Nissan Prairie

The Datsun Prairie ( Nissan Prairie) was the first world -built mid-size van and was built by the Japanese company Nissan from autumn 1981 until the end of 2004 in three generations. Originally he came as the Datsun Prairie on the market. After Nissan but decided to close the Datsun brand in export, ( in the late 1980s in Japan ), he was now be sold as Nissan Prairie. In Europe, Nissan offered only the first two series and took the model due to lack of success in mid-1994 from the program.

The Prairie is a spacious high-roof wagon with sliding side doors for the second row of seats, the today would be described as compact MPV. In the late 90s, the high-roof concept was taken up by many other manufacturers and models in a similar size as the Nissan Prairie sold successfully. These include, for example, Citroën Xsara Picasso, Volkswagen Touran, Opel Zafira or Kia Carens. Only with the Nissan Almera Tino, there was a successor to the Prairie for the European market in the summer of 2000.

Prairie ( M10, 1981-1988 )

The first generation of the Prairie was introduced in Japan in the fall of 1981, in Europe in the late summer of 1982 and in North America in 1986. In Canada it was called Nissan Multi, Nissan Stanza Wagon in the United States.

The technique has been adopted by the Datsun Stanza. Was driven the Prairie by a front transversely mounted four-cylinder engine and front-wheel drive is also available with electrically switchable rear-wheel drive ( 4x4 Prairie ). It is characteristic of the Nissan Prairie M10 its short length, it is only 10 inches longer than a VW Golf 2, but still offers a family of five ample space. The first model came up with some idiosyncrasies. So the windows were in the sliding doors - due to the rear wheel arches - retractable, only about one -third. The window cranks folded together by spring pressure when opening the sliding door not getting in the way. The handbrake was not anchored to the ground, but above the car radio. You had to be used horizontally and solved by means of rotary movement. The car radio in turn was mounted near the floor and not accessible in a normal seating position. The rear seat was positioned so that long objects easily under it could be pushed through, making roof attachments for skis appear to be superfluous. Furthermore, the Prairie had no B-pillar.

Unusual are the parallels, which has the latest Nissan Note for Nissan Prairie, he has the same length (about 4:09 m), the same luggage compartment volume (though at the advanced rear seats ) and the weakest execution of the same engine power ( 88 hp or 65 kW).

Despite its rarity made ​​it the Prairie in 1985, a role in the film to play The entry of Thomas Gottschalk and Mike Krüger.

In the fall of 1988, the production of the first series was completed.

Prairie ( M11, 1988-1998 )

The offered from the fall of 1988 second version ( called in the U.S. Nissan Axxess ) was a much more modern design and is available with front-wheel drive or permanent four-wheel drive available. The European version was called the Nissan Prairie Pro and was made by the Spanish Nissan Motor Ibérica. Available was the version Nissan Prairie Air Pro air conditioning.

In Europe, the Prairie Pro lack of demand has been excluded from the range in the summer of 1994.

In Japan there were in the model program in parallel with the ordinary Prairie yet another variant, which was called Nissan Prairie Joy.

Prairie Liberty ( M12, 1998-2004)

For the Japanese and North American markets, there was a successor to this series, which was marketed as Nissan Prairie Liberty.