Summary:
This lemon wins the 'Lemons Lemon Award', & Nissan should be ashamed to put a badge on it
Faults:
What hasn't gone wrong with this lemon - The gear stick didn't snap, & the doors didn't fall off... That's about all that didn't go south with this dog of a car.
The 1988 model came with inherent problems that I'm only able to assume were rectified in later models (see below for details).
Problems - Engine rebuilds, heads constantly blow (inherent fault), engine mounts (inherent fault), exhaust rattles free at the baffle (inherent), all dials stick, then die, all electronic extras died (age related), computer board constantly glitched & sometimes needed replacing (inherent), all running gear replaced (age related)...
I could go on, but I'm sure you get the general idea.
General Comments:
The two huge inherent design faults with the 1988 Pintara are...
1) Overheating, due to the exhaust fan being underpowered. This has resulted in one engine rebuild. The other engine rebuild came when the dials stuck & recorded a perfect engine temperature, when in fact the car was cooking. The dials eventually died completely, & never registered revs or temps etc - Pity the odometer didn't die as well, Murphy's Law; I guess I must have driven over a couple of nuns or a leprechaun at some point.
The 2nd biggest inherent problem is the dual fire spark plug system... What can I say, this is a dog of a design fault, & from what I'm led to believe, it was discontinued in the 1989 Pintara for obvious reasons.
I've owned a number of cars in my time, & the 1988 Nissan Pintara 2.0 EXE was the biggest, juiciest lemon of them all. It could suck $$$$ from an empty pocket, & my conclusion was that it was designed by a mechanic who needed the extra work... Nissan failed with this dog of a car.
But on the upside, it was comfortable to drive when it was on the road.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know
Review Date: 19th February, 2012
1st Mar 2012, 17:26
Agreed - Mechanically speaking I'd steer clear of the 1988 Pintara. There are a number of design faults in Nissan's first fuel injected model... Mechanics love this car, owners hate it.
20th Mar 2012, 06:13
Dude, these cars rule. Have owned three so far. Maybe it had been abused by a previous owner. They are usually tanks.
7th Apr 2012, 02:16
Yes, the radiator fan wasn't powerful enough to cool the car in summer under 80 kmph, but this is easily fixable - bigger fans sell for less than $40... & the dual spark system really wasn't that bad - you may have had a mechanic who didn't know what he was doing? My 88 GXE is the best car I've ever owned, & the most comfortable drive I've ever had, but best of all, it has cost nothing to maintain for the 10 years & 400000km I've had it so far. Currently on the same motor for 400000km. I bought my car with a blown motor 10 years ago, it has done 800000km all up - Beat that :)
Nissan never builds a bad car.