Here’s a facebook page devoted to Badge Engineered Design. Join us! https://www.facebook.com/groups/668203579964071/

Excellent writing! I laughed out loud, in a similar way I laugh at myself for loving a first gen Camry so much.

For what it’s worth, I looked at the car in this listing when it was for sale a few weeks ago here in Los Angeles. There are some sketchy rust cover-ups happening with it. It’s not a bad vehicle, to be sure, but it’s definitely not the showroom perfect gem that the (two now) sellers are claiming. That rust portends…

Nope. Power Sunroof was an option. This particular car has other issues that made me wary of it when it appeared for sale a couple weeks ago, but power sunroof is the real deal:

For whatever it’s worth, I looked at this one the first time around a couple weeks ago when it was for sale in LA. And indeed, there are some sketchy rust cover ups happening with this little car. It’s not a bad vehicle, to be sure, but it’s definitely not the showroom perfect gem that the (two now) sellers are…

That's awesome. Here is a photo of the original design model, showing the XTerra wheels we intended for it:

I always disliked those rims as well. I designed the trailer to have XTerra wheels, but they were too expensive.

I'm the automotive designer who led the creation of the Basecamp project, while designing for Nissan. We created the Basecamp to have a fusion of Airstream and Nissan XTerra DNA. Love seeing that they are still out there, and this one looks fantastic behind the Ford truck!

Went to see it....because I may be the only professional car designer who actually has a thing for these old Datsuns. Here's my takeaway : If priced at a few hundred, not thousand dollars, it's a great starting point for wild-ride restoration, if you're a glutton for guaranteed no-money-return emotional investments…