‘The joy of it is it’s unique, quirky … kind of like me’: This car was hard to get, but it’s making my retirement

While a career in corporate finance is not exactly Hollywood exciting, Brian Lynch has found a way to light up his life in retirement. The 70-year-old helped launch a doggy daycare in his neighbourhood, is an active volunteer for several charities focused on animals and children, and has acquired a diploma in baking. And he drives a vehicle full of character: a 1991 Nissan Figaro.

Brian Lynch explains how this came to be:

“My wife and I were renting a home in Clifton, Ireland in 2016. At one point, we attended a horse show and saw a car just like this one parked on the street. I’d never seen one in my life. Everything about it caught my attention.

I’m sure my wife rolled her eyes at the time, but, when I announced that I was going to get one for myself, she knew — knowing me — that I was going to make good on that promise. It was the 1991 Nissan Figaro and it had to be mine.

When we returned to Canada I couldn’t find one easily in the country, so I worked with a company in Japan to source one. They found one in the Toyko area, put it on a ship and the ship line went bankrupt. So it just sat there, sadly, off the coast of Vancouver. Two-and-a-half whole years later, we were reunited.

I think driving the Figaro home with my wife in 2019, after all that anticipation, is still my best memory with the car … that and taking the rest of my family out for a drive in it. One by one of course, because I can only get one passenger in it at a time.

As anyone can see, it’s a tiny vehicle and it’s extremely impractical. It’s got a back seat, but you could barely fit a chimpanzee back there. The trunk is even smaller. So it’s really become a fair-weather car for us. We take it out every May — in fact, we just took it out of storage a week ago — and take it on day trips or overnights to places like Stratford or Elora.

I suppose the joy of it is that it’s so unique and a little bit quirky — kind of like me.

Buying it is one of the many fun things that I’ve done in my retirement. I own a Vespa. I got my baking diploma at George Brown College …. The people who know me best know that buying something like this is kind of par for the course. My kids will say, ‘Ya, my dad’s got a car that’s an answer to a Jeopardy question — that makes sense.’

It’s definitely the colour, along with the size, that attracts the most attention. These Figaros only ever came in four colours — and each was connected to one of the four seasons of the year. I’ve got Emerald Green which is for Spring, which adds to why I always love bringing it out around this time. I didn’t have a choice in the colour I got, but if I had, I would have picked this one.

I don’t know what it’s like to be famous, but I’ll go to a summer event and I’ll park this car and it’s guaranteed that at least 20 people are going to approach me with questions. I wouldn’t say I got the car for attention, but it’s unavoidable. That’s become part of the fun.

“Where it’s from is a mystery to most.”

“One thing that’s interesting about the car: it has very little badging on it. It doesn’t say Figaro very robustly, so people will often ask if it’s an English or Italian car. It’s rare that people guess it’s Japanese. They were built as part of what was called the ‘Back to the Future’ campaign. They wanted to build a retro-looking car that was dependable and not too fancy, mechanically because they wanted people to actually drive it and wanted it to last. You’ll see there are these scallop shells that are reflected throughout which was a theme of these vehicles. They really are beautiful inside and out.”

“You won’t find many quite like it.”

“This car has a unique history in that Nissan only made 8,000 of them originally, but there was such an enormous demand that they upped that to 20,000. In fact, they had orders for over 100,000 of them, so they had to create a lottery in Japan. That meant you had a one-in-five chance of owning this car. And, for all its flash, it’s quite well made. It’s a four-cylinder, but it’s a turbocharged engine, so it’s fairly efficient. You wouldn’t want to take it on a trip to Montreal. But any day trips and the like … it’s a lot of fun to drive, and I take it out on the highway all the time.”

NOTE: Do you love your car? Tell us why in a few sentences! Email us at wheels@thestar.ca and put Why I Love My Car in the subject line