to the subway station, and I recall the insides were nicely fitted and surprisingly plush. But one thing stood out as glaringly out of place – the entire steering column was exposed, a long metal tube just like in a 1940s car.
The Turbine cars were made in Italy. They were intended only for customer feedback on the turbine concept, but never intended for sale. Chrysler would have had to pay import taxes on those cars. Or they could donate them to museums, export them back to Italy, or crush them. A few were donated, but most museums were not interested.
As for the GM EV-1, GM never intended to sell these to customers. Only to lease them. Probably for the same reason as Chrysler, to get customer feedback on the concept. After the EV-1 program, GM did not want to support the cars for parts and service. Kind of a pity, they had a strong following. No doubt today someone would have been happy to provide parts and service for those cars besides GM.
Chrysler destroying most of the turbine cars to avoid import taxes seems to be a widely circulated myth. The taxes on 55 cars would have been something like $25,000, a pittance given what the turbine program cost. Chrysler was much more concerned with liability (and bad publicity) if something happened, or having to train dealers and supply parts.
I rode in one of these Nissan vans on a business trip to Toronto in 1987…I went to visit a group up there, and one of them had a Nissan van…we went from Toronto to near Hamilton in it, got to sit in the shotgun position as I was their guest, they took me out on Lake Ontario on a sailboat one of them owned that was built in 1934. We ate at the dock and had a good time.
I later met one of them in Seattle, flew from Philadelphia (wasn’t a jetsetter, was visiting my relatives in NEPA and didn’t have time to fly home, so went directly from vacation to business trip). Spent my 29th birthday with him and a group of other people from work, then flew home. I lost my housekey and had to break into my own home (had just moved there year before, but I’m still living at the same address).
I like space efficient vehicles, and this van was about as good as it gets in that regard..of course I never had to work on the engine on one of them, imagine it would be a big pain
We drive this Van in Europa with Dieselmotor. Nothing Problems than Brake and so on. This Vans was very better then the VW Bus. It was going from us with 360000 km to Afrika. The Byer takes 4 Years later ( 2019) from us a Toyota Previa with Dieselmotor. He said his Company is driving the Nissan Vanette (Name in Europa) in Nigeria and now its so 500000 km. The only Problems of this Van was in Amerika with the too big and wrong Motor for this Van.
I also have a 1987 Nissan Van named “The Grey Wolf” working on fixing the exhaust right now finally found a mechanic and part but should be back on the road this summer in Eugene, OR!
Stephanie
This is mine, picture from today. I’m so happy! Gàbor from Hungary
I owned a Nissan Van. I never had a problem with it. I hated to turn it in but I did because it made sense at the time. It had a beverage cooler/heater between the front seats. It was pretty gutless up hills.