This is my Nissan Stanza, which was something of an impulse buy a couple of months ago. I'd never driven one, and they're getting quite rare now, so I thought why not?
I bought it from a chap in north London, where it'd lived for most of its life. I have MOT certificates going back to 1990, and they're all from garages in greater London. Apparently before the chap I bought it from it had been in the same extended family from new, but I can't prove or disprove that.
It drives well, and is brilliant on the motorway for a 30-year-old car. It's very high-geared so cruising is relaxed, but the engine has more than enough torque to cope. It's good on fuel too. It has no power steering so it's a bit heavy to manoeuvre, but not unmanageable. It has 5-spoke Azev alloys with Pirelli tyres all round (apart from the spare, which is also alloy, but TSW rather than Azev), which probably help the handling and also look the part (well I think so anyway).
It's fairly basic inside - no electric windows, central locking or sunroof - but it does have a radio and separate cassette player. I haven't tried the cassette player as I didn't want to risk the few tapes I still own, but the radio works. In fact all the electrics work apart from the interior light, although some of the wires on the heated rear window don't get hot and the rear wiper doesn't self-park any more. The interior is generally in quite good condition for its age, although there are a couple of marks on the seats. The heater works well.
When I bought it, it had had a bit of a knock on the front where a car had caught it while it was parked on a corner, and the offside headlight was smashed and the bumper had taken a bit of a battering. Fortunately I found someone on eBay who had broken a Stanza and he sold me a replacement headlight; even more fortunately, someone spotted a NOS front bumper for sale, also on eBay - I had to go all the way to Surrey to pick it up, but I figured I was unlikely to find one closer to home.
So it now looks like the pictures below. It isn't 100% perfect - the bumper mounting brackets were both bent, and although I've straightened them out as much as I can it would need somebody with better tools and bodywork skills than myself to get them completely right - but at a cursory glance you wouldn't know. The bonnet slam panel was slightly bent too where the headlight was pushed back, but I was able to get that more or less straightened out again. Crucially, the wings weren't damaged, and nor was the front valance.
Overall it's a very presentable car cosmetically. There are a few areas of minor bubbling, mainly around the arches, and a couple of scabs on the door and towards the front of the roof (where there are also a couple of areas of chipped paint); there's also a small area of filler in the front wing on the front edge of the arch which could do with tidying - I had a can of paint mixed up by a local motor factor using the paint code on the VIN plate, but it's not a very good match. Overall the car looks pretty smart for its age though.
Structurally it's very good for a Stanza, purely by virtue of the fact that the badges it wears still say "Nissan" rather than "Hotpoint". It's been regularly waxoyled and the underside does look very sound from what I can see. The only bit of potential structural grot I've found is a small bit on the offside front inner wing forward of the suspension turret.
Mechanically it all seems good. Shortly after I bought it, the mechanical fuel pump started to show signs of failing, so I've fitted an electric pump in line with it to help it along, and it's been fine ever since. It's not the most elegant installation in the world, but it works. The engine starts straight up, runs smoothly, pulls well and doesn't get hot, and it hasn't used any oil in my ownership. The car's done about 109,000 miles, so should have plenty of life left in it. The gearbox is similarly OK, brakes are fine, and it drives straight and true.
It's MOT'd until December this year and taxed until the end of May, so ready to drive away. Ironically, although I have 23 years' worth of old MOT certificates, I don't have the current one, but this is not really an issue any more as both the Post Office and the police have MOT details on their computers, rendering the certificate redundant. I also have a Haynes manual and a spare set of brake pads. Logbook is here and in my name.
Pictures:
I bought it from a chap in north London, where it'd lived for most of its life. I have MOT certificates going back to 1990, and they're all from garages in greater London. Apparently before the chap I bought it from it had been in the same extended family from new, but I can't prove or disprove that.
It drives well, and is brilliant on the motorway for a 30-year-old car. It's very high-geared so cruising is relaxed, but the engine has more than enough torque to cope. It's good on fuel too. It has no power steering so it's a bit heavy to manoeuvre, but not unmanageable. It has 5-spoke Azev alloys with Pirelli tyres all round (apart from the spare, which is also alloy, but TSW rather than Azev), which probably help the handling and also look the part (well I think so anyway).
It's fairly basic inside - no electric windows, central locking or sunroof - but it does have a radio and separate cassette player. I haven't tried the cassette player as I didn't want to risk the few tapes I still own, but the radio works. In fact all the electrics work apart from the interior light, although some of the wires on the heated rear window don't get hot and the rear wiper doesn't self-park any more. The interior is generally in quite good condition for its age, although there are a couple of marks on the seats. The heater works well.
When I bought it, it had had a bit of a knock on the front where a car had caught it while it was parked on a corner, and the offside headlight was smashed and the bumper had taken a bit of a battering. Fortunately I found someone on eBay who had broken a Stanza and he sold me a replacement headlight; even more fortunately, someone spotted a NOS front bumper for sale, also on eBay - I had to go all the way to Surrey to pick it up, but I figured I was unlikely to find one closer to home.
So it now looks like the pictures below. It isn't 100% perfect - the bumper mounting brackets were both bent, and although I've straightened them out as much as I can it would need somebody with better tools and bodywork skills than myself to get them completely right - but at a cursory glance you wouldn't know. The bonnet slam panel was slightly bent too where the headlight was pushed back, but I was able to get that more or less straightened out again. Crucially, the wings weren't damaged, and nor was the front valance.
Overall it's a very presentable car cosmetically. There are a few areas of minor bubbling, mainly around the arches, and a couple of scabs on the door and towards the front of the roof (where there are also a couple of areas of chipped paint); there's also a small area of filler in the front wing on the front edge of the arch which could do with tidying - I had a can of paint mixed up by a local motor factor using the paint code on the VIN plate, but it's not a very good match. Overall the car looks pretty smart for its age though.
Structurally it's very good for a Stanza, purely by virtue of the fact that the badges it wears still say "Nissan" rather than "Hotpoint". It's been regularly waxoyled and the underside does look very sound from what I can see. The only bit of potential structural grot I've found is a small bit on the offside front inner wing forward of the suspension turret.
Mechanically it all seems good. Shortly after I bought it, the mechanical fuel pump started to show signs of failing, so I've fitted an electric pump in line with it to help it along, and it's been fine ever since. It's not the most elegant installation in the world, but it works. The engine starts straight up, runs smoothly, pulls well and doesn't get hot, and it hasn't used any oil in my ownership. The car's done about 109,000 miles, so should have plenty of life left in it. The gearbox is similarly OK, brakes are fine, and it drives straight and true.
It's MOT'd until December this year and taxed until the end of May, so ready to drive away. Ironically, although I have 23 years' worth of old MOT certificates, I don't have the current one, but this is not really an issue any more as both the Post Office and the police have MOT details on their computers, rendering the certificate redundant. I also have a Haynes manual and a spare set of brake pads. Logbook is here and in my name.
Pictures:
