Car Spotlight- Nissan Axxess (1990)

A 1990 Nissan Axxess van featured in two-tone paint
and a hint of rust!
source-onlytruecars.com

The way I describe Nissan's response to the minivan boom of the 1980s is like that dumb nerd you knew in science class.  He would show up fashionably late, give all the wrong answers to the teacher, and whenever he tries to converse with you, you just want to turn around and walk away.  Nissan's first response to the growing demand was the 1987-1990 "Van" (with disastrous results).  Their "other van" (although I personally consider it a tall wagon)  was the Stanza Wagon, which was offered between 1985 and 1988.  As awkward as it looked, the Stanza wagon was noted for being the first minivan to feature two sliding rear doors, as opposed to the the single passenger side sliding door found on many of it's competitors.  Another unique feature was the lack of a b-pillar (that pole thing that separates the front and rear door), which made it ideal for wheelchair-bound individuals.

A Nissan Stanza wagon, which according to some, looks like
a happy meal box.
source-productioncars.com

After a slow, yet respectable three year run, Nissan updated the Stanza wagon by shaving off the right angles (as if they knew the 1990s consumers would have none of that) adding a b-pillar and giving it a new name-Axxess.

The Axxess hit American showrooms in 1990....and then went away by the end of the year.


...see how I was so brief about the Axxess's production run?  That's pretty much all there is to it.  It came and went within 12 months.  But why?  The design was modern, seating was comfortable, inside visibility was large, the price was reasonable, and had dual-sliding rear doors (which competitors STILL have not grown to accept yet).  And how about that NEW NAME!  I mean...yeah, they spelled the name "access" wrong, but by spelling it "axxess" that just makes the van sound more cool!   And not only that, but it was an appropriate name....because you know...it has not one but TWO sliding doors...so the Axxess was very "axxessible"....get it?....get it?  Wait, why are you walking away?

I was a bit confused myself as to why this van wasn't given much of a chance.  Upon looking into this car, the Axxess wasn't even that bad of a car.  Heck, even this guy, who wrote this interesting article about the Stanza wagon bought a fleet of them for use as news vans for a TV station, with huge success (link here).  Like myself, he was unsure as to why the Axxess didn't last in the U.S.  The only negative aspect that I could dig up about it was that the ride was bumpy and the engine was said to be on the loud side.

I figured you were bored, so here's another picture!
source-wikimedia...or wikipedia

I narrowed down 5 reasons for the Axxess's early demise.

1. Competition in the minivan market was VERY STIFF by 1990.  It seemed that every car maker at the time had some sort of minivan to offer (some manufacturers even had more than one van in their lineup).    
2. The Axxess didn't come equipped with a third row back seat (the Stanza wagon had one, but several former owners claimed it could only fit "amputated midgets.")
3.  the Nissan Van disaster made several consumers skeptical of the Axxess's safety.
4. Nobody thinks the name "Axxess" is cool.

The final nail on the coffin for the Axxess actually happened even BEFORE the Axxess debuted.  In the late 1980s, Nissan and Ford entered an agreement to co-develop an all new minivan.  I don't exactly know how the agreement came to be, but my guess is Ford was too lazy to make a new van all by themselves and Nissan was too scared of making another fire-prone van.  So for all of you with ADD or ADHD (or both), I made a montage of the Nissan-Ford partnership!

THE QUEST FOR MERCURY'S VILLAGER

(fade up from black, enter Nissan and Ford from each end of the stage, the year is 1989)

("Girl, you know it's true" by Milli Vanilli is playing in the background)

Ford- Hey Nissan! How goes it?

Nissan- Oh, it sucks!  People are yelling at us because our Nissan Van keeps frying people!  And we're being made fun of because our Stanza van looks like a happy meal box!

Ford- Really?  Did you do anything to fix it?  Like, recalls and stuff?

Nissan- Yeah, we threw a lot of shit at it to stop doing what it's doing....but none of it's working!

Ford- I hear you on that.  People have been bitching at us because our minivan, the Aerostar is"underpowered" and are "blowing head gaskets" pfft...if this is such a problem for them than why do people keep buying them?  After all, we just overtook GM and their dumb Astro van in sales.  If we keep this up, we'll finally catch up to Chrysler and beat them at their own game!

Nissan- Chrysler? Screw those guys!

Ford- You know what we should do? We should join forces and build the best fuckin' van ever. Think about it...you need a minivan that won't suck, and we could always use another vehicle in our lineup.  I'm sure our Mercury division would be happy to have a van of their own!  With your expertise in engineering reliable cars and our expertise in knowing what the American public wants in a van, we could take old man Iacocca and his Caravan to the cleaners!

Nissan- Okay!

(both hi-five)

Nissan- OH SHIT! I forgot, we already have a van in the works!

Ford- Wait...what?

Nissan- Yeah, a while back, someone mentioned that the Stanza van is getting redesigned, but I haven't heard much about it...except it's going to be called the "access" and it's going to be spelled a-x-x-e-s-s.

Ford (with a puzzled look)- ...why?

Nissan- Apparently, the name is supposed to sound edgy and cool and shit...

Ford-  Well, if we're gonna make this new van epic, we'll have to spend a lot of time researching and developing, which could take a few years.  You can use your "Axxess" as a placeholder until the final product is ready!

Nissan- Sounds like a plan!  So what should we do first?

Ford- I don't know...burn stuff?

Nissan- Sounds like fun!  I have just the van for that!

(both exit stage hand in hand)

(fade to black)

THREE YEARS LATER...

(fade up, living room of Nissan's living room, where he is on the couch in the fetal position, phone in hand.  Milli Vanilli music still playing in the background)

Nissan- Uh...hey Ford.

Ford- What do you need Nissan?

Nissan- Well...let me ask you this, we've been working on this new van for quite a while...when did you say we should have this van done?

Ford (annoyed) I told you already, we'll have something ready for the '92 Detroit Auto Show....so two years!  Still got some shit to iron out.  After all, this van has to be epic...remember?

Nissan- I know, I know...It's just that the Axxess is not doing as well as we thought...they're collecting dust on the lots and we're losing money on the ones we HAVE sold.

Ford- Hmm...Okay, how about this, since this van is supposed to be epic, we should give it an epic introduction!  Ditch the Axxess and use this time to build up media hype for the new van!

Nissan (stands up)- Once again, you have solved all my problems!  I will pull the plug on that pile tomorrow!

Ford- And just one more thing before I go..

Nissan- What's that?

Ford- Why the HELL are you still listening to Milli Vanilli?

Nissan (slams phone down)

(fade to black)


Holy crap...did I just write a play?  Wow...  Anyways, I'm almost certain that 99% of that story isn't true (but did you find it entertaining?)  So here's what came out of the Ford-Nissan partnership:

1993 Nissan Quest
credit-wikipedia

                       

...And of course, Ford had to have their own version

1993 Mercury Villager
credit-wikipedia

Was the Nissan Quest a good van? Yes.  Did it put a sustainable dent in Caravan and Voyager sales?  Not quite.  But nevertheless, many can attest that the Quest was a big improvement over the Axxess, with it's standard third-row backseat, additional options, and surplus of parts from both Nissan AND Ford dealers.

Anyways, let me stop myself right there before this post becomes more about the Nissan Quest than the Axxess.  

So to pretty much sum it up, the Axxess was more or less a footnote in Nissan's history book.  I will point out however, that this "one-year-wonder" only happened in the United States.  Thats right, everything I said up until this point was about the American-bound Axxess only.  Citizens of the Great White North got to enjoy the Axxess for five more years, mostly because it was ideal for shipping maple syrup and hockey pucks (okay, that's also a lie, Canadians are great people).

What's my personal take on the Nissan Axxess, you say?  Well, believe it or not, I am proud to say that I own one myself!  Thats right, I am the proud owner of a silver 1990 Nissan Axxess.  From firsthand experience, it is definitely a quirky car.  I bought it at a swap-meet in 2006 for the ridiculously low price of 50 cents!  It's silver and even came with some cheesy 90s graphics on the side (although some of it is starting to chip away due to wear and tear).  The ride is smooth, yet the seats are LITERALLY made of plastic.  The steering wheel is on the right side of the dashboard for some reason, so going through the drive through is out of the question.  The best part?  I don't even need to put gas in it!  To this day, I cannot fathom why nobody cared for this car.  I mean...who wouldn't want a car that didn't need gas to run?


Here's a picture of it...

Whoever at Matchbox that came up with the idea of making a die-cast Axxess
deserves a cookie...

Car Spotlight- Volkswagen Fox (1987-1993)

Look at that Foxy car!
photo credit- germancarforum.com

The year was 1999, I was six year old at the time.  I just finished playing a T-Ball game.  I can't remember if my team won or lost (nor did I care, since I just played with the infield sand most of the time anyway).  My dad and I were walking through the parking lot when I saw what I thought was a VW Jetta.  I asked my dad what he thought of "that Jetta over there."  He took one look at it and said that it wasn't a Jetta, but "one of those crappy VW Foxes."  Right as he said that, this really tall guy walking toward it stopped and gave us this really nasty look.  We then jumped into our '91 Camry and took off.

Sixteen years later, I looked back at what happened that day and thought to myself "What was so bad about the Volkswagen Fox that gave my dad that conclusion?"  If it was so bad that my non-car guy father would even have a negative opinion about it, then there MUST be something interesting about this thing...

Well...I'm nowhere near my dad as I'm writing this, so I can't really ask his opinion, so you could say I'm not going anywhere with this....


ANYWAYS...

The Fox was imported to the States from Brazil (where it was known as the Gol), and it sat at the bottom of the VW totem pole.  Some might argue that it was the spiritual successor to the original Beetle, because like the Beetle, the Fox was a very basic car.  There was no automatic transmission, power steering, and in the early days, no glovebox (although a lot of these things were options on other cars as well).

There were three versions of the Fox available during it's six year run, a 4-door sedan, a 2-door coupe, and a 2-door wagon (why there was no 4-door wagon is beyond me).  Maybe there was a door shortage at the factory?  While I thought a 2-door wagon was a pretty neat concept, not many people felt the same way, as the wagon was axed after 1990.

A VW Fox "shooting brake"
photo credit-germancarsforsaleblog.com

*side note, two door wagons are actually common in Europe, and called "shooting brakes" (because they were ideal for hunting)

One of several internet memes that poke
fun at VW's engine problems
source- quick memes

Now, going back to whether or not the Fox was a lousy car...yes it was...but then again, neither was any other VW from the late 80s to the early 2000s.  This is because car manufacturing got very expensive in Germany, so VW outsourced a large portion of it's North American production to Mexico and Brazil, where it was cheaper to not only build and ship the cars, but also cheaper to pay the workers.  A consequence of this was the build quality also became "cheap,"  as several VW cars were plagued with peeling paint, body panels that would fall off, and engine issues that were difficult to diagnose.  In fact, the engine issues were so common that there were several internet memes that would go along the lines of  "if your VW's engine light is off, then there's something wrong with it."

In the case of the Fox, it was just the sheer fact that it was the "bottom of the line car".  The reason why it lacked so many options and was made of cheap materials was to keep the sticker price down.

The ownership experience of the Fox is relatively mixed.  There were some who praised it for it's simplicity, good milage, and overall "being fun to drive." Others lamented it for it's build quality, poor fit and finish, and underpowered engine (although my argument for that is why would you buy it if it was too slow?)

During the Fox's "run", VW sold about 174,000 sedans and wagons (source) .  By 1992, Foxes began to collect dust on the VW lots, and was eventually erased from the lineup in 1993. (perhaps due to the fact it looked too similar to the Jetta)

Aside from that one time at the baseball field, I haven't really seen any VW Foxes around (or maybe I have, but kept confusing them for a Jetta.)  Considering the fact that I haven't seen any in recent memory pretty much tells me how reliable they were.