The Datsun 510 is one of the more desirable vintage sports sedans of the 1960s, competing with the BMW 2002 as the car of choice if you wanted a vehicle that could hustle but needed the convenience of a backseat. The 510 is rare to find in survivor condition, or unmodified from stock, as their popularity as cars worthy of tuning left relatively few of them in stock condition. This 1978 510 station wagon is rare for a few reasons, including its pristine condition, but also because we don’t see too many later examples of the classic 510 pop up for sale. This one is listed here on Hemmings for $11,995 in Naples, Florida. Thanks to Barn Finds reader Mitchell G. for the find.
The seller claims they manage a collection of vehicles that has gotten too large, and it’s time to start winding down the stash. A Datsun 510 wagon isn’t the first car I’d expect to find in any sort of collection outside of the likes of what collectors like Duncan Imports stashes away, but vintage Japanese tin is a booming collector car segment. This one looks laser straight down the sides and in all the vulnerable rust spots like the rockers, fender edges, and rear quarters. The color is excellent and called Chartreuse, and while the seller doesn’t call it original, I suspect the odds are good that it is, especially when factoring in the condition of the rest of the car. Even the original hubcaps remain affixed.
The interior is in a similar state as the exterior, with no obvious damage beyond an area of vinyl repair on the driver’s seat. The automatic transmission is a bummer, but given how few of these are left, finding a wagon-bodied 510 with a stick is a lot to ask. The automatic likely helped this 510 remain so highly preserved, as you can see a vehicle like this just being used for running to church services or the grocery store by an older owner. The seller reports that the 510 drives well, and even goes so far as to say it has a lot of power, a claim that I find slightly suspect. The paint inside the doors looks pristine and matches the exterior.
Four-cylinder hearts were the norm in compact sedans like this, and while the Japanese may have taken over the entry-level marketplace with their fuel-sipping models, the 510 managed to inject a fair amount of sportiness while also being miserly at the pump. The seller reports that they have tackled all of the sensible deferred maintenance issues, including replacing the brakes, tires, and fuel lines. This is the kind of vintage car you can get into right now and enjoy, even if the ride is destined to be a slow one. Survivor 510s are desirable in any condition, but this rare wagon may be even more so given its long-roof configuration.
“The 510 is rare to find in survivor condition” because most of them self-destructed. $11,995. really?
These late 1970s models are a far cry from the original Datsun 510 that was sold here in the late 1960s through early 1970s. I owned one of the originals and those were much better than any economy car of the time had to be. Plenty of power compared to its competitors and coil-sprung independent rear suspension in the sedans let them hustle around the twisties. A poor man’s BMW. (Longroofs though made do with a solid rear axle.)
Those old 510s in the rust belt quickly fell prey to the tinworm. Out in the salt-free west most were mostly modified for racing. That’s why an original 510 is so difficult to find in survivor condition today.
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The 2nd-gen 510s like these were not sporty, they were just dull economy cars. The company was just trying to cash in on the name the original model had made for itself.
You are right about early-510’s, even out west unmodified examples are extremely hard to find and have been since the 1980’s.
This car has two things going for it, it’s a wagon and it’s old. It really doesn’t matter that it’s slow, that can be easily rectified with an engine and transmission swap. The import guys, especially drifters love cars like this. They can haul around several people plus a bunch of supply’s. The asking price is a stretch, but you’ve got to starts somewhere. If the seller is flexible this car will find a new home sooner or later.
Steve R
exactly what I was going to say. the ’68-73 were the REAL 510s, not this wanna be.
My Mom had a 72 510 with an automatic. Sad car, no power and cheaply built. Now for some reason they are commanding big bucks, not.
automatic made it a wet noodle
Naw……the hp made it a wet noodle, the auto made it worse!
Love it! I had one of these as my second car when I was 17. The car was a blast to drive and loved being thrown into corners. I remember doing a soft rollover and being devastated that I wrinkled the front fender and cracked the sunroof. Needless to say it started right up again and kept going until I wrapped it around a light standard later that summer.
Did the sport sedan have a larger engine than the wagon. It’s compared to a bmw 2002, but then owner of wagon said it was pretty quick, and you doubt it. Just trying to figure out which is which?
I have owned a 2002 and a 510 and there is no way the 510 is an equivalent car to the BMW.
Back when I was cruising back lots of dealers, I bought a ’78 510 sedan same colors as this for $150 out the door……It had a blown head gasket so I filled it with coolant, drove home 5 miles in a plume of white smoke………next day it got a head gasket and tune up and buff out. Sold it for $1200………drove great but rust was starting and I knew it wouldn’t last long…….
Even when rust starts, if the car is never driven in bad weather again & is garaged, the rust will not get worse if the car is occasionally cleaned carefully in those areas w/o a hose. If the rust is bad & is on a structural part, of course it should be repaired.
Even an early Vega could be rust free with hundreds of thousands of miles if it was a garage queen & of course engine was replaced with a later one. Orig powerglide would still be kickin. lol
I disagree….humidity/moisture from change of temps causes rust too.
Only time your theory would apply is in very dry warm climates like Arizona or So Cal. OR….a climate controlled garage
These were a pretty ordinary car here in Australia, we didn’t get the sports model although we did see the factory rally team competing in the national rally series although they were never as good as the original 1600
I’m trying to figure out what they did to the windows. Not so much a tint as …. vaseline?
I’m thinking the car was parked in one of those storage units. The air inside was likely a bit cooler and drier than the outside Naples, Florida air which the car was pulled out into for the pictures. Poof! Condensation forms on the cooler windows, and body panels, as the warmer, more humid air hits them. (Had they waited a little while, the temperature and humidity difference would have equalized and the condensation would have diminished.)
These cars were appliances.
Surprised it’s not Maytag White.
Yes, that is a ridiculous amount of money for one of the sad-sack late-generation 510s. Even the solid-axle early 510 wagons were nice to drive, with their tidy size and great visibility all around. A girlfriend’s family had an orange wagon (called the Orange Crate, of course!), and even with its automatic I loved running errands in it.
Datsun was on a roll with both the first 510 and the 1200 – I spent a happy afternoon at Laguna Seca watching John Morton and the other BRE guys killing the opposition from a good hilltop spot over the bottom of the Corkscrew. Just a few years later, both cars were “improved” out of any meaningful existence.
Their sheer simplicity and chintzyness if that’s a word is what draws me to stuff like this. Cheap and basic like an american car from the 50s, minus the style, but there is just something endearing about these older Japanese appliance cars. Datsuns were VERY susceptible to rust and even in my state where salt was only lightly used back then on a cool evening you could almost hear these and the B210s rust. Seat fabric had the durability of a gum wrapper but they ran great. Didn’t make enough torque to hurt the driveline so mechanically they lasted. In the early 90s I bought a 79 210 sedan for 450 even though it was quite rusty. Drove great but when we put it on the hoist to change oil it bowed like a banana and the doors wouldn’t open or close till it was back on the ground.
Even my 79 Toyota pickup is of better quality than these datsun. GLWTS
When i was a kid my dad was the manager of a Datsun dealership He brought one of those gems LOL I could not blow it up and believe me I tried and tried. You could put that slush box in 1st and drive all day long pegged the Z He brought home wasn’t so lucky.
I thought these were great cars, certainly a notch up from that original tin-can 510, whose only merit, I thought, was the IRS in sedans. We took a friends 510, 4 door, to Fla. once, worst ride ever. Uncomfortable, thin door, poorly heated, and with the 4 speed, wasn’t all that great a mileage. These cars addressed all those issues. They were comfy, stylish, still poor heat, but this and the B210, helped cement Datsun as a major player in the auto world, a leader to this day, thanks in part, to these cars. $12g’s??? You know what I think,,,
Re: Early 510 “Tin Cans” – in ’68 I was working with some guys in Palo Alto whose “company cars” were a couple of 2-door 510s. We had an associate call us to check out an invention of his dad’s up in Seattle. We got two days to make the trip … so three of us took off on Sunday morning, got to Seattle at dinnertime, checked out an utterly worthless “invention” and went to sleep on the sofa. Got up at 4 AM and headed back down. Hit the north edge of the Bay Area just as a massive commute to the GM plant (where Tesla is now) was underway, pacing traffic at 80+ while the CHP just sat and observed … and were at the house in PA in time for breakfast. Our one holdup? We passed an Oregon HP cop car at 102 mph and got a warning, since they’d been going the other way and didn’t clock us.
I got to drive the wheels off both of those cars and never had a bit of trouble. Had they been running on today’s radials instead of bias-ply rim protectors they’d have been a lot more fun.
The only “original” paint on this thing is the green color paint on the radiator support. That’s the reason why the paint on the doors and jambs is so “pristine”–it is much newer than the car. At $12K, seller clearly hoping someone with more money than brains will confuse this version with the earlier ones that do bring this kind of $$$.
Its amazing how so many people think just because something is old its worth a BIG chunk of money!
Thats a $3000 “transportation special” car to me.
Motorcityman, whether a car rusts in a garage could also depend on the type of garage construction & water table height. My friend lives in the cold often rainy damp sometimes snowy & many times hot humid summer Northeast & bought a ’74 firebird in ’78. One of the rear quarter panels was already rusted & so were sections of the very bottom edge of the passenger door,. He only fixed the quarter panel, & to this day the rust on the door has not gotten worse(never driven in bad weather since). Nor is there any rust that has formed underneath the car. His garage is not climate controlled. The 1945 garage attached to his house still has its heavy wooden door. The concrete floor never gets damp. & get this – the garage has concrete or similar covered walls & ceiling!!! & it is a tite fit for the bird in there & a Pontiac Tempest would be too long to fit, tho oddly a ’55 chevy did fit prior to the bird in there.
The garage door is not insulated & does not seal the garage well so there is airflow. He also does not see any rusting or discoloration on parts like the fuel pump & starter solenoid in there.
He never sees any mud or water puddling on the grass outside even after a big rain – good quick drainage & no doubt a low water table in his area.
He also has an old car outside & when he put in a nice shiny fuel pump & starter solenoid, both were very discolored after just sitting several months outside – also not driven in bad weather.
I do remember reading someone bought Clint Eastwood’s t/a from “Thunderbolt & Lightfoot” & the car did not fare well when it was stored in a very very humid FLORIDA garage with typical exposed wood walls & ceiling.
Fair enough!