Digestible Collectible: 1988 Nissan Pulsar NX SE

Chris Tonn
by Chris Tonn

Various companies and trade groups have discovered that focusing marketing effort on a short period of time can generate significant buzz, and thus potential increased sales. Discovery Channel has “Shark Week.” Restaurants in various cities have Local Dining weeks. New York hookers have Fleet Week.

TTAC, in the same clickbaity manner, has “Sorta Obscure Twentyish-Year-Old Japanese Hatchback Week.” I’m not sure if I can repeat this next year, but this week has brought very rough examples of oddball Isuzu and Mazda hatches. Today, however, I have a personal favorite that isn’t one busted balljoint from the scrapyard.

It’s no secret that I’m a Datsun/Nissan fanatic. When counting only cars that actually ran while in my possession, I’ve owned more Nissans than any other make. This distinction is important due to the many non-running Civics and Miatas I’ve parted out. If I had the spare time and cash, I’d be tempted to fly to British Columbia and bring this 1988 Nissan Pulsar NX SE back home.

The “SE” is the special bit. While most Pulsars carried an anemic single-cam four cylinder, the SE had a 130 horsepower twin-cam CA18DE under the hood. In today’s world, that doesn’t sound like much, but that was impressive in the late ’80s. I haven’t seen production figures, but it seems that very few were imported. Personally, I’ve only encountered two of them in my life, one of which was in a junkyard.

The vinyl graphics on the flanks are a bit hokey, but appropriate for the times. The interior is impressively spotless, though the hard-wearing tweed looks less than plush. My kids wouldn’t be comfortable in that rear seat/shelf for more than the two miles to school, but that’s why I have a minivan.

I don’t know if I could bring myself to spend $6,500 on this, plus the costs involved in bringing it 2,500 miles to Ohio. I’ve always wanted to fly-and-drive-back-home a new-to-me car, but the border crossing concerns me.

Plus, I’d have to find a Sportbak.

[Photo credit: By Tx3 (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons]

Chris Tonn
Chris Tonn

Some enthusiasts say they were born with gasoline in their veins. Chris Tonn, on the other hand, had rust flakes in his eyes nearly since birth. Living in salty Ohio and being hopelessly addicted to vintage British and Japanese steel will do that to you. His work has appeared in eBay Motors, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars, Reader's Digest, AutoGuide, Family Handyman, and Jalopnik. He is a member of the Midwest Automotive Media Association, and he's currently looking for the safety glasses he just set down somewhere.

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  • Gabbychad Gabbychad on Jan 27, 2016

    I'm in CA and have this car. Been garaged for years now. Willing to sell.

  • Kristine Longo Kristine Longo on Jul 03, 2023

    I have a Sportback accessory that we need to move on. My first car was a 1988 Nissan Pulsar. We bought the Sportbak from the dealer. Does anyone know if there is an interest for this?

    • Chris Chris on Mar 04, 2024

      I have a 1987 Nissan pulsar and I’ve been looking for a sportbak.


  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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