CAR COMPARISONS: I hated my first car: 1992 Nissan Pulsar SSS

I bought the car I didn’t want for my first car, and it sucked.

Context is key, so give me five. A 16-year-old me – after settling into a new public school in Western Sydney – befriended someone from the grade above. We had similar tastes in music, friendship resulted in access to cool parties, the usual. Standard teenager crap, really.

I had recently moved to Australia from the United Kingdom and had zero idea on what the average 17-year-old drove. I have an older brother, and back home ‘the boys’ loved a good Citroen Saxo VTS, a Vauxhall Nova, or even the odd Peugeot 106 Rallye.

Literally none of those cars existed in Australia. Another great benefit of hanging out with kids in year 11/12 was that some were licensed drivers. My friendship with them proved to be insightful of what sort of metal I could maybe buy for myself.

One of those gentlemen, named Stuart, owned a 1989 Toyota Corolla SX, registration AID-66E. It looked fantastic, with an aggressive and standard-fit chin spoiler, red pin-striping, equally radical ‘SX twincam 16’ door decals, and machined-finish alloy wheels that resembled shuriken (Japanese throwing stars).

Backing up its subtly sporty looks was an absolute heart of gold: the mighty Toyota 4A-GE engine. Fun fact, all Australian-delivered AE93-series Toyota Corolla SX/GTis received the highest-performance and latest version of Toyota’s legendary 1.6-litre, twin-cam 4A-GE engine.

Nicknamed ‘smallport’ because of its small inlet ports on the cylinder head, it was the most powerful iteration of the 4A-GE engine Toyota Australia ever offered here. It produced a mighty 100kW at the flywheel, when new. Oil squirters in the block. A decent-sized engine oil cooler too. A real nice piece of kit.

I have fond memories of riding shotgun in that car. Everyone else in that clique owned mediocrity: a TG Gemini, an N15 Pulsar Plus (no legendary Nissan SR engine to be seen), a Holden VS Commodore and a Mitsubishi Mirage, owned by my best friend, who I’d marry later in life.

In a nutshell, every other car in the pack was either slow, boring or charmless. The mighty Corolla felt like an absolute star amongst that set. It revved, sounded good, steered well, and never let us down. I also recall being amazed by the seven-section gauge array that spanned more than half the dash, complete with oil pressure gauge and voltmeter.

It wasn’t all about sportiness, however, as its other fundamentals had too been well thought out. I spent many hours relaxing in the seats of that Corolla, and it felt good. Compared to those other sh*tters mentioned above, it was by far the most comfortable of them all.

So, with my little exposure to metal, I deemed it the ultimate first car. I thought to save my pennies, and when the time was right, buy my very own example. I discussed this detail with my tight group of five mates – all my age group.

You know how this goes. One of those five got his licence before me and opted for the same choice. I’m still not sure exactly what possessed him to do so, as he wasn’t into cars, and probably isn’t now.

Infuriation aside, it had been done, and I had lost the race to first-car heaven. I couldn’t do the same thing. So, what does a raging and hormonal teenager do out of spite? Buy next best in budget, of course, which turned out to be a 1992 Nissan Pulsar SSS.

I had $3000 in the bank from working at Hoyts Cinemas, and my grandmother – visiting from the United Kingdom at the time – slung me $2000 (absolute legend). With $5000, I went hunting. That story itself is funny enough, so the short of it is that I took my father and mechanic of 35 years to inspect an absolute sh*tbox.

It was one of the cheapest Pulsar SSSs on sale at the time, with average prices in 2007 hovering around $7000. It was a series-one ‘ES’ version, had been in a shunt before, had the worst interior re-trim known to man, and four different brand tyres on each corner.

“Justin, it’s f*cked, do what you want, I won’t fix it either.” Its party trick was the ability to continue to run and drive without the key in it, albeit with no steering due to the steering lock mechanism.

It leaked oil, and I vividly recall the gaze of my father’s eyes as he sat there and tapped the starter motor on the ground, and piles of shredded clutch dust fell out of it. It was pretty much endless.

The starter motor was off because the clutch was slipping within months of ownership. It wasn’t a good introduction into motoring. I hated that car, and that’s what you get for not doing what you want to do and being a pushover.

After around nine months, I sold it honestly for $2500 (lost half my money!), and vowed to buy what I want, and listen to my Dad. I broke away from that group of friends and found my own way in the world, and bought myself a 1989 Toyota Corolla SX. White, Enkei RP-01 wheels, sold by an angry mother in Lane Cove whose son never paid board.

I’ve since owned eight of them, including a Toyota Australia test car that was the only 1989 Toyota Corolla SX ever finished in Seal Grey metallic (gunmetal), and a heavily modified two-door import version (Like Bathurst!) complete with individual throttle bodies and other tasty treats.

I guess you could say that the 1989 Toyota Corolla SX was my true first car in spirit, and everything I ever wanted.