Nissan Figaro FK10

Nissan Figaro (FK10, 1991)

Some cars you buy to go fast. The Figaro is not one of them, and I love it for exactly that reason. It is one of Nissan's Pike cars, a little quartet of design-led oddballs that ran from the boxy Be-1 through the Pao and the S-Cargo van to the Figaro itself. The Figaro was the last and the fanciest of the lot, a two-door convertible styled like something a 1960s film star would park outside a Riviera cafe. Underneath the retro frock it is basically a Micra, and that is completely fine.

Here is the bit everyone loves telling. Nissan launched it in 1991, planned a run of 8,000 cars, and got buried under a reported 95,000 orders. They pushed production up to roughly 20,000 and still could not keep everyone happy, so buyers went into a lottery. You did not walk into a dealer and haggle. You put your name in a ballot at a fixed price of about 1,870,000 yen and hoped the draw went your way. All up, around 20,073 were built, every one right-hand drive, all in the one model year. There was no facelift and no long production tail.

The little turbo

The engine is the joke that keeps giving. It is a 987cc MA10ET, a one-litre turbo four borrowed from the March, making about 76 PS and driving through a 3-speed automatic. Top speed is a claimed 171 km/h if you are patient and the road is long enough, but the Figaro is happiest pottering around at suburban pace with the roof folded back. At around 810 kg it is light, so it feels perky enough in town without ever being quick. Think of it as a nice espresso rather than a double shot. Do not buy one expecting to worry a hot hatch at the lights, because you will lose.

Four colours, four seasons

Every Figaro left the factory in one of four soft pastel shades, and each one is named for a season. It is a lovely bit of marketing that has aged beautifully.

Buying one

The good news is that Figaros were cherished from day one, so a lot of survivors have led easy lives. The bad news is age. Rust is the big one, so check the sills, the floors, the boot area and around the soft-top seals, because water gets in where the fabric meets the body. The power roof and the interior trim can be fiddly, and while the mechanical bits are shared with the March, some of the Figaro-only pieces are getting hard to find. There is a strong owners scene in the UK and Japan though, plus specialists who know these cars inside out, so you are never really on your own.

Buy a Figaro for what it is. It is a slow, charming design icon, one of only twenty thousand, that makes people smile at the servo. If that sounds like your kind of car, it really is a cracker.