The Nissan Pintara is a compact automobile that was manufactured by Nissan Motor Australia from 1986 until 1992.

First generation (R31; 1986–1990)

The first generation R31 Nissan Pintara is a compact family car which was built by Nissan Australia at its

Clayton, Victoria Clayton is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 18 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District,Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

from mid-1986. Replacing the locally produced Nissan Bluebird (910), it was based on the

Nissan Skyline The is a brand of automobile originally produced by the Prince Motor Company starting in 1957, and then by Nissan after the two companies merged in 1967. After the merger, the Skyline and its larger counterpart, the Nissan Gloria, were sold i ...

with a single fuel-injected 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, entirely built and sold in Australia to compete with the

Mitsubishi Magna The Mitsubishi Magna is a mid-size car that was produced over three generations between 1985 and 2005 by Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited (MMAL). Developed as a replacement for the Mitsubishi Sigma, each Magna generation derived from Japanes ...

. Like the Australian-built six cylinder R31 Skyline, it was offered in sedan and station wagon form. Four specification levels of the R31 Pintara were offered: GLi, Executive, GX, and GXE. A TRX bodykit package was offered for the GX and GXE sedans, featuring a front and rear air dam, rear

spoiler Spoiler is a security vulnerability on modern computer central processing units that use speculative execution. It exploits side-effects of speculative execution to improve the efficiency of Rowhammer and other related memory and cache attacks. ...

, side skirts, grille cover,

alloy wheel In the automotive industry, alloy wheels are wheels that are made from an alloy of aluminium or magnesium. Alloys are mixtures of a metal and other elements. They generally provide greater strength over pure metals, which are usually much softe ...

s and low profile tyres. Unlike the later U12 TRX, this did not feature any mechanical upgrades. The sole engine choice was a 2.0-litre '' CA20E''

inline-four A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the e ...

, producing (DIN) at 5200 rpm and (DIN) at 3200 rpm. This unit was SOHC, multi-point fuel injected featuring electronic concentrated control system (ECCS) including electronic ignition. It featured two spark plugs per cylinder to help meet emission requirements. This engine was previously seen in the (sportier) Nissan Gazelle and was a particularly high revving engine for a car of this type. Rather than build the U11 Bluebird, Nissan Australia had chosen to go the route of building a localised four-cylinder Skyline, because of the Bluebird's switch to front-wheel drive with the U11. Nissan Australia had feared that the new front-wheel drive design would not resonate well with the Australian consumer, as the Australian market was well acclimated to rear-wheel drive at the time. For this reason, rival

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

had continued to produce the rear-wheel drive T140 Corona up to 1987 for the Australian market, despite most other markets receiving the front-wheel-drive T150. The reality of marketing a front-wheel drive Bluebird in the Australian market would come into fruition with the succeeding U12 model. File:Nissan R31 Pintara GX Sedan.jpg, 1986 Nissan Pintara GX Sedan (R31) File:1986 Nissan Pintara (R31) GXE sedan (2015-08-07) 02.jpg, 1986 Nissan Pintara GXE Sedan (R31) File:1989 Nissan Pintara (R31 S3) Executive station wagon (2009-08-21).jpg, 1989–1990 Nissan Pintara Executive Wagon (R31)

Second generation (U12; 1989–1992)

The first generation Pintara was replaced in 1989 by a model initially dubbed by the media as "Project Matilda", which turned out to be a locally produced

front-wheel drive Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitu ...

version of the Nissan Bluebird (U12), rather than a model uniquely designed for Australia as initial stories had indicated. However, the model performed badly in local testing, and required body and chassis strengthening. In Australia, this was sold as the Nissan Pintara (U12), also available as a locally designed five-door "Superhatch". The sedan and Superhatch were exported to New Zealand as the Nissan Bluebird (replacing locally assembled models sourced from Japan) while the Superhatch was exported to Japan as the Bluebird Aussie. The U12 model was discontinued in mid-1992 when Nissan Australia ended local production and New Zealand reverted to local assembly of the next generation Bluebird from Japanese kits. Under the

Button car plan The Button car plan, also known as the Button plan, was the informal name given to the Motor Industry Development Plan, an Australian federal (Labor) government initiative intended to rationalise the Australian motor vehicle industry and transi ...

, in which local manufacturers shared models,

Ford Australia Ford Motor Company of Australia Limited (known by its trading name Ford Australia) is the Australian subsidiary of United States-based automaker Ford Motor Company. It was founded in Geelong, Victoria, in 1925 as an outpost of Ford Motor C ...

marketed a rebadged version of the U12 Pintara sedan and hatchback as the

Ford Corsair The name Ford Corsair was used both for a car produced by Ford of Britain between 1963 and 1970, and for an unrelated Nissan-based automobile marketed by Ford Australia between 1989 and 1992. Ford Consul Corsair (1963–1965), Ford Corsair V4 (19 ...

.''The Bulletin''
Volumes 114-115, 1993, page 70 In addition, Ford provided the tooling and stamped the car's body panels.''Rubber Market Review''
1989 Nissan fitted a 2.0-litre '' CA20E''

inline-four engine A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the ...

to the GLi and Executive levels of trim. This engine was rated at (DIN) at 5200 rpm for power, and (DIN) at 4000 rpm torque.Ford Corsair sales brochure, Ford Motor Company of Australia Limited, September 1989. T, Ti, and TRX versions received a 2.4-litre '' KA24E'' inline-four. This engine produced (DIN) at 5600 rpm and (DIN) at 2800 rpm. Fitted with electronic concentrated control system (ECCS) for precise MPI fuel injection, the 2.4-litre also featured ignition timing control with SOHC and three valves per cylinder (two intake, one exhaust). File:1990 Nissan Pintara (U12) Ti sedan (24349971401).jpg, Pintara (U12) Ti sedan File:1991 Nissan Pintara (U12) Ti Superhatch hatchback (2010-05-19).jpg, Pintara (U12) Ti Superhatch File:1991 Nissan Pintara (U12) TR.X sedan (25806937131).jpg, Pintara (U12) TR.X sedan File:1990 Nissan Pintara (U12) TR.X sedan (2015-11-13) 02.jpg, Pintara (U12) TR.X sedan File:1991 Nissan Pintara (U12) TR.X sedan (16730205913).jpg, Pintara (U12) TR.X sedan interior

References

{{Commons category Cars of Australia Pintara Cars introduced in 1986 1980s cars 1990s cars