Nissan Motor Co. began its sales journey in the U.S. in 1958. Established as Nissan USA but selling cars branded as Datsuns (until the 1980s), they would become part of the “import invasion” that began in earnest with the VW Beetle. One of the more popular automobiles they sold in the U.S. in the 1970s was the Datsun B-210. They are seldom seen today because they were considered disposable. An exception is this 1976 B-210 hatchback which is said to be a one-owner auto with just 20,000 miles. Located in Concord, California, this time capsule piece is available here on eBay where the reserve is unmet at the latest bid of $8,911.
In Japan, these subcompacts would be known as Sunny, and they were in production from 1966 to 2004. Their third generation was built between 1973 to 1978 and was in demand in the U.S. after the first OPEC oil embargo (also 1973). A 1.4-liter inline-4 was standard along with a 4-speed manual transmission. The U.S. B-210s were the first Sunnys to be treated to protruding bumpers to keep the U.S. DOT happy. They were excellent on gas thanks to light sheet metal and spartan personal conveniences. Eventually, the Nissan Sentra would replace the Sunny and its derivatives.
This example of the B-210 looks like it just stepped out of a time machine. Only one family has owned it and for some reason only put on 20,000 miles, which is less than 500 clicks every turn of the calendar. It’s said to be numbers-matching and in pristine condition with no rust. We suspect the paint may have been reapplied as there is overspray on the undercarriage (unless that was common with Nissans back in the day).
If you look hard, you’re likely to only find the occasional garage knick in the paint. The seller said the tires are original (yikes!) and a 300-mile trip was recently taken on them. That’s too dangerous so the next owner should budget a new set of rubber donuts at each corner. Everything is said to work properly, and the 210 comes with its dealer license plate cover from new. Some, but not all, of the car’s service records have also survived. Chances are if you take this ride to Cars & Coffee, it will be the only one there!
Showroom fresh. I only remember these in yellow, gold or brown. Neighbors had a Honeybee in the mid-70s. Just read that those came with dog dish wheel covers and ironically not the honeycomb wheel covers pictured. The neighbors’ car had these wheel covers, so I guess they either ordered the car that that way, if that was possible, or replaced them later. You notice these things when you ride your bike a million hours a week in the cul de sac.
Yeah Timmy, Yellow was the main color I remember. Cute girl down the street from me growing up both of us the same age…her mom had a Yellow one in the late 70s early 80s. Then I guess sold it for a Red Pinto. Remember those cars vividly…and the girl. 😉
My first new car was a 1976 Toyota Corolla. I considered a B-210,but decided that the Corolla was better looking. I remember this color well,and saw many that color in SoCal. The orange color was popular with the 2-door notch back
we called them ‘soccer balls’, but yeah, great post.
The one that stuck in my mind was metallic green with a tan interior, the neigbors’ car. Must’ve been satisfied with it, after having a baby they replaced it with an ’81ish Datsun 210 wagon. *That* was white with blue interior.
Over here, we got them with a 1200cc engine. They were called a Datsun 1200, then later Sunny.
Nice looking car, swap the 1400 engine for a CA18DET, keep it all Nissan, and it’ll be traffic light demon.
Didn’t we call them the 120Y mate. I had heaps of friends who had them. Slow, uncomfortable and hot as hell inside, but absolutely bulletproof.
Yep, had a brain fade between datto 1200 and sunny.
This model was the 120Y over here.
My high school friend and his wife had one. Front seat room was tight but better than my buddy’s MG. ‘It’s a long way to empty in a Datsun’ was the company’s advertising tagline back then. The little B210 had difficulty getting up one of our area’s steepest hills with four adults aboard. I think my friend purposely went that way to assess the plucky little coupe’s ability. I might have volunteered, all 6’7″ and 250 lbs. of me, to get out and push.
When I test drive a car, I take it to a particular bridge (gateway bridge) across the Brisbane River, if it can’t maintain speed in 5th (manual) I walk away, if it picks up speed, I bought it.
Some Nissan dealer needs to buy this & put it in their showroom.
Clean examples like this are RARE as they were usually driven to death & typically racked up many more miles than this one’s total in any given 2-years of use!!
Agree with the “Yikes!” comment about the original tires.
I certainly wouldn’t recommend doing any highway driving with those rubber dinosaurs!! :-O
Any dealer would lose ALL his customers if they saw in the showroom today the price sticker on the side glass of any old car back then – even the big cars.
& better not raise the hood & shoppers see it’s rear wheel drive & how its ez to work on &. Even worse, if they found out how many exterior/interior colors were available back then. I would say at least 15/5.
The biggest reason why so few exist today is because they rusted away and many were bought back by Nissan because of it.
A 300 mile trip on tires that are nearly 50 years old? I guess it’s true: really does protect the ignorant.
Meh… no worse than the retreads my Dad used to put on his car all those years ago… Retread operation was in the same town we lived in… guy that managed it lived next door. They would typically only last a few thousand miles before they would fail… some times catastrophically… at highway speeds. I remember it happening to me a couple times as a teen when I borrowed his Gremlin… improved my driving skills… but hey, they were only 10 or 12 bucks each…
Pretty sure we can all agree, regardless of what your opinion is on Asian cars that happened to decimate a certain car maker from my hometown, oh no I won’t, until the bitter end,,ahem, anyway,,,the B210 changed everything for, Datsun,,Nissan,( still a couple years away) whatever you call them, it was huge. Replacing the 510, that Americans never really warmed up to, the B210 was exactly what people wanted. Toyota got the jump on the Asian car game with the Corolla, but the B210 was a much nicer car. They were incredibly popular,,,for about 3 years when rust began to rear its ugly head, and by 5 years, they were toast. The front struts rusted, making the cars undriveable. Many truckers used these motors as early APUs. Naturally, for anyone that’s had these, simply cannot believe the condition. While as popular as they were, it didn’t take long for them to become beaters, and how most got them. $100, tops, if it was still driveable, that is. They want what I consider top buck for this, but as crazy as it sounds coming from me, just try and find another. I almost guarantee it doesn’t idle properly,,,great find.
Absolutely bang on about the rusting.
Japanese cars of that era were so bad for rusting it turned me off them for a very long time.
No such issue with the modern cars.
Except Subarus….
The B210 didn’t replace the 510,it replaced the 1200,
or Sunny in other parts of the world.
Yes, technically, that’s true, except the 1200 was never really as popular as the 510. I had a gf that traded her ’64 Impala on a 1200 fastback. To say an about face would be an understatement. The B210 seemed to address all the bad things about the 1200. I think history conveniently skipped over the 1200 for a reason.
I remember back in the early 1980s a fellow kid’s mother had a pea colored green one like this when I was in nursery school it was rusty and had these same hubcaps to me resemble waded up then dented tin foil
These were garbage, straight off the Funky Maru. Car guys steered clear. And they didn’t hang around long in the Midwest salt bath.
But they were not marketed to us “car guys”. Most buyers were women. And they may not have been great cars but they were very reliable and fuel efficient.
Nothing from that era hung around long in the northern rust belt… Some of the worst I remember were Chryslers… specifically, Plymouth Dusters… After 2 or 3 winters they all had holes in the fenders I could throw a baseball through… 4 winters, a football…
As funky as it was they attracted quite a number of buyers. If you didn’t buy it for style you bought distinction. Cheap and consumable. I knew a few people who had them just for pure utility. With so few remaining this one is at least a conversation starter.
Yes, people did buy these awful looking cars. Ugh, I wonder why? And then they rusted away.
This one would certainly turn heads at a Cars and Coffee event.
My friends Mom had one of these. I drove a MG Midget at the time. One weekend they piled in the 210, 2 adults and 2 kids in the back to head for the coast. I had myself and a friend.
I was rowing the gears, revving the engine, sliding around corners thinking I was Sam Posey at Laguna Seca. That little 210 just ran away from me.
When we got there they all got out, cool as could be. They weren’t even driving the 210 hard.
The Asian revolution had taken hold…
These cars have such distinct styling. Those rear side windows are unmistakable. Crazy how much a set of wheels and lowering changes these cars, however this one is too well preserved to modify.
I knew a gal that had one of these in college–exactly the same year, color, and hubcaps. Only difference was hers was automagic.
I scrapped it after a few years . . . still have the aqua blue hatchback in my basement . . . and other parts, I’m sure.
What did you do with her? Or should I ask?
300 miles on tires that are nearly 50 years old? The seller should be thankful he/she and the car survived intact. Old tires don’t just go flat, they fail catastrophically – tread separation or outright explosion. Experts differ as to how old is too old for a tire, but I doubt any of them would condone driving on 48-year-old tires.
Wow… I can remember when these littered the landscape… and in this color. I think every third driveway had one of these in it. And yes, they were disposable. When something serious went bad (tranny, rear end, engine) they were just hauled away. But up until that point they were solid, dependable and cheap to run. They were all handed down to the kids who ran them into the ground. As I reside in the northern tier, I haven’t seen one in the flesh for well over 30 years… What a time capsule this on is…
I bought a new Datsun 310 in 1979. You see very few of them….appears to be a model that never caught on like the 210 or 510 did. Competent little car but with awful gear whine.
Big difference with the 310 is that it was front wheel drive that replaced the ugly F10. The RWD 210 replaced the RWD B210, and the 610 replaced the 510.
Unpopular opinion:
These didn’t rust out appreciably worse than a Vega or Pinto or Gremlin did. The only difference was that these were still seen on the road as running, rusty hulks when they were 7 years old, whereas the American subcompacts were already in the scrapyard at the same age.
credible opinion—back around say 1990 I’d still see some mid 70’s B210’s, Corolla’s, Civics on the streets. Rusted but running. Vegas, Pintos, Gremlins were already unicorns by 1990–not many left on the streets by then .
I never thought of Pintos being as bad about rusting as everything else. We had a ‘75 Bobcat Villager and it was rust-free when we traded it in 1982, but my Dad was conscientious about washing the salt off the cars in the winter. Our neighbors had a Datsun 510 wagon and you could see the road through the floors when it was 5 years old.
I had a ’78 (last year for the B210) that was given to me.
I ended up attempting to restore it using as many NOS parts
as I could find.
Ended up as an unfinished project that I had over $4500
into.Sold it for $800 to a guy near Olympia,Washington who’s
never updated me as to any progress made on it.
I saw an article in an issue of Hot Rod in 1974,where they
modified a White one,adding Red and Blue stripes around it.I
always wanted to make a copy of that car.
This was my first cat at 16 in 1984!! I loved that car. Color, interior, hub caps. Everything is the same. I lived that car. I wish I was in a position to get this one. What a blast to see it.
Beautiful little survivor. I had a 69 521 pickup I literally ran the wheels
off of… rode awful very primitive ,hot as could be in the little cab in summer (mid south) ….but that little truck never gave me one issue until finally bed sides just got so bad I had to let her go….it had 296,000 and I never did anything but typical maintance ………. rust killed her dead……. if I could find another low mile solid 521 I would buy in a heartbeat…….. awesome little vehicles for there time..so basic and simple.
The B210 and its polarizing styling. I always loved it, but never had one in the day (was too busy playing with 510s and Minis). But when I started road racing the B210 was fierce in GT3. Without the bumpers, box flares and lowered a bit with a slick front spoiler, they went really well.
I would love to have this example…..
bt
I enjoy reading the comments. Growing up in Michigan’s GM manufacturing mecca non American cars were shunned and occasionally vandalized. Seeing these were rare occurrence and I never new anyone who owned anything like this.
I do remember 6 month old vega cars with rust through on top of the front fenders.
I didn’t own one, but got one as a rental car while my car was in the shop. I’m sorry to say that it confirmed every bad opinion I had of Asian cars of the era. Tinny and slow (although the automatic transmission fitted for rental duty probably didn’t help matters any), the doors made an audible “Clang!” when you shut them, and the mustard yellow color, the same color as Gulden’s mustard, didn’t help the presentation any. The polite term we used for that color was “Puppy Poop Brown”, although we used the four-letter expletive for excrement in place of the more polite term, poop, LOL!
I had a friend back then whose Dad had this same car, color and all. I had all but forgotten about it until seeing this pictured here.
I bought one of these new in 77. Mine was brown/tan/manual.AC. Had a 60 mile each way commute, so I wanted cruise control. They didn’t offer it, and I almost didn’t buy it. Dealer told me he could add it after market, so i bought it. I was commuting on the flat land between Memphis and Helena AR, and discovered I could use the Cruise control OR the A/C, but not both at the same time! Personification of gutless! Traded it for a 280Z, which I should have kept.
Ha… had the same experience in the ’80s with my mother’s car… early ’80s vintage FWD Chrysler with the 4 cylinder (some K-car derivative, details long forgotten). Parents wanted cruise for their long trips… so I bolted on one of the aftermarket units then available… would not maintain speed on the highway if there was any kind of incline… Things we put up with in the malaise era…
Had a friend of mine buy one new then drove it from the dealers home and put a built small block chevy in it lol
“…littered the landscape…”
yup, as ubiquitous as the Impalla just a few yrs earlier in every driveway seen down the block.
Never got the name switch till maxima ultima…
Just gimmie a hopped up datsun 510, sedan, coupe of wagon ! (610, 810 not as successful on the track just cuz the competition). 2 co.s makin speedy bits to this day~
Beautiful car, in time capsule condition. The parents of a friend of mine bought one of these in ’76, it was a great car for the money.
They used to be ubiquitous, rust got most of them.
As was typical in the 70’s, the drive train on Japanese cars would long outlast the body.
Big difference with the 310 is that it was front wheel drive that replaced the ugly F10. The RWD 210 replaced the RWD B210, and the 610 replaced the 510.