Let's Remember A Car: Nissan Stanza

Wikimedia Commons picture.

It's hard to fathom now, but at one time Japanese cars were a niche product in America. If you've never looked into each Japanese automaker's first venture into the American market, you should, because it's hilarious. They understood the American car market of the time about as well as the average non-otaku American understands the Japanese language.

Still, in the parade of literal clown cars that Japanese manufacturers imported during the 1960s and early 1970s, there were quite a few surprise hits. The Toyota Corolla and Celica caught on quickly, as did the Honda Civic (introduced for 1973) and Mazda's innovative rotary-engine models.

Two of the biggest hits came from Nissan, which in its earliest days branded all its cars under the name Datsun. The Datsun 240Z is, of course, iconic, a discounted Corvette wearing a Jaguar's clothes. Less well remembered is the Datsun 510, which car magazines of the day strongly implied was almost as good as a BMW 2002, but at a much lower price.

But the 1970s got labeled as the Malaise Era for a reason. The early 510 (before emissions controls) was sporty and rugged. The later 510 was still rugged, but lost its edge and started to look weird. It was joined by the 610 and 710, which were full-on dorkwagons that nobody misses.

By the late 1970s the game-changing Honda Accord 4-door sedan had redefined what a compact family car could be -- and what American families would pay for such a car. Small wonder that the rest of the auto industry was trying to catch it. Today we consider Nissan's first serious attempt to do so: the Stanza.

The Stanza was introduced in the US for the 1982 model year as a front-wheel-drive four-door sedan, available with or without a hatchback. (I have been unable to determine if the 2-door hatchback was actually sold here. If it was, it certainly didn't sell very well.) The styling was conservative, which was a welcome departure. More importantly, it beat the Toyota Camry and Mazda's front-drive 626 to market by a full year, making it the only serious competition for the Accord.

Nissan couldn't offer Toyota's level of refinement or durability, nor could it offer Honda's top-notch engineering, so it was forced to compete on price. Yet the strength of the yen in the 1980s severely limited its ability to do so. There were only so many corners to cut before the Stanza would start to lose its "importiness." Nissan stuck to making sure the Stanza's interior was comparable to the Camry and Accord while allowing it to lag behind them mechanically. Contemporary reviews of the Stanza practically speak with one voice: it was a nice car that needed more horsepower to be competitive.

Too, the American front-drive compacts were simply cheaper, even if they weren't as good. I'd pick a Stanza over a Ford Tempo 11 times out of 10, but if the question is "Would you rather have a Nissan Stanza or a Ford Tempo and $2,500?" my answer might be different. (Might be.) The Stanza settled into the niche of "clearly not as nice as the Camry and Accord, but you'll save a few hundred bucks" where it was up against the Mazda 626 and, eventually, the Subaru Legacy. That wasn't a great place to be, because those were good cars too. 

The Stanza would be redesigned twice, once for 1987 and once again for 1990. Those dates coincided with new Camrys (1987) and Accords (1990), both of which seemed like a quantum leap beyond the new Stanza. It was trapped in the market between cars for which people would pay a premium, and cars that could be had for significantly less money, with little to recommend it over either of the flanking enemies. The Stanza simply was never going to happen.

For 1993 Nissan dropped the Stanza and replaced it with the first stage of its face-to-heel turn: the Altima. But that's another story, for another day.

Have I ever owned or driven one? Not at all. I drove my dad's 1986 Nissan Sentra a couple times. It wasn't too bad.