Carpooling with a Nissan Prairie – From the old box

The Nissan Prairie was never really a runner in the Netherlands and in 1993 Nissan thought it was time to draw attention to its MPV again. As far as we are concerned, it did that in an original way. Nissan decided not to offer the Prairie as a perfect family car, but as an ideal car for carpooling. After all, the Prairie was not only interesting for people who went to the amusement park, the beach or grandparents with the whole family on weekends, but also for commuting.

Nissan did not hesitate to praise the Prairie properly. Of course that is part of advertising, but boundaries were pushed here. It started with the first sentence: “Without a doubt the best form of carpooling is the Nissan Prairie”. We wonder if the words “beautiful” and “Nissan Prairie” have often been used together in one sentence. The hymn continued: “Available as a 5- or 7-seater. A wealth of seating space comparable to flying business class makes the expansive Prairie a business and family vehicle of choice.”

To this end, the Prairie was armed to the teeth with modern technology: “With an advanced 2.4 liter DOHC petrol engine with 5-speed gearbox, electronic engine management system and multi-point injection in the front.” Were you able to stay in it a bit in luxury? Sure. Nissan: “The equipment level is incomparably complete, including velor upholstery, power steering, central door locking, electrically operated mirrors and front side windows, height-adjustable steering wheel, comfortable sliding rear doors and security bars in all doors.” Those safety bars do it!

Enough craziness: you could indeed have a nice spacious family car with the Nissan Prairie, which was also technically very well put together. However, the Prairie suffered from the fierce competition in the MPV market of the early 1990s and this advertisement could not prevent the reasonably priced Prairie from reaching somewhat disappointing sales numbers. There weren’t many of them before and now a Prairie is very rare. Do you ever see one?