1986 Nissan Laurel SGL 2.8 Diesel from Norway

Summary:

Japanese Volvo

Faults:

Fuel system completely clogged due to neglect. Disassembled then cleaned, and worked fine after.

Brakes rusted and seized, but otherwise fine.

Brake hoses and brake line rusty and replaced.

Severe rust - not fixed.

This car was generally pretty worn down. Both suspension and steering a bit clunky, but nothing serious. This car was built like a tank. Think Japanese Volvo.

General Comments:

Interesting car with bomb proof mechanics.

Very nice to drive, although a bit like a luxury tractor. Slow but a lot of torque. But too far gone in the rust department. Failed inspection due to structural rust and it was no point to repair. Sold as a parts car.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 18th May, 2026

1986 Nissan Laurel SGL LD28 diesel straight 6 from Romania

Summary:

Reliable, comfortable, a future classic

Faults:

I got the car recently, so I had no problems with it yet.

It has a few problems, though:

- Front shock absorbers are totally out of service

- The front-right bearings are a little noisy.

General Comments:

I bought this car from a guy who had it for the last 14 years, he was the 2nd owner of the car.

This is my first car and I absolutely love it.

Because this is such a rare model here in Romania, I had to search for a year until I found one.

Except the problems I mentioned, everything else is working fine on the car.

The engine runs great, it starts very easily in the mornings.

My Laurel has the old LD28 engine; it is not very good uphills, but I'm sure this is because of the automatic transmission.

The paintwork is still the original one, without any rust. I was surprised when the previous owner told me that he didn't had a garage for the car.

Because the front shock absorbers are not working, the handling is pretty bad, especially on bumpy roads.

For spare parts, I have another Laurel, a C31 from '84, with the same LD28 engine.

I am thinking to take the shock absorbers from my old C31 and put it on the C32.

Does anybody know if this is possible? Please leave a comment here. :)

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 6th October, 2008

3rd Dec 2008, 14:24

Hi and sorry for the late reply:)

About parts: I didn't tried to search for body parts yes, since I don't really need any, only a new fron mask... until now I was searching in a few scrapyards, but couldn't find any Laurel... mainly because this model was never imported to Romania, I think...

But I was able to find easily things like fuel, oil and air filters, which I already replaced, and also I changed brake pads until now.

In 2 monnths since I have the car, I did about 4500 kilometers with it, and didn't touched anyhing on it.

But now the front of the car is a mess, very very noisy but I hope I can solve the shock absorber problem this week, and also replace the ball joing and a front bearing.

Having said this, I think reliability is very very good, morning starts at -5, -10 are piece of cake, just 2 key turn and that's is... just like my friend's Golf 5 TDI...

Can't wait to solve these little problems and enjoy the great handling of the car...

One thing is concerning me at the moment: it seems to me that the gearbox does a lot of changing back, when pushing harder... I am thinking that maybe a flush and an oil change should help this. I check the oil in it, is nice orange, but I don't know when it was changed the last time and I don't even know how often it should be changed.

Just one question: I have a little swich on the console behind the gear stick: is that for Overdrive? It is better to keep it on or off?

Having said these, I will return with further updates as soon as I can.

A nice day to everyone reading this :) And don't forget to comment if you have anything to say:)

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