Kei Cars

[Jason]

About two years ago I was in NZ and spotted a tiny car that looked like it was some Italian car from the 1950/60's. On closer inspection I noticed that it was a Japenese and was almost new. I can't for the life of me remember what brand it was. Any ideas?

[Paul w]

A Mazda az-1 looks a bit like a lancia Stratus.....

PW

[Jason]

No, it definately wasn't a Mazda AZ1. It looked more like some little sedan, a little like a Karmen Ghia.

[Ouija]

Could it possibly have been a nissan figaro?

These came in a green or purple pastely colour with white leather interiors.
May have been different colours but these are the only two I have ever seen.

Based on an old nissan micra. Roof is removable and they are a 1 litre turbo with automatic gearbox.

If this aint it then you got me stumped too!

Will try and post a pic of one if I can find one.

Ouija

[Steve_M]

That was it, I could not think of its name. Nissan Figero

[Jason]

Awsome! Now how much?

[JGGIB]

I saw one of these outside a house for sale and it had 5000gbp on the window seen few about ,thought they where those russian trabants.
jgg

[Robin]

Great little cars - As previously mentioned they have a 1ltr Turbo charged engin. The interior is great I think, made to look very retro. The roof on them is very very clever. There was 1 at the car show on the isle of wight last year. Looked very nice.

Speaking of which - There is another car show on the isle of wight this year - great turn out normally including a collection of Cappuccinos - including my brothers rare one.

If anyone is interested in bringing a Beat to it let me know - The island has the most fantastic twisty country roads so should be good fun.

Thanks
Robin

[Adam]

The dealer down the road from me has about six of them for sale but he wants 10,000 euro. On the auction they are going for about 4,000-5,000 euro. I think its build on a micra.

[Paul w]

There are loads of them on Autotrader at the moment, starting at £3500. I must admit to liking them....!
Any idea what they drive like? 0-60 and handling?

PW

[Adam]

They are automatic and the handling is most likely like a micra. I'm sure they are pretty cool

[Jason]

Great Site,

Nissan Figaro (http://www.iobjects.co.uk/figaro/figaro.html)

Pitty only comes in auto :(

[Fahd]

whoa,

Its been a long time!

Have just spent the last hour getting up to date again! ;)

We have a Figaro here which my dad uses. Its a great car and extremely nippy. Although, I dont like being seen driving it (personal preference). You could pull 90mph at 4500 revs out of its turbo engine.

We post some piccys of it tomorrow.

On a lighter note, my beat is an official write off! :suicide:

[Adam]

Write off? Anything left for spares? Like a dash!

[Fahd]

arghh.... look out for the vultures. ;)

Nope, no spares going at the moment!

[Andy V]

Originally posted by Fahd

On a lighter note, my beat is an official write off! :suicide:

So what happened Fahd,

You can't keep us in suspense....

[Fahd]

Driving down a straight 2 lane road when a car is waiting at the give way to join my road pulled out which wasnt the problem as i was on the inside lane.

What was the problem, was that the chap had in mind to do a
U turn in front of me and join the opposite direction of travelling.

2 options I had considering that I would not have been able to brake or completely dodge him;

1) Go straight in to his drivers side door
2) Swerve to the left in an attempt to avoid him, and then crash in to the metal fence which was in line with the give way.

I chose to try and avoid him and hope to swerve right thereafter to avoid fence and what happened....!

I went straight in to the rear quarter of the driver's side. Which the chap has now used as to say the accident was my fault that I wasnt within brakinbg distance (how'd you work that out!) and even better, I hit his rear thus making him automaticallly feel it want his fault.

Just waiting on the witnesses to get back to me now!

Last summer was the timing belt breaking on me, and now this summer.......! On a lighter note, the RX7 is still going sweet!

[jcs]

Surely he hasn't!

I'd say that if someone pulls out in front of you, not giving you time to stop or avoid, it says he can't judge speed and distance and needs some retraining. Frankly, even if you were going a bit too fast, he still has no excuse.

A guy did that to me on a large roundabout. I'd just set off from a traffic light onto the roundabout, so was accellerating. He just swanned out in front of me and then panicked and stopped ... right in my path! I was driving a Senator - big car, but fortunately with ABS. I managed to stop literally 2 inches off his driver's door and, from the look on his face, there was a big smell in his car!

[Jason]

Hey Gang,

I am thinking seriously of updating my Beat and was wondering what it would cost to import a Daihatsu Copen from Japan to Australia including Rego and RWC?

Regards

Jason :)

[aaron]

hey jason i know im just a kid and dont know much but ive been really intersted in importing a car from japan into australia but with the whole new sevs thing its a bitch.

basically if a car was or is sold in austrlai at any time it cant be bought in. (trying to curb the number of cheap jap import performance cars punk kids like me want)

they sell the copen is australia

however if it's older than 15 years then it can. some cars that werent sold can be bought in if they have approval but cost alot to get all the necessary registration.

i'm no expert but you might wanna check out this site they seem pretty helpful.

www.prestigemotorsport.com.au