Minicabbers' delight (Nissan Bluebird)

Name: r_welfare

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Product:	Nissan Bluebird
Date:	16/06/02 (458 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Reliable, cheap to insure, lots of electrical toys!

Disadvantages: No street cred!

When my first car, a Volvo 340, was written off, I was still only 21 and as such the replacement needed a low insurance group. As I don't like small cars this narrowed things down somewhat. I also needed something capable of handling big mileages with reliability. What else could I buy but a Bluey? Insurance Group 6 for a 1.8 and as for reliability, well - drive one of these puppies off a 40-storey building and the engine will still be running long after the rest has disintegrated.

After the very stark Volvo, the Nissan was a revelation - the 1.8GS was the mid-range model but had electric windows front and rear, electric sunroof, power steering, central locking, electric aerial and cracking Blaupunkt stereo, all as standard. The one I bought was a hatchback in seductive gloss black. Personally I prefer the styling of the saloon, but neither are lookers to be honest, and the hatchback is very practical with a big boot. I got it for £1,600 in the summer of 1998 with 82,000 miles on the clock.

The Bluebird is quite possibly the easiest car in the world to drive. All controls are super-light and you even get a footrest next to the clutch pedal. It's real forte was motorway cruising, where 40mpg was possible. Otherwise low 30s was the normal, again on unleaded. It did everything asked of it, but with no soul. It's the perfect interpretation of a car as an appliance.

The car was also, as expected, superbly reliable once some teething troubles were ironed out. The car hadn't really been serviced properly by the previous owner, and this manifested itself early on with two exhaust valves burning out. So the head had to come off but once it went back together everything was fine. The only niggling faults were that the electric aerial would only rise and fall intermittently, the stereo eventually began to eat tapes, and there was some kind of problem with the automatic choke - when warming up the car would idle at about 200rpm and di
e all the time, so you would have to brake with your left foot while constantly blipping the throttle.

Rust resistance on these cars is excellent too - you couldn't say that of Japanese cars from earlier in the 1980's and before. My car had a small bubble at the base of the pillar between the doors on the driver's side.

I sold the car after eight months because it was coming up to 100,000 miles and I thought it was best to sell it then. I got £1,325 and had spent £600 on servicing and repairs, so I did quite well I think. It was a great car all round.

Would I recommend one to a friend? I did better than that - I helped one buy one!

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