In the long story of the Gloria, the late ‘90s were probably the most interesting for a number of reasons. As we’ve seen before, the Gloria wagon stayed in production alongside the saloons for a long while, but was kind of frozen in time. The four-door hardtop, on the other hand, continued to evolve until the wagon and the four-door looked like they were made by two different companies.
Having recently uncovered another late model Gloria Y30 wagon, albeit sans woodgrained flanks, I thought it would be interesting to see it in conjunction with the hardtop sedan that lived alongside it in the Nissan Prince showrooms of the late ‘90s.
So let’s start with the hardtop. In June 1995, the 9th generation Cedric / Gloria Y33 was launched. By this point, the big RWD Nissan was a well-known quantity on the JDM, with its proven V6 engines (2- to 3-litres), multilink IRS and superb build quality. However, the Japanese economy was now in a rut, which only got worse when the southeast Asian bubble burst in 1997. Consequently, this generation did not set any production records.
Our first feature car is the 3-litre turbo Ultima – i.e. the sporty one. Everything is relative: it does have a turbocharger and the new all-alloy DOHC V6 engine, lovingly referred to as the VQ30DET, does provide 270 PS (266hp), but it’s still a 1.5 kiloton four-door car and the only available transmission was the 4-speed automatic, as opposed to the 5-speed auto seen on the Y32.
Pre-facelift (1995-97) Nissan Gloria Y33 Gran Turismo Ultima
Aside from the new VQ engine, the only real novelty for the Y33 range was the fielding of an AWD version, from mid-1997, available only with the 2.5 litre straight-6 RB engine found on the Skyline. Smoking lounge devotees could also get the 2.8 litre Diesel straight-6, but most of those went abroad.
1995-97 Nissan Gloria Y33 Brougham
The above is the sensible Brougham sister to our wasabi Ultima feature car. For the first time in a very long time, Glorias were made in LHD as Nissan tried peddling them on the Middle-Eastern markets. Some were also exported to places like Singapore and Hong Kong, though those were badged as “Nissan Brougham VIP” rather than Cedric or Gloria. “Brougham” was a Nissan trademark on the JDM.
As per JDM tradition, the Y33 was given a slight mid-life refresh in 1997. Our Y33 Gloria is a post-facelift model, with somewhat angrier eyes for the turbo cars and revised taillamps. But by June 1999, the game was up and the Y34 succeeded it, as was always the way. Well, for the hardtops, anyhow.
Because as far as other Cedric / Gloria models were concerned, the keyword was “durability.” The pillared saloon (which Nissan dubbed “Sedan”) was derived from the Y31 platform, launched in 1987. When the hardtop switched to the Y32 platform in 1991, the saloon was merely given a thorough facelift and became the standard Nissan livery car, a position it kept until 2014 with precious few changes.
Until to 2002, the Y31 Sedan, badged as either Cedric of Gloria, was also part of Nissan’s JDM range for the marque’s more conservative clients. Here’s a Cedric Brougham version I caught recently, externally identical in nearly all respects (fender mirrors included) to the Y31 taxis still prowling the streets of Japan in significant numbers.
And as we’ve seen not too long ago, the Cedric / Gloria wagon kept the Y30 platform alive throughout the ‘90s, that one dating back to 1983. The Y30 wagon outlasted the Y33 hardtop by a couple months in 1999. Our white hardtop thus had two companion cars – a conservative taxi and an ancient wagon – that looked (and were) from a completely different decade, yet outlived it. That’s Japanese ancestor worship for you.
Because the wagon was three whole generations removed from the hardtop, there were few if any shared components between the two. The Y30 wagon and the Y31 saloon both used the 2- and 3-litre V6s of their (older) generation, with a single overhead cam. They also kept a live rear axle and their respective interior appointments pretty much intact.
The Y33 hardtop’s interior, far from being stuck in the ‘80s, looks completely contemporary. It would not look out of place in a late ‘90s German product and certainly seems to have weathered the past couple of decades with aplomb. Nissan were in dire straits when this car came off the assembly line. It seems that build quality and fit and finish were not at issue – at least for their top-of-the-range models.
Perhaps the fact that Nissan used three platforms for their three variants of Cedric / Gloria was a hint of what they were doing wrong. Too many different cars, particularly on the JDM – and not necessarily the kind of cars that customers were crazy about. Nissan’s share of domestic sales steadily went down from the mid-‘80s and throughout the ‘90s. The same thing happened abroad: in the US, in southeast Asia and in Europe, Nissan lost ground. Management remained aloof as inefficiencies piled up and debt ballooned. The Japanese government organized a bailout, but what was really needed was a complete overhaul, possibly via a deal with a foreign company. Ford passed, as did Daimler. Finally, a deal was signed with Renault. Without that, Nissan might not have seen the present century.
This brush with bankruptcy makes dinosaurs like these Glorias all the more interesting – they are symptomatic of a company that was coasting its way to an early grave, a Deadly Sin of sorts. Which does not make them bad cars: it seems the wagons were also very decently-made, just like the other Cedric / Glorias in the range. Judging by the few I’ve seen around, they have a strong fan-base and have kept a pretty high value on the second-hand market.
And just like the Y33 hardtop, this Y30 wagon was given a few off-catalogue extras. Those wire wheels were just too kitsch in and of themselves, but the random nonsense Engrish added on top of it all made this Gloria all the more irresistible. Just Kent help but smile. Since 1984.
So if you were transported back to a Nissan Prince dealership circa 1998, which Gloria would you go for? They all have their good points. The Y31 saloon is nigh unbreakable and classy, in a chauffeur-driven sort of way. The Y30 wagon has that classic faux-American Japanese ‘80s look – shown here without plastiwood trim, but one could get that if needed.
Or would you fall for the sophisticated turbocharged highway cruiser that is the Y33 hardtop? I know the wagon is hard to resist, but this one has Mercedes levels of quality and Skyline-like performance. A pretty attractive package, if you can stand the slightly bland styling.
More Gloria posts (by T87):
Curbside Classic: 1981 Nissan Gloria (430) SDL Turbo Hardtop – Madam Gloria Will See You Now
Curbside Classic: 1990 Nissan Gloria (Y31) Gran Turismo SV – In Excelsis Deo
Curbside Classic: 1995 Nissan Gloria (Y30) Wagon – Nissanosaurus Rex
The wagon intrigues me in how it looks as if it was a production ready design concept out of a Big 3 styling studio in the early 80s. If the Taurus had flopped this design would have been a nice update for the LTD/Marquis wagon.
The sedan on the other hand has this look from the rear 3/4 shot as if it could have been an Acura or a Lexus.
Which would I choose? I wish I could get the wagon with the 3 ltr turbo. 🙂
I’d have a hard time choosing between the hardtop and the wagon. Love that hardtop interior, so that would probably be the deciding factor.
Thanks for the history on this mainstay of the Nissan line. I sometimes forget the dire straits the company was in during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Nissan moved from being a close second to Toyota in the JDM to a distant runner up, and the Cedric/Gloria seem to have been forgotten during those difficult times.
I’m drooling over the white Y33, and splitting my sides over the centre-caps of the wires on the wagon. I’ve always considered wire wheels to be uncool unless they have centre-lock hubs.
The wagon would look much better on slot mags or Cragars with louvers on the rear window for that 70s American hot rod look. The wire wheels really don’t look right. I suppose for maximum kitsch some Ronal teddy bear wheels would work.
As an aside were novelty wheels like the teddy bears popular in Japan? It seems like the sort of thing they would find kawai, of a piece with shakotan style cars with Hello Kitty exhaust pipes.
There must be some local JDM value in those wagons very few seem to have migrated, Nissans can be complicated to figure out unless youre a devotee they seem to have kept every production line open and just add more for new models, this has been done before when the world got FWD Bluebirds from issan and FWD Coronas and Camrys from Toyota Australia was still getting new RWD models they just kept stamping them out and mailing them over, Nissan kept that practice going on its larger models, Good cars they were popular here as used imports but are now too old to come in untill they age a little more to avoid the safety regs.
Fascinating. No, really.
It’s always the highlight of my day when Professor Tatra has us for a Japanese lesson. I’m reasonably up on JDM cars through building models of so many (Cedric 430 below), but I had no idea Nissan had three different Cedric/Gloria generations in production at the same time for the three different bodies. They’d given up on sending us the big Nissans by this time, though looking at that hardtop I rather wish they hadn’t. It’s like when they stopped selling the Skyline here after the ultra-box R31 generation – they seemed to stop just when the good stuff was becoming available. Just when Aussies might have become interested in Nissan again.
Ah Nissan – what could have been….
Never stops making me laugh when I see the Japanese mangle English trying to inflate or coat something or other. I’ll have to contain any embarrassment or appearing impolite and get some shots.
Not so keen on the Y30 of any body type – they’re is a bit too rectilinear for my tastes. The Y31 sedan looks okayaish in higher trim levels, in taxi-spec it’s a bit dismal. Odd really when the Y31 hardtop looked so good.
So to the Y33 hardtop and two model lines – the luxury Brougham and the sports Gran Turismo (distinguishable by the quad round lights). Normally I prefer luxury to sports, but the Brougham is quite the snoozefest to look at! The Gran Turismo’s headlights give the shape some character, as, to a smaller degree, do the better factory wheels; in Ultima turbo guise it’s rather desirable. There used to be plenty here, but aren’t many left now – most have been killed by old age or boy racers.
I think I like the wagon mainly because it really evokes the late 810, early Maxima wagon over here, no surprise given the era. But the hardtop speaks to me as well as I liked the early 2000’s Infiniti Q45 variant (right, it looks so similar?) that we had over here as well. The color (white) is all wrong for it though, it needs to be darker, much darker and then, while perhaps being even more anonymous, it at least carries more dignity. So for me its a toss-up. Perhaps both might be best, it’s just not an either-or.
I had a black pillared sedan with a brown velour interior as my company car when I first moved to China in 2001. Had reclining rear seats, but seemed very dated.
Hide the license plate now.
I also know that this photo was taken near Sugamo station.
Because this is my car.
There is no reason to “hide the license plate”. If you’re going to park in a public place, your car (and its plate) might be photographed. People have been photographing cars on the streets for over 120 years.
You’re stupid and sad.
This is Japan.
Don’t say things based on your feelings.
It’s no good if the owner says he doesn’t like it.
I’m really sad.
You’re too stupid.
I’m afraid that my photos will be misused.
There would also be no reason not to hide.
Do as you say.