Anyone had/have a sunny or pulsar gtir?

Any advice on running costs, purchase price, what to avoid, what to look out for etc?

 

My mates got a pulsar gtir, used to mot it for him, he let me drive it once, was awesome fun in the damp lol. I mentioned to him it looked a complete twat to work on the transmission side of things and he confirmed it by saying he was just about to take the engine out to do a clutch on it (if memory serves me right). Good fun car but apparently an utter twat to work on. His is off the road more than it is on it but he could have a shit one I don't know lol

 

No but I would, I hear gearboxes are their weak point. I'd look out for corrosion too as they are of that age now. As well as that keep an eye out for the obvious things like service history and accident damage. I've always fancied one of these as when I was back in school every morning waiting for the bus to collect us one would pass by. It was a grey one, had a big exhaust on it and sounded awesome! My friend lived on a bit of road it passed and said whenever it passed the letterbox on his front door would vibrate!

 

As above rust is an obvious thing to look out for especially on the back arches.
Gearbox are weak but mostly if they have been abused.
I had a fresh import in grey and had it for two years. Was a great car with only light modifications which was full stainless from turbo back and an induction kit.
Made 250bhp consistently on a couple of different rollers.i got it totally standard.
They are getting very thin on the ground now and I really wish I kept it as it's the only car I regret selling.

 

This was mine when I sold it.

 

I've had a few pulsars over the years, still got the GTIROC calendar where my last one was 'miss January' lol

More interesting to me is the actual Sunny GTi-R. My mate had a white one years ago. Don't see many of them for sale these days! His was quite something special too, this was years ago when cossies were there in thing. We both had sapphire cosworths and he bought the GTi-R of a woman who sold her modified escort cosworth to buy the Sunny. The sunny had some interesting modifications like a charge cooler where the OE top mount was, all HKS bits (BOV, air filter, boost controller) quick shift and a really loud exhaust. It seems odd thinking that at the time it was all so alien, we all know of HKS and the likes now but many years ago (bare in mind the girl paid £12,500 for the sunny to replace her Escort cos as an upgrade) it was all very different.

That car was very smart, the noise it made was unreal. They scream out the exhaust, the throttle bodies adding to the symphony. Popping and crackling when letting off etc.

I still have a sunny GTi-R steering wheel, bought it years ago for one of my pulsars. The sunny didn't have leather wheel or gear knob, prob seems like a downgrade but I always preferred that about the UK car as the leather in the pulsar always looks tired.

My last pulsar had just a decat, FMIC, air filter and a greedy boost controller. Was running it at 1.2bar and it flew.

 

this thread has just had me looking on ebay, and just WOW!!!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-UK...item4640f8b3f1

 

A friend of mine had a white one one way back when running about 320bhp. It felt a lot faster than it probably was and he used to thrash it. In two years i think it went through 5 clutches and 2 boxes then the oil pump died. It felt a very aggressive car and was a lot of fun.

He still has it and is on the 'to do list'

 

Go like stink but most people i know who have one or have had one spend more time fixing them then driving them tbh, but when they work id imagine they are awesome to own

 

Am i right in saying these are a cossie eater? Well when tuned.

 

What is the difference between a Sunny and Pulsar? I thought they were the same car.

 

They are the same car. There was only 100 cars or so officially sold in the UK. They were known as sunny gtir.
The rest were grey imports which are called pulsars.
Kind of the same as a UK Vauxhall corsa but a European one was called a Vauxhall nova same cars just different names.

 

a friend of mine owned one about 10 years ago his was same always something breaking on was a great car when running endless money pit realy he px it in end with a broken gearbox for a skyline r32gtr

 

As above - friend of my older brothers had one, going back a good 10-15 years now, and it was an utter animal. But spent more time off the road broken than it did on the road, which I was surprised at as I thought being a Japanese hot hatch it would be reliable. Clearly not. Mental little shopping trolly's though!

 

The thing is when you get people buying any car and modding it on the cheap then proceed to kick its head in they are bound to fail.
The only two problems I had with mine in the two years I owned it was an alternator and clutch master cylinder seal but then my was fairly standard.

 

Main problem with them regarding reliability is the previous owners. They used to be so cheap and the young lads loved them, unfortunately they never get looked after and get thrashed about.

I've had 5 and never had any problems. I had one as a daily for 2 years and it was perfect, but then I always service my cars religiously and do preventative maintenance rather than letting something get bad enough to let you down.

They are a bit nose heavy and do under steer when pushing on the twisty bits.

I can still remember the day I bought my first one, was like a revelation coming from the sapphire cossie. I was always with one eye on the temp gauge with the cossie and topping it up with oil all the time. I soon lost that worry feel with the Nissan, it was my first Jap performance car and having come from a line of Fast Fords it changed my car future to Jap. Was very odd never having to top it up with oil between servicing and it running perfectly all the time.

There was a sweeping bend near me where my cossie would (theatrically) get up to 100mph but if you dared to let off it would feel like it could kill you. The pulsar at the same speed could be toyed with and felt so planted.

I did go back to a 4x4 saph after, but hated it and bought another pulsar. Had that one 2 years then started on the Impreza route. The Impreza is a step up in the handling dept compared to the pulsar but still retains the every day reliability feel.

 

Not a lot of difference really, Pulsar is just the name of Sunny in Japan

There are a few small differences to the interior. Sunny gets vinyl door cars tops (pulsar has material) sunny has rubber gear stick gaitor, plastic gear knob and steering wheel (pulsar has leather) the pulsar also has much nicer climate controls rather than the sliding levers of the sunny, the speedo face is different with the sunny having quite a busy face with mph and kmh and the pulsar has electric folding mirrors. Also the early pulsars had a Nissan umbrella in the driver's door shut behind a little spring loaded door, UK didn't but then that was more down to all the GTi-R's having it deleted from before the UK got the car officially.

I always much preferred the sunny interior (apart from the climate controls) even though it seems more poverty.

 

One of those cars that had the potential to be something, small compact lightweight 2.0 Turbocharged and 4wd, on paper this sounds great..... In reality lots of not so careful owners and plenty thrashing proved to be the downfall, from memory as said previously the gearbox and clutch were huge weak points.

 

Gearboxes are a lottery. Some people go through a few I still have my original box after 13years, albeit with one new part fitted. (the striking lever split in two and did no other damage) Standard clutches will go above 280ish so most have been uprated now anyway.
Rust underneath (sills, rear arches etc) is going to be the big problem now.
See my sig for how well they accelerate.