The U13 series was launched in Japan in September 1991 as a four-door sedan and four-door pillared hardtop. The two models were visually distinct: the four-door sedan had curves where its U12 predecessor had edges, while the hardtop, called the Nissan Bluebird ARX, had more traditional styling. The Bluebird wagon was replaced by the new Nissan Avenir. This series replaced the Stanza/Auster/Violet platform expansion that enabled Nissan to sell a Bluebird-sized product at Nissan's Japanese dealership network, as the economic effects of the collapse of the Japanese asset price bubble began to unfold in Japan. Projected production for 1992 was 15,000 cars per month, 13,000 of which were intended for the Japanese domestic market.