About a decade before
Subaru really locked down the market for small all-wheel-drive wagons, American car shoppers could choose between a number of these vehicles built by Subaru's Japanese competitors.
Toyota had the
Tercel 4WD wagon, followed by the
Corolla All-Trac Wagon.
Honda had the
Civic 4WD Wagovan.
Mitsubishi had the Chariot 4WD aka the
Dodge/Plymouth Colt Vista 4WD. And, of course,
Nissan had the
Stanza 4WD Wagon, which was known as the Prairie elsewhere. These cars didn't sell in huge numbers, but I see plenty of them here in Colorado. Here's a high-mile, rusty '
86 in a Denver wrecking yard.
Back in 1986, vehicles with unswitchable, full-time four-wheel-drive weren't badged any differently than truck-style four-wheel-drive vehicles that required drivers to switch to two-wheel-drive on dry asphalt. The Stanza Wagon 4WD had a true AWD system.
With sliding doors on both sides and a big hatch in back, this vehicle is more of a minivan than a wagon. Most of these cars had the 5-speed manual transmission, because it was cheaper and got better fuel economy than the automatic.
With well over 200,000 miles on the clock, the interior got sufficiently worn out that a previous owner felt compelled to replace the seats and much of the plastic interior trim with components from a blue Stanza wagon. We have no way of knowing how many additional months of life that bought this car.
The final nail in the coffin for this beat-up hooptie probably was the homemade Lexan replacement hatch glass, which doesn't quite seal at the corners. Once a car gets modifications like this, it's on its very last owner.
Back in 1986, vehicles with unswitchable, full-time four-wheel-drive weren't badged any differently than truck-style four-wheel-drive vehicles that required drivers to switch to two-wheel-drive on dry asphalt. The Stanza Wagon 4WD had a true AWD system.
With sliding doors on both sides and a big hatch in back, this vehicle is more of a minivan than a wagon. Most of these cars had the 5-speed manual transmission, because it was cheaper and got better fuel economy than the automatic.
With well over 200,000 miles on the clock, the interior got sufficiently worn out that a previous owner felt compelled to replace the seats and much of the plastic interior trim with components from a blue Stanza wagon. We have no way of knowing how many additional months of life that bought this car.
The final nail in the coffin for this beat-up hooptie probably was the homemade Lexan replacement hatch glass, which doesn't quite seal at the corners. Once a car gets modifications like this, it's on its very last owner.
Featured GalleryJunked 1986 Nissan Stanza 4WD Wagon
