Faults:

*Driver's seat fabric wearing.

*Power steering pump bearing wearing, causing high pitched whine.

*Exhaust manifold cracked, replaced at 123500km.

*Brake master cylinder leak, reconditioned unit replaced at 112000km.

*Bendix-drive in starter motor beginning to wear.

General Comments:

The CA20E engine is ultra reliable, with only minor, commonplace problems arising. The 5-speed manual gearbox is crisp and closely gated, with clutch wear the only gripe.

Unfortunately, the seats aren't the most comfortable. While they have lumbar support, the seats are flat and quite unsupportive (and easy wearing, with the seat frame almost poking through the fabric in the side bolster.)

The interior is quite dull, but functional.

The performance is spirited, especially with a 2 1/4in. sports system with extractors fitted, it goes quite hard when pushed. During normal driving conditions, the Pintara can be quite frugal on fuel, averaging 9-10L/100km.

The suspension is nothing to write home about. It is quite soft in the rear end, and the front struts appeared to have "pumped up", from age I guess.

All in all, for the money, you could do a lot worse. The Pintara has proven to be a reliable workhorse. As long as you don't treat it like a go kart, it should treat you well well into the 200k bracket.

Faults:

Electrical fault in headlight circuit - due to minor accident (only bumper damaged in accident, but shock must have moved something around - $50 for auto electrician fix that)

Engine seized after running out of oil (I didn't have it at this time :P). Low-pressure oil indicator lamp circuit (and other warning lamps like low volts) had apparently shorted earlier.

Vacuum leak in one of the hoses in engine after having motor replaced with 2nd hand. This is probably due too bad installation rather than the motor though. Causes rough idling and can stall when braking and it's cold. Hard to fix because pipe is not easily accessible. Will do it sometime ;)

General Comments:

This is my second Nissan Pintara. My first one was written off in an accident - whatever one can say about this car, having a long rear-end definitely helped the safety of my passengers - I was stopped and cleaned up at 60km from behind, passenger cell unaffected.

All the problems in this current one appear to be caused by maintenance after we got it. Performance is what you would expect from a 2L sedan. 1st gear is a bit long, but acceleration is much better once past 40 km/h. Engine very loud when working. Handling is good and helped by being RWD. Would be very interested to see how handling is after changing rear diff with LSD from R31 Skyline. Rear drum brakes aren't very good – car is heavy and rides high, braking doesn't do this car any favours.. Basically this car lacks many of the things in the Skyline.

Fantastic fuel economy. When I'm not being an idiot, I can get about 500 km off a tank (but they do have a big 60L tank though). When cruising at 60 km/h, ride is smooth and engine is very quiet. Huge interior (car is very tall) and huge boot. This is a good daily car or for driving long distances.

Oh and turning circle is amazing for a car this long. I regularly scare passengers by u-turning in small spaces, and I get pissed off in other cars like Camry's.

Has never failed to start and only once stopped working.

Faults:

Where do I start?

Blown alternator.

Engine constantly over heats.

Major rust in boot an behind back seats.

Rotor button screw fell out shreading the dizzy to pieces.

Slave cylinder cracked and leaked.

The coils have cracked.

Faulty starter motor.

Also most of the electrical side of the car have caused problems from day one.

(All off this has happened in only 4,000 kilometers)

General Comments:

I decided to buy a car that was small and good on fuel, as my 1978 Ford XC 5.8L got a bit thirsty and my budget couldn't handle it, so someone said that I should buy a Nissan Pintara, they good on fuel.

So the next day I set off looking for one, that would suit my life style, and I found it Nissan Pintara 1990 GLI, manual, 12 months rego, rims, extractors, CD player, very neat an tidy car, urgent sale must sell this weekend $3500. So off I went an sure enough it was very neat an tidy, it sounded nice an drove well, so after sum negotiations I got it for $3000, I gave him the cash an off home I went, an while I was driving home it decided it just didn't want to go and it slowly rolled to a stop, I had to hire a car trailer just to get it home, the alternator had blown, an after that the problems started, first the coils cracked, then the dizzy, it has just been problem after problem, in total it has costed over $3000 in repairs.

I must say the Nissan Pintara is a nice car to drive, when they work! But I must say that their not very fast and are hard to control around tight corners at high speed, if your looking for a car I would not recommend a Nissan Pintara even if they are good on fuel, what you save on fuel you pay on repairs.

I would prefer my Ford any day.