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

Same car...


November 5th, 2016:

Perkasie, Pennsylvania

 

Traded in my 1990 Nissan 2wd reg cab for this new 1997. I drove it 15 years. One of the best trucks I ever had

 

Stick shift?

 

Yes, I put almost 300,000 miles on that truck. I sold it to a fellow Mechanic. That is my 2012 Tacoma behind it. It got totaled 8 months after I bought it.

 

That truck does not look like it has 300K miles! Was the accident that totaled your truck your fault?

 

I Pampered that Nissan truck never put a scratch on it...... I was driving my 2012 Tacoma and a guy texting his Girlfriend while driving his Wife's Toyota Sequoia ran a light and t boned me. $18,000 in Damages. Took the check and bought my 2013 Tacoma.

 

A 1996 Nissan Pathfinder SE made an appearance in Season 2/Episode 6 of The Sopranos. This Pathfinder is unique in that it seems to have the off-road package (which includes the fender flairs, beefed up suspension, and a limited-slip rear differential) and the chrome package. This Pathfinder belonged to a Eric Scatino, a friend of Tony Soprano's daughter, Meadow; Eric's father Dave was a degenerate gambler who ended up owing Tony $45,000. He gave the Pathfinder to Tony as partial payment, much to the anger of his son, and then Tony tried to give Meadow the Pathfinder as her first vehicle; Meadow refused to take the Pathfinder, but this still caused a rift between Eric and Meadow.



Tony incorrectly referred to this vehicle as a "Ninety-two Pathfinder" when talking to his therapist; Davey Scatino likely did not buy the Pathfinder new, and bought it for his son when he got his license, which would have been in either 1999 or 2000. Davey confiscated the Pathy from his son under the guise that he'd been "off-roading it" without permission, and this is the scene where he's roaring out of his driveway with his pissed off son in hot pursuit; Since Davey just gave the Pathfinder to Tony, it is likely that he paid cash and owned it outright.

 

The top-of-the-line LE came standard with a sunroof, heated leather seats, automatic climate control, AM/FM stereo with cassette and CD player, and Bose sound; It did not have the fender flares, and I do not know if it had the limited-slip differential.

The SE, which is the trim level on Eric Scatino's black Pathy as well as the green one my dad owned, came standard with power windows, power locks, A/C, and a CD player, among other things; My dad's had every option except the cassette/CD combo and the Bose speakers, including heated leather seats and a sunroof. What's weird is that the CD/cassette combo could be ordered without the Bose speakers in the SE models, but the Bose speakers could not be ordered without the CD/cassette combo; My dad's just had a CD player, and the non-Bose speakers were surprisingly good.

The XE was the cheapest model, and came standard with an AM/FM cassette; Crank windows were standard, and air-conditioning was even an extra cost option, though the newest Pathfinder I've ever personally seen without A/C was a 1991 or 1992 model, owned by a counselor at the camp I went to in sixth grade.

The XE could be equipped with A/C (and every 1996-1999 XE I've ever seen has A/C), power windows, power locks, cruise control, and a CD player; I believe tilt steering was standard, but very few other options were available. Both the mid-level SE and the base model XE came standard with a 5-speed manual transmission, but the top-of-the-line LE only came with an automatic transmission; My dad's SE had an automatic, and the one in The Sopranos is shown to be an automatic as well.

 

In season five, Tony buys his son AJ a 2004 Nissan Xterra SE to motivate him to bring his grades up...

 

It is heavily implied to be the same vehicle for the remainder of the series, but in season six AJ's ride mysteriously changes into a 2005 (2nd Gen) Xterra...

 

For one scene in the series finale, the Xterra changes back to an older model, only catch on fire and exploded after AJ parks on leaves in the woods; He starts making out with his girlfriend and they end up having to hastily retreat (with his girlfriend in her bra in winter) when smoke starts pouring in through the A/C vents...

Also, the Xterra they blew up was very clearly an older 2000-2001ish model, a few years older than the 2004 first seen in season five; My guess would be that it was a high-mileage and/or salvage title beater that they bought specifically to destroy!

 

On another non-Nissan note, Tony Soprano's new-at-the-time 1999 Chevy Suburban LT mysteriously becomes a 1992-1994 model for an interior shot, in a season one episode where he is trying to flee two hitmen; Clearly they did not want to trash a brand new Suburban in an accident scene, so they opted for an older, high-mileage beater...

 

Nissans were obviously not as common as Cadillacs and Lincolns in The Sopranos, but they were far more common than our beloved Toyotas, like this black 2004 Maxima in a season six episode (this was 2007, so the car was fairly new)...

 

And speaking of Tony's 1999 Suburban reverting to a 1992-1994 model for the interior shot, here it is, moments before he plows into a 1987 Nissan Maxima while fleeing an assassination attempt!

 

1997 Maxima parked outside the Bada Bing in season six...

 

2002 Maxima belonging to Tony's friend (and chef/restaurateur) Artie Bucco, seen in season six...

 

2000 Altima in a season four episode...

 

1983 Nissan Pulsar NX seen in the second episode of the whole series; Even in 1999 this was an old and fairly uncommon car!