• History of the Pulsar

    Brief History of the N14 Pulsar SSS
    The Pulsar SSS was first manufactured and produced in Australia by Nissan in December 1991. It promptly won the Wheels magazine 1992 Car of the Year, sharing honours with the Honda NSX. Unfortunately all was not well at Nissan Australia and, shortly after, the decision was made by Nissan to stop manufacturing cars in Australia. From then on Pulsars were imported from Japan. This led to the one and only specification changes to the N14 SSS.
    The new imported model lost the standard Nissan Integrated Security System (NISS) which incorporated remote central locking, a engine immobiliser and alarm for the doors, bonnet and hatch. The tyres were down-specced from Bridgestone RE71 to Dunlop SP Sport D87M.
    The imported model gained different double foglights, a leather gearstick, different interior trim, different interior seats, electric windows, black side skirts, and the wheels on the white cars changed form white to silver in colour.




    N14 -> N15


    The N15 Pulsar SSS has a number of changes from its N14 predecessor. The most significant change, apart from the new body, is the adoption of the new multilink rear suspension. This has the effect of improving the handling and is more compact and thus more space efficient. The ABS braking system is now four-channel, which means that each wheel has its own sensor to determine if the wheel is locking up or not. The wheel size has increased to 15" and the engine bay has gained a front strut brace. Driver's airbag and CD player are now standard. The engine remained the same. The new Pulsar retains many of the features that made the N14 such a great car without significantly improving on it.




    Brief History of the N15 Pulsar SSS


    The Pulsar SSS N15 came out in 1996 to replace the highly popular N14 SSS model. There was just one model change which occurred in 1998. Although the Pulsar SSS sold well after its initial release, it faced some tough competition from the Mazda Astina V6 and its looks were not well received by buyers. The price-tag had jumped significantly since the previous model and by the end of 1997 the Pulsar SSS was $31,390 for the manual. In comparison, the Pulsar LX was $19,990 including air conditioning and alloy wheels. The dubious looks, the high price and the stylish Mazda meant that sales of Pulsar SSS slowed to a trickle and Nissan was considering dumping the model. Instead Nissan dropped the price to $24,990. This model no longer comes with fog lights and has gained a speedo and tachometer with a white background. The Pulsar SSS was now fantastic value and sales picked up again.