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The Nissan Pulsar first appeared in the United States as the 1979 Datsun 310, then came back four years later in hatchback and coupe form. The Pulsar hatchbacks got dropped here for 1984, leaving just the Pulsar NX (known as the Nissan EXA in Japan). For the 1987 model year, the N13 Pulsar showed up in American Nissan dealerships, and it was a fascinating little car. Here's one of those second-generation Pulsar NXs, found in a Denver-area yard recently.
YORK, England — Car shoppers in the United States haven't been able to buy new French cars since the final Renault/Eagle Medallions were sold in 1989, which means I had to go across the Atlantic to find junkyards scrapyards (as they call them here) with plenty of Citroëns, Renaults and Peugeots in stock (though I do find the occasional Mexican-market French machine in the car graveyards of Colorado). From the same U-Pull-It in York, England, that brought us the Peugeot 307 CC awhile back, here's a tiny-yet-spacious tall hatchback that was forcibly retired at age 14.
SHERBURN-IN-ELMET, England — Alfa Romeo took a break from selling new cars in the United States after 1995, when the final Spider Veloces and 164s were sold here. That beat Fiat and Lancia (both of which departed after 1982), but still deprived us of the Alfa 164's handsome successor: the 166. The easiest way to find discarded 166s is to cross the Atlantic, so that's what I did recently.
I've been finding pure electric vehicles in the big self-service car graveyards I frequent for well over a decade, including an incredibly rare example of Toyota's competitor to the GM EV1. Plug-in hybrids have been a different story; the first modern mass-production plug-in hybrid available in the United States was the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, and I've finally found a discarded example of that first-generation ground-breaker.
YORK, England — By the time our current century got started, most American car shoppers had become fully committed to pickups and SUVs as their preferred rides. Cross the Atlantic at that time, however, and you'd find that the compact MPV was one of the most popular choices for Western European drivers seeking plenty of passenger and cargo space in a small package. The Citroën Xsara Picasso was one of the best-selling compact MPVs of its era, and I've found this '06 in a self-service scrapyard (as they call them here) in York, England.
What is the most iconic and recognizable Volvo of all time? That would be the 200 Series, of course, which went into production in 1974 and continued to roll off assembly lines all the way through 1993. It was so successful that it outlived its supposed replacement, and that car's replacement only outlasted the 200 by five years. Today's Junkyard Gem is an example of the final-year Volvo 200 Series, found in a Denver-area self-service boneyard recently.
While there are plenty of JDM vehicles roaming the roads of the United States (I daily-drive one myself), they don't often appear in the big self-service car graveyards that I frequent while researching this series. Until now, I'd found a discarded 1979 Nissan Fairlady Z originally brought over by an airman and that's it. Then I got word from some of my local junkyard tipsters that a final-generation Cresta had appeared at a yard near Denver, and I got over there immediately.
After Ford bought Jaguar in 1989, the bosses in Dearborn finally got their hands on a storied luxury brand that would be taken more seriously than Lincoln outside of North America. A fresh infusion of dollars worked wonders to improve the quality of Jaguar's engineering and assembly, and development of a modern DOHC V8 engine immediately took a high priority. That engine made its debut in the 1997 Jaguar XK8, then went into the engine compartment of the very first production Jaguar sedan to get factory V8 power: the XJ8. Today's Junkyard Gem is one of that first generation of XJ8, found crashed in a Colorado self-service boneyard.