When Nissan launched the Figaro in 1991, it was part of the postmodern Pike car collection. And with such a cute, kitschy appearance, it would naturally lend itself very well to the idea of personalisation through accessorising. Way more than just floor mats and a weather shield, Nissan made available a whole range of cool, quirky, practical and sometimes wholly weird and unnecessary factory accessories to customise and personalise a Figaro.
With plenty of chrome options, from door handle guards to mirrors, headlight eyelids and even a parking stick, there were more practical options such as a CD/cupholder, stainless steel sill scuff plates, a sliding tray for the tiny boot and a luggage rack to expand on its miniscule carrying capacity… to the fantastically ridiculous, like a branded polo stick, or the Tokyo Nouvelle exterior plate that extols the virtues of the Figaro.
We’ll let the photo speak the words, but it is so very Japanese and ridiculous, and very fitting for a comedy car like the Figaro, as it’s all about inducing smiles.
Of course, we just had to have these plates for our car, so ordered a pair of reproductions from The Figaro Shop in the UK, along with a new locking glovebox latch (a common breakage) and number of minor little fixes from new-old stock, still available in Japan.
A new spare key was also ordered from Japan and cut locally – just a Nissan rubber cased key, as the original Figaro key is long out of production. We also found and bought a $30 Figaro keyring from the UK, to complement the factory key.
Lastly, a brand new-old-stock bonnet badge was ordered from Japan, and though only minor, gives the satisfaction of at least its ‘Fleur De Ly’ bonnet emblem being brand new.
Small things also helped, like new door strikers with fresh rubbers, to make the doors shut nicer, new rubber bonnet stoppers as the bonnet’s closing position had sunk on old, perished 33yo rubbers, a new clip for the spark plug leads, gaskets and seals to stop oil leaks.
Well, all but one: we’ve found the front crank seal is dripping, which is in front of the cam timing belt, so as the engine is an interference design, if the belt breaks, so does the engine, so we’ll order a new cam belt and seal and do it all in one job.
The only other feature we were keen on adding to our Figaro was a little personalisation of the numberplates. This is fraught with danger, especially in our self-critical DRIVEN office, needing the careful balance of style vs silliness vs ego vs cliché.
And while the $1049 cost of a full custom plate is probably a bit too much, the set combination of letters and numbers was a more coast-viable $599 option to go with the Authentic Japanese size and style. We selected the 511 marking (for 2.0L engine or smaller), and the kanji letters translate as “Japan 511” plus the green outline to better match the colour of the car.
Given the Figaro was manufactured in only one year, FIG091 was shortlisted, but what is Figo? So using a somewhat phonetic spelling, we settled on FGR091, giving our Figaro a new face and identity.
Speaking of identity, digging into the Figaro world does reveal some (semi) famous one: like Denise Beam, featured in Disney Pixar Cars 2, and also the feature car in Jerry Seinfeld’s 2019 season of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, with the substantially less smile-inducing Melissa Villasenor.
We’ll aim to properly diagnose and fix that final persistent oil leak and replace the six-year old cam-timing belt next time, and then we’ll see how its performance compares, to see how many horses have strayed from the paddock after 33 years.
A short look at our Nissan Figaro
BREAK IT DOWN
1991 Nissan Figaro
ENGINE: 1.0-litre turbo petrol four
POWER: 56kW/106Nm
0-100KM/H: 12.9 sec (claim)
GEARBOX: 3-speed auto
WEIGHT: 810kg
ECONOMY: 7.4l/100km
