Nissan Figaro
Nissan
A 1991-only retro convertible sold by lottery, and the last car to come out of Nissan quirky Pike Factory.
The Nissan Figaro is one of the strangest and most charming cars any major manufacturer has ever built. Sold for a single model year in 1991 and only in Japan, it is a small retro-styled convertible with cream dials, chrome details, and a shape that looks like it came from the 1950s rather than the 1990s. Demand was so far beyond supply that Nissan sold the car by lottery. Roughly 20,000 units were built and allocated in batches, and buyers had to win the draw for the right to purchase one. Underneath the retro body it is mechanically humble: it shares its platform with the Micra and uses a turbocharged 987cc four-cylinder driving through a three-speed automatic. Nobody buys a Figaro for the performance. The Figaro was the fourth and final car from the Pike Factory, Nissan special-projects operation that also produced the Be-1, the Pao, and the S-Cargo. Because it is now well past the 25-year import threshold, the Figaro has become a familiar sight outside Japan. On WhipJury it is a genuine wildcard: it will never win on aggression, but it is almost impossible to scroll past.
The Pike Factory
The Figaro came from a small Nissan special-projects group known as the Pike Factory, which built a short run of deliberately retro, design-led cars: the Be-1, the Pao, the S-Cargo, and finally the Figaro. They were commercial oddities and are now among the most collectible modern Japanese cars.
Sold by lottery
Production was capped and demand vastly exceeded supply, so Nissan allocated cars by lottery across multiple production batches. Around 20,000 were built in total, all in 1991, in four colors representing the four seasons.
Modest mechanicals, huge charm
The Figaro rides on humble Micra underpinnings with a turbocharged 987cc engine and an automatic gearbox. It is slow and it does not pretend otherwise. The appeal is entirely the design, the detailing, and the fact that nothing else on the road looks remotely like it.