How the Figaro was born
Picture above was taken during the 28th Tokyo Motor Show (26th Oct – 6th Nov 1989) when the car was first revealed to an excited public!
The Figaro has been referred to as a ‘retro fashion car,’ and was born out of the Japanese ’boutique’ movement in car design. Japanese designer Shoji Takahashi was inspired by Swatch watches – the notion that it was possible to give identical products different casings. Around 1988 the magpies of the Figaro design team took all the best and shiniest bits from a variety of European cars and fused them into an almost-cartoon whole. There’s something there to remind you of just about every classic car you have ever seen. An Austin Healey specialist provided the grille, a Vauxhall one the chrome and some panels are Ford Popular, others vintage Rootes. Owners will become used to pensioners approaching to say ‘I had one of those in the sixties!’ – no mean feat considering the car was introduced to the public at the 1989 Tokyo Motor Show under the slogan ‘Back to the Future.’
We have managed to locate a YouTube video of the show (thanks to Tyler McMenamin) of the actual show. The Tokyo Motor Show was held in 1989 at Makuhari Messe for the first time. The show was in the midst of a bubble economy and focused on luxury cars. Toyota 4500GT, Celsior, Nissan Infiniti Q45, President, Honda NSX, and Eunos Cosmo and the Figaro were exhibited and attracted a lot of attention.
Watch Video (scroll forward to 6.31-7.38)
THE BIRTH
In 1988 the magpies of the Figaro design team took all the best and shiniest bits from a variety of European cars and fused them into an almost-cartoon whole. There’s something there to remind you of just about every classic car you have ever seen. An Austin Healey specialist provided the grille, a Vauxhall one the chrome and some panels are Ford Popular, others vintage Routes. Owners may become used to pensioners approaching to say ‘I had one of those in the sixties!’
THE MANUFACTURER
The Figaro was actually manufactured under licence by a company named Takata Kogyo, who was an approved manufacturing partner of the Nissan Motor Company. We assume the main reason that Nissan choose Takata to produce the Figaro was due to their knowledge of building convertible cars. The company was also commissioned to produce the Be-1 & PAO. Looking on the Web we found this rather interesting mission statement from the president ‘Do not give up, do not despair, do not retreat, we aim to be a company trusted by everyone as a corporate philosophy‘.
LOCATION OF MANUFACTURER
The car was manufactured at Izumisaki Factory which was located at Fukushima near Izumizaki Village, Oyama, Japan.
PRESS RELEASE February 14, 1991
Nissan Announces Domestic Release of All-New Nissan Figaro.
TOKYO – Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. Today launched limited domestic sales of the all-new Figaro, a compact coupe that follows the successful Be-1, Escargot and Pao niche cars. The sales volume will be limited to 20,000 units. The car is priced at 1,870,000 yen (£10,000).
DOWNLOAD/VIEW ORIGINAL PRESS RELEASE
We have a scan of the original press release which we have converted to a PDF – View/Download
PRODUCTION SCHEDULE
- 1st allotment Feb.14 – March 14 – April 6. 8,000 Units
- 2nd allotment March 15 – June 16 – June 29. 6,000 Units
- 3rd Allotment June 17 – Aug 31 – Sept 14. 6,000 Units
1989 at the launch of the car in Tokyo Motor Show
Internal Pictures
But we think we have now found a picture of the inside of the car. Being a prototype we counted 10 changes that must have been implemented when it went into production 15 months later.
More pictures from the 1989 Concept Prototype
Related posts:
Figaro Lottery – Application process and example of a winning ticket
28th Tokyo Motor Show – 26th Oct – 6th Nov 1989 – 1st Launch of Figaro to public
Yoshiro Kobata – Pike Series Designer Interview December 2022
Manufacture – A look at the original clay Figaro model
Naoki Sakai – Nissan Figaro Designer Interview December 2018
Nissan Figaro Official Press Release
FIGARO – Retro, rare and reliable
The Designers
