You know you’re a jaded automotive journalist when you see a Ferrari F8 Tributo rolling down the street, and your natural reaction isn’t abject elation but rather the same malaise you’d get seeing a late-model Corolla. But older, weirder, quirky cars? That’s what gets us salivating. That’s why this 1988 Nissan Pulsar station wagon has our minds racing a million miles a minute the way modern supercars simply don’t these days. It’s for sale out of the mean streets of Philadelphia, and it looks practically brand new compared to some of the hoopties you see driving around that city.
For a certain generation of younger Americans, the only frame of reference they have for the Nissan Pulsar was the episode of MTV’s Pimp My Ride, where one was in such god-awful conditions that even Galpin Auto Sports threw up their hands and declared the thing “un-pimpable” because of how rusty and falling apart it was. But for an ever-so-brief period in the late 1980s, Nissan used the same platform as the Pulsar sedan to create a unique three-door station wagon that makes modern Nissans hide their faces in shame with its quirky and innovative styling language.
This particular 1988 Pulsar NX XE sports a 1.8-liter Nissan CA18DE four-cylinder engine with four valves per cylinder and roughly 131 horsepower to work with. Though, it’s somewhat unclear how many of these horses escaped out of the barn over the last 35 years. In every other respect, this Pulsar station wagon is a bonafide survivor with respectable-looking factory paint, unblemished bodywork, and a cheerful demeanor that modern automobiles, with their perpetual aggressive snarls and angry, angled headlamps, can’t hope to replicate. Granted, without a manual transmission, this station wagon won’t be a banger to drive like it would be with a stick shift. But is anyone really going to fault this absolute gem for such a silly reason?
Not every automobile has to carve canyons like a WRX STI with a two-liter jug of octane booster shoved in its gas tank. There’s something to celebrate about a simple, honest, classic family grocery-getter that appeals to us in a way newer cars built for the exact same primary function just lack. Even if there was a modern Nissan equivalent to the Pulsar station wagon, we couldn’t foresee it being quite this well-built or quite this appealing-looking. Have you looked at a modern Altima’s front fascia lately? It’s hideous, truly hideous.
Whatever the case, with only 82,909 miles (133,429 km) on the odometer, this Pulsar’s barely broken in compared to nearly every other example still left on North American roads by this stage. Does that make it a certified classic? Well, not quite. But someone out there’s going to have a heck of a time driving it when it does eventually sell.