Nissan Prairie

The Nissan Prairie, introduced in Japan in 1981 and Europe in 1982, was a car from Japanese manufacturer Nissan. It was also known as the Multi in Canada and the Stanza Wagon in the United States.

The Prairie was one of the first "crossover" cars, resembling a tall station wagon / estate with the addition of sliding side doors. It was commonly ordered with five seats, though seven were available. The size of one of today's compact SUVs, it was amongst the forefront of the trend for multi-purpose vehicles which had rarely been seen since the Fiat 600 Multipla of the 1950s. The closest contemporary competitor was the Mitsubishi Chariot — other options for cars (as opposed to minibuses / minivans) with more than five seats were limited to large estates such as the Citroën CX family model, off-road vehicles such as the Land Rover Defender, and oddities such as the Talbot Matra Rancho which had extra rear-facing child seats.

The concept was inspired by the Lancia Megagamma show car from Giorgetto Giugiaro and ItalDesign, shown in 1979. Nissan, at the time, was very keen to have "European" styling for its cars.