Junkyard Find: 1993 Nissan NX1600
The Nissan NX was never much of a big seller in the United States, and only the first-cousin-of-the- Sentra-SE-R NX2000 gets any attention from potential diamond-in-the-rough rescuers today. That means that you won’t see many of these cars in the wrecking yards, so I decided to photograph this purple-duct-tape-customized example in a Denver yard a couple months back.
The GA16DE DOHC engine in this car made 110 horses with variable valve timing, which wasn’t exactly big power. It did manage to get 33 mpg on the highway.
Digital dash!
The Black Ice Little Tree is the second-most-popular flavor of Car-Freshner product found in American junkyards; New Car Scent is #1. Note the purple-tape-wrapped steering wheel.
Purple tape may be found in many places in this automobile, in fact.
Rollin’ on Arizonians!
It was sold in Europe as the 100NX.
In Thailand, women were indifferent to NX-driving men.
Australians became werewolves behind the wheel of an NX.
In the NX’s homeland, it was pitched as a cute car made of rubber and sold to “kids at heart.”
And, of course, the American-market NX ads were boring and focused on cheapness. Only $6 a day to drive this car!
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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I used to sell Nissans for a bit in early 1990s, so I've had a fair amount of time behind the wheel of these cars. The NX1600 drove and handled like a Sentra XE - no surprise there. On the other hand, the NX2000 was an amazing corner carver for a FWD sports coupe, a hugely underrated car. The Sentra SE-R got all the love, however. Although it shared the same engine as the NX2000 and Infiniti G20, its handling was nothing special IMO. Whereas you could take the NX2000 by the scruff of its neck and toss it around curvy roads and it would love every minute of it. Very tossable. I'd say that the NX2000 was almost at the same level as the much-loved 240SX. In fact the NX2000's engine was more refined and eager to rev than the 240SX's coarse engine. Of course the interior of the 240SX was more unique and interesting, whereas much of the NX2000's interior used parts from the Sentra. Anyhow, at legal speeds, the NX2000 and 240SX were the most fun-to-drive Nissans in the line-up at that time. The 300ZX were fun to be seen in, but it couldn't hold a candle to its less powerful siblings at normal speeds.
Speaking of NX's, I found a Pulsar the other day at the junkyard. Regular hatchback, not the rare sportback, unfortunately.