1989 Nissan Pintara GLi review from Australia and New Zealand

*Driver's seat fabric wearing.

*Power steering pump bearing wearing, causing high pitched whine.

*Exhaust manifold cracked, replaced at 123500km.

*Brake master cylinder leak, reconditioned unit replaced at 112000km.

*Bendix-drive in starter motor beginning to wear.

The CA20E engine is ultra reliable, with only minor, commonplace problems arising. The 5-speed manual gearbox is crisp and closely gated, with clutch wear the only gripe.

Unfortunately, the seats aren't the most comfortable. While they have lumbar support, the seats are flat and quite unsupportive (and easy wearing, with the seat frame almost poking through the fabric in the side bolster.)

The interior is quite dull, but functional.

The performance is spirited, especially with a 2 1/4in. sports system with extractors fitted, it goes quite hard when pushed. During normal driving conditions, the Pintara can be quite frugal on fuel, averaging 9-10L/100km.

The suspension is nothing to write home about. It is quite soft in the rear end, and the front struts appeared to have "pumped up", from age I guess.

All in all, for the money, you could do a lot worse. The Pintara has proven to be a reliable workhorse. As long as you don't treat it like a go kart, it should treat you well well into the 200k bracket.