PennSilverTaco's non-Toyota Japanese (and Korean) vehicle Rant/Rave MegaThread!

Previous truck. 2WD. Before and after a small lift and new wheels and tires.

 

My uncle has 2002 Frontier XE 2WD crew cab 5-speed in yellow; He bought it brand new in November 2002 and it presently has about 130K miles on it. He had to replace an air-conditioner part a couple years ago, but other than that truck has been absolutely trouble-free! I like these Frontiers better than the 2005-present ones, AS LONG AS THEY HAVE A TILT STEERING COLUMN! I drove a 2002 Frontier without tilt steering when I was working at the detail shop and found it to be very uncomfortable because the steering wheel was practically in my lap! My uncle's 2002 has tilt steering, so it is perfectly fine for me to drive!

 

My uncle's yellow Frontier has the same wheels seen on your truck in the first pic...

 

I think that the redesigned Titan in yellow looks pretty cool, but I still would not buy one...

 

Also, this guy is in my neighborhood

 

Looks like Nissan's answer to the 1989-1991 Chevrolet S-10 Baja...

I love it!

 

Yeah, I think it’s a very cool truck. I’ve never seen on the road, so I hope it runs!

 

Looks like it’s got a plate on it...

 

Alright, now THIS one brings back some memories. My first truck was an '87 2wd Hardbody, with the 8-plug NAP-Z and a 5 speed. That truck was unkillable; 287k when I sold it, because the body was shot and had as much poorly-applied fiberglass as it did steel. Still had great power, though. It'd actually accelerate in 5th gear going up a hill, and didn't burn or leak a drop of oil.


I also had a '94 and a '96, both 4x4's, and they were similarly unkillable but rusty, but they would go anywhere that you pointed them.

The only images I have of the 94, since it was back in the days of analog picture taking:





And the '96:

 

Love them Hardbodies!

 

Same here.
I had a '99 Frontier briefly as well, but I was disappointed with it so I traded it in for my '99 Tacoma.

 

In 1998, my dad was looking for a reasonably priced 4-cylinder pickup truck as a commuter vehicle; His only requirement was that it had air-conditioning, because we were living in Virginia Beach at the time and A/C is pretty much obligatory down there. Unfortunately, most of the cheap trucks with A/C were beaters and well below my dad’s standards...

One Sunday, my dad found a red 1995 Nissan 2WD pickup, 5-speed with A/C, that was extraordinarily cheap for a 3-year old vehicle (again, this was September or October 1998) with such low miles. Needless to say, we went to check it out anyway...

This lesbian couple was selling it; They supposedly purchased it cheap at wholesale auction in North Carolina for the sole purpose of using to move into their new house. The truck had a clear title, and it was in immaculate condition, at least physically...

 

@Noelie84

So, my dad and I pretty much fell in love with the truck on first sight. We took it for a test drive to be sure though; The truck ran and drove great! The A/C was ICE COLD and there was nothing the least bit disconcerting about the truck.

My dad’s plan was to write a check and buy the truck outright; This is music to ears to anyone trying to sell a vehicle!

So, we came back to the lesbian couple’s house after the test drive, and at one point I inevitably had to pee so the women let me go inside to use the restroom. These women lived in a 1950s Craftsman bungalow type house that looked really cool, and my bathroom break turned into the women giving me and my dad an impromptu tour...

I was 99.9% sure we were going home with that Nissan! My dad and the women were talking numbers in the driveway, when all of a sudden I noticed a fresh puddle of green fluid underneath the truck that had not been there before...

I interrupted the conversation and, ever so innocently, was like “Dad, what’s that green stuff underneath the truck...?”

Needless to say, my dad did not buy that red Nissan; We left in a hurry, and that night my dad ended up buying a 1-owner 1990 Mazda B2600i 4x4, with ICE COLD R-12 A/C from the original owner who had records of every oil change and part replacement going back to the day he bought the truck!

 

Sounds like they didn't use enough Bars Leaks in the Radiator...

 

Here's my dad's theory...

Almost from the beginning, he believed that the miles were extremely low even for a vehicle that just three years old at the time; The mileage would have been more believable if the price reflected the mileage...

I don't know what a 1995 Nissan 2WD pickup with a 5-speed stick and A/C went for new, but I can't imagine it was more than maybe $14K. I'm guessing that these women were asking somewhere in the range of $5,000-$6,000...

The truck had an analog odometer, and my dad's theory is that the odometer was rolled back; I like to think that these women bought the truck after it had been tampered with, without realizing it, then realized they'd made a mistake and hoped to offload it on another unsuspecting buyer. However, it is not impossible that these women had someone roll back the odometer or even did it themselves! Have your seen Matilda, where Danny DeVito's character uses a power drill to roll back the mileage in a used car?

I was only nine years old at the time, and I spotted that coolant leak!

 

@Noelie84

During that same time period in September-October 1998, my dad responded to another newspaper ad that spoke of almost-new Isuzu Hombres for like five grand apiece if I remember correctly...

**For those who do not know, the Isuzu Hombre is a rebadged 2nd Gen Chevrolet S-10 produced from 1996 to 2000 if I remember correctly; They did not sell terribly well and are incredibly rare today**

So, we went to this used car lot with an office in a former fast food place, and it was full of identical white Isuzu Hombres; My dad was ready to just write the check and take one home, until the salesman informed him of why they were so cheap...

Not one of them had air-conditioning! In Virginia Beach nobody is going to be selling brand new trucks, even without A/C, for five grand each; My guess would be that these were lightly used, low-mileage 1996-1997 models that the seller had purchased in bulk somewhere...

They were really nice trucks aside from the obvious drawback of no A/C, but my dad did not want a vehicle without A/C so we walked.

 

Easier way around it was to simply pull the dash cluster and manually change the numbers. I think there were only like 8 screws holding the the dash panel in.

Of course, it could just has easily have been a freshly cracked radiator hose, and nothing nefarious on their part.

 

But still, better safe than sorry...

My dad also briefly considered buying a 1987-1995ish Jeep Wrangler instead of a truck, and we looked at a few of those as well during the great truck hunt of '98...

The TJ was only a year old at the time, and my dad did not want to buy a new vehicle; All of the YJ (1987-1995) Wranglers my dad looked at were in decent condition, but not one of them had A/C, even in Virginia Beach!

 

1997 Nissan Hardbody...

The end of an era!



This one is sporting early Frontier wheels, too...