Motoring Misfits: Nissan Cherry Europe

It's odd how cars made in particular countries seem to share certain characteristics. Italian cars for instance are known for sportiness and good handling at the expense of reliability, whereas those from Japan are exactly the opposite, very well built but usually very dull. Combining the best bits from these two nations should therefore have created the perfect blend of Italian flair with Japanese quality, but what resulted was instead the worst of both worlds. The Alfa Romeo Arna is a motoring misfit in its own right, but it has a lesser-known twin that is even more so, a Nissan built by Alfa Romeo and rebadged back into a Nissan. How did such a bizarre state of affairs come into being?

A Nissan that's really an Alfa that's really a Nissan 

Alfa Romeo in the early 1980s had a lot in common with our own Austin-Rover. Besides sharing the same initials, both were struggling private companies that had been bailed out by their country's government and both looked to Japan for a lifeline. While Austin-Rover developed a fruitful partnership with Honda, Alfa Romeo's collaboration with Nissan was rather less successful and is held up as an example of what happens when such things go wrong. It sounded so promising but turned out so badly with a dull Japanese design built by Italians.

The perfect combination of Japanese style and Italian reliability

Alfa approached Nissan as they needed to quickly create a new car to replace the ageing Alfasud, but didn't have enough money to do it themselves. This car was called the Arna, an acronym for Alfa Romeo Nissan Autoveicoli, and was outwardly almost identical to the bland Nissan Cherry N12. Under the bonnet however sat the flat-four engines from the Alfasud and the front suspension was also Alfasud-derived. In fact the entire front end ahead of the bulkhead was completely unlike the Nissan and gave a totally different driving experience, the handling actually being up to Alfa's usual high standard and way ahead of the original Cherry's lacklustre dynamics.

Nissan on the outside but Alfa Romeo under the bonnet

Elsewhere in Europe, the car appeared as the Alfa Arna but Alfa Romeo GB (maybe correctly) felt that it didn't fit the brand's prestige image here and declined to import it, somehow persuading Nissan to take it on instead. Thus the Cherry Europe was born, but it was never given a formal launch and just appeared virtually unnoticed in Nissan showrooms alongside the existing Japanese Cherry in 1983. All Cherry Europes were built by Alfa Romeo in Naples and apart from the Nissan badges and RHD were identical to the Arna, even down to the Alfa VIN plates.

The original Japanese-built Cherry. Spot the difference.

Only two models were available, the basic 1.2 SL and sporty 1.5 GTI, and some of the trademark Italian flair is evident in the latter. The spoilers, sports steering wheel, forged alloy wheels and lurid green upholstery of the surviving car pictured here are a far cry from the blandness of the Nissan original and rightly suggest it might be more exciting than first impressions would indicate. Bodywork differences from the Japanese Cherry are minimal though, with a slightly more raked front end and smaller rear lights as the main recognition features.

Funky green seats and sports steering wheel hint at an Italian heart

Given the choice of a reliable Japanese car or an inferior Italian-made version of the same thing from the same dealer, it was hard to justify buying a Cherry Europe, especially as the Alfa engines were so unfamiliar to Nissan mechanics who didn't know how to work on them properly. Within a year or so, the Cherry Europe was dead and Alfa Romeo GB fell in line with the rest of Europe and started importing the Arna, which at least meant Nissan dealers could direct the handful of Cherry Europe owners to the nearest Alfa garage where their fragile Italian mechanicals would be better understood.

Rear end treatment is a bit different

In 1986 the government sold Alfa Romeo to Fiat, at a stroke rendering the Nissan joint venture redundant, so the car met a swift end and no more curious Italian-Japanese crossbreeds ever appeared. While the Arna achieved instant notoriety and is still reviled as one of the very worst cars of all time, the Cherry Europe just faded away into obscurity and is almost unheard of even within the UK and completely unknown elsewhere. Today there are only four left: the white one pictured is the sole surviving SL with the other three being GTIs, two now taxed and one on SORN. Was the Arna/Cherry Europe really that bad though?

The only Cherry Europe SL left on British roads

Selling it as a Nissan was pointless as the existing Cherry from Japan had been on sale for a while and already had that market sector totally covered, but as an Alfa it actually made some sense. Many have suggested it would have been so much better had it been designed in Italy and built in Japan, which is probably true but wouldn't have achieved the objective of giving the Italian workforce a much-needed new car to build. It was more than just a Nissan with Alfa badges and helped Alfa Romeo survive through a tough time, so when you understand the reasons for its existence the Arna doesn't seem so bad after all. It's the Nissan version that was the true motoring misfit with no real purpose.