REPLACING the unloved U12 Pintara, the U13 Bluebird was fully imported from Japan. It sported the faddish "organic look" popular at the time, which was the work of its Californian design studio. Only the single four-door body style was available here, in base LX, luxury Ti and sporty SSS models. All were powered by a 112kW/210 2.4-litre twin-cam 16-valve KA24DE four-cylinder version of the old Pintara 2.4’s unit, allied to a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic gearbox. Dynamics and refinement were greatly improved – the upshot of the return of independent rear suspension – while some of the Bluebird’s more advanced features included a viscous limited slip differential and “Head Up Display” instrumentation, which reflected some its information onto the inside of the windscreen. From April ’95, a driver’s side airbag was added, while cruise control disappeared in the LX, as part of a wide-range facelift that included a new front grille, revised badging and new colours. The U13 Bluebird sales were strong in Western markets but not in conservative Japan. So Nissan toned down the styling for the 1996 U14 series to the point where, because of its unremitting blandness, Nissan Australia rejected it for the expanded front-wheel drive A32 Maxima range, which evolved from the 1970s Bluebird (200B) anyway...