The endless overuse of any given manufacturer’s styling “DNA” has finally subsided, but the reality is what it is: every maker tries to coddle and nurture an unmistakable design language for their brand, and for good reason. Few have succeeded as superbly as Audi, whose current styling theme is still deeply rooted in the 5000/100 of 1982. Certainly, when a brand is down on its heels, like Cadillac was before it reinvented itself with its Arts and Science look, it may be the right and best strategy. How about the other extreme, of a maker suddenly tossing out all the glowing brand equity a highly successful model has just cultivated? It would be hard to find a better/worse example as Nissan in 1974. On the heels of its highly successful boxy and edgy 510, it launched a successor that couldn’t be more different. And Datsun was never the same again.
It appears that Japan was not immune to the effects of the Great Brougham Epoch, which sent it s ripples of influence across the globe from America. Europe was relatively more resistant, although not wholly so, especially in places like England. But in Japan, the GBE was practically a tsunami, as we saw in the 1978 Corona with its vinyl top and other affectations.
But at least with Toyota, the styling changes were a bit more incremental, although Toyota had some wild stylistic flings too in the seventies. But Datsun? It seems as if one day all the whole design department was fired, and a bunch of kids hanging out Ginza were rounded up and sent to take their place. That’s a bit fanciful, but actually quite close to the truth.
The fact was that Japan was finally coming into its own in terms of an indigenous design school. Let’s not forget that most Japanese cars of the sixties were designed by, or with input from the top European design houses or designers. Pininfarina was very involved with the new Corona of 1964 as well as designing the 510 predecessor, the 410, and Bertone was responsible for the lovely Mazda Luce. But by the 1970 or so, Japan was ready to express itself, and like a kid given the drafting table and crayons. And the results were a bit uneven, but highly memorable.
And Datsun was the most drastic of the bunch. The 610 had zilch in common with the 510 (CC here), except of course under the skin. It was an enlarged platform, but with all of the key components that made the 510 so brilliant and successful: the L-Series OHC four, and the semi-trailing arm IRS. But it was a substantially larger and heavier car, which was of course inevitable.
But the target for the 610 had changed too; it was now being billed as The Luxury Datsun, one dangerously small step away from a Brougham indeed. It was part of a strategy to expand Datsun upmarket, which of course just about everyone does/did. Consider the 610 the first Infiniti.
And the 510′s true replacement came a year or so later, in the form of the 710 (above). Unfortunately, the 710 was missing the 510′s goodies, and came off highly pedestrian. The typical Datsun workhorse, but not a budget BMW 2002. And the 610 didn’t come off the slightest bit BMW-esque either, although it was a reasonably competent handling car.
But it was set up for an altogether different mission: to capture the sweet spot of the American markets, where the profits ran as thick as a juicy Porterhouse steak: American mid-sized buyers who suddenly were spooked by the energy crisis.In that regard, the 610′s arrival in 1974 was as perfect as its styling was imperfect.
Typically, I speak from an example of one, but I don’t think it’s unrepresentative. In 1974, my “boss”, an urbane director of the new Performing Arts Center at the University of Iowa traded in his silver 1971 or 1972 “fat-boy” Cougar for a yellow 610 coupe. The Cougar’s interior may have been a bit tacky, but it was decidedly plusher than the Luxury Datsun.
‘Nuff said; it was another one of so many million notches in the decline of Detroit. A few years then made all the difference: one day it was still cool to drive an American car, the next day it wasn’t. The whole thing was like a slow-motion tsunami that swept the country from California, although not exactly in a perfectly linear fashion.
Of course, the 610′s timing also had its downsides. By 1974, the emission regs were like an ever-tightening noose, and the 510′s sparkling engine was now a downright dullard, along with just about everything else. Can’t really blame it. I believe the early versions came with the 1800 cc engine, but that was soon enlarged to 2000 ccs to try to keep some semblance of perkiness. It didn’t work. The 510′s 1600 cc engine could whistle; the de-smogged 2000 had a touch od palpable torque , but like the rest of the industry, revs above 5000 rpm were now as illicit as LSD.
As quirky and different as the 610 looked, it has its fans. Actually, I have a real soft spot for seventies Japanese design, and the 610 coupe, with a bit of cleaning up, is really quite a nice example of the breed. And it evokes so many wild Nissans to come, like the Skyline. The four door sedan: not so much so. But even it looks sober compared to the psychedelic F-10.
Of course, we all know that Datsun got cold feet along with the cold shoulder it was feeling, and within a few years it was desperately aping the old 510′s boxy looks with the neo-510 (CC here). Datsun’s decades’ long identity crisis started with this 610, and ended…well, eventually; but not before it almost went belly up.
ALL the aprentices at the power station I worked at seemed to buy these called here a 180B I can remember towing many home with blown head gaskets a problem datsun kept having into the late 80s they were terrible cars prone to rust. There was an attempt to make a SSS hotrod version like the 1200cc model but it didnt succeed the 710 was called the 200B ie a 180 wiyh 20 more mistakes absolutely awful cars out here The boxy 1600 was a great car good rally car etc but that was the last good one from then on Datsuns were crap
The mid 1970′s are simply my very least favorite years of automotive styling, and here we are with more fuel for the fire. I can count on one hand the number of cars from this era I would actually own, and this ain’t one of them.
I remember reading years ago about some famous person (pretty sure it was Paul Newman) who used to race Datsun 510s, and at about the same time I had also read how the 510 was a great car and was cool and blah blah, having no clue what a 510 was. Because I had no idea what a 510 looked like, I assumed it looked like one of these puffy-looking 610 turds. Paul Newman would NOT have raced one of these dorkmobiles, of this I was sure! Where the 510 was cool and trim (and Newman-worthy) this 610 is fat and frumpy. I just didn’t know at the time Datsun made a cool car before they made this 610.
This CC and the ’67 Thunderbird CC from the other day have really made me think a lot about styling again. It is easy for us car guys to look back to some point in time and say “what were they thinking??” But stylists have to predict what will sell years in advance, make it buildable for a reasonable cost, and certainly 1000 other things we all overlook.
It’s a miracle we aren’t all driving The Homer.
Actually Paul the direct ancestor of this 610 is not the boxy 1600 510 its really the 140j Violet which was made earlier and shares many styling cues did NA not get that one, if you see the 2 of them you will see what I mean I think it was a UK model but NZ got em
The 140 Violet was the 710. The 710 came after the 610.
I had a case of car lust for the 610 Coupe, or as it was called in Australia, the 180B SSS. My lust was unrequited. I ended up getting a 1967 510, or Datsun 1600 as we knew it. Mine was completely stock, right down to the cross-ply tires that handled poorly in the wet, no radio, no heater/fan/A/C or demister, vinyl flooring.
You got a better car Davo than the 180 these were good and even though the body wobbled like a jelly at 120km on a cattle grid were quite well made 3 of us drove a 1600 all over far Norty Qld in 85 including up the cape trib road it didnt like that though the car was stuffed at the end of the trip and was dumped in Cairns
Something I wonder about affectations like vinyl tops on Japanese cars of the seventies is how much it presaged a shift in the way the cars were actually sold. In the sixties and early seventies, they tended to be imported as fully equipped models, with commonly ordered accessories rolled into the purchase price as a buyer enticement. While that had obvious appeal for customers (and as a side effect, helped to facilitate more consistent assembly quality), I imagine it wasn’t terribly appealing to dealers once sales began to climb. If you’re struggling to establish a brand, you may be happy to take all the business you can get, but options tended to be where dealers made a lot of their profit. If you limit factory options — as Honda still does — dealers have to resort to adding their own accessories, which can be profitable, but requires additional labor for installation, additional overhead, etc. Aside from creeping Brougham-ness, the obvious appeal of vinyl tops and other cosmetic options is that they give dealers a straightforward opportunity for upselling.
Once the Voluntary Restraint Agreement was enacted in the early eighties, limiting the maximum number of cars each Japanese automaker could import, the Japanese started ladling on the appearance groups and special editions, stuff like the first 810 Maxima and the Honda Accord SE, to pump up per-car profit margins. However — without doing a lot of research into factory vs. dealer options from that era — it seems like that was a trend that began a few years before the VRA, although the latter certainly accelerated it.
In 1973, my father purchased a Toyota Corrolla S-5 (the five speed model WITHOUT the big tires and fender flares). As delivered, the car included dealer installed vinyl top and metal/vinyl side trim.
Ironically, when I acquired the car in 1980, the rust worm had avoided most of the body, but the vinyl roof and door rub strips were both severly sun burned and faded. Even worse, the pop rivets holding all the accesory trim on board provided entry points for most of the rust on the car.
So long story short- In Denver, Colorado, the Toyota dealer began furiously installing this dreck in the early sevenites.
One look at this car and all I can see is a 73 Plymouth Satellite. Coupe or sedan, take your pick. Even though I am a Mopar fan, the 73 Satellite sedan was not a good car to copy. The Sebring coupe wasn’t bad, but this Datsun does not have the length to make it work.
I have a soft spot for Datsuns. As much as I love the 510, my dislike for this one is just as strong.
That little yellow car up there does appear to have a little Satellite to it, I’m kinda seeing a mini Maverick too.
I always loved the looks of these cars to be honest. It’s like a pocket sized muscle car. The really sad(or good thing) about the whole design change is that BMW obviously thought the 510 looked good enough to be launched again in 1982 as the E30 3-series, and then sold 3-4 millions of them in 10 years…
A guy my dad worked with loved the 610, so much he restored them in his spare time(at one point he may have had as many as 10 cars in his yard!). This was in 1985/86.
It was a bit sad that by the time these cars were only 10 years old Illinois winters had pracitcally made them extinct.
I spent several years in Japan and I can contribute something to the discussion. I even speak the language fairly well so I can say with a fair amount of accuracy that the way Japanese view the world is, ahem, rather different than the way middle-aged Caucasian men do. Same went for the 610…
What Japanese see as good styling we may not. In this era, the Japanese were still (for the most part) focused on their home market and styled their products accordingly. It’s kind of hard to explain without having actually experienced it yourself, but the Japanese world view is very different than ours. Hence, weird stuff like the 610. I am sure the 610 was a hit in Japan, which at the time was looking for more style as their economy boomed. Eventually, Japanese styling go so way-out, they had to open design studios is the USA to style the cars sold here in a manner than North Americans would actually want to buy. Pretty smart move, too, judging by the results.
All car buffs need to take a trip to Japan to see what is on the road. More than half the cars are white. Japanese love white, thinking it is “pure” and this will lower the incidence of accidents. Toyota reigns supreme in Japan, for the exact reasons auto journalist-hacks deride them here: Japanese want a conservative, comfortable, reliable product.
I hope that I don’t get flamed by mad because the way that I can relate to this issue is more of a result of my several years living in Japan.
Your comments are spot on. I ran a bit short of time last night to discuss this issue in more depth, so thanks for the addition.
Excellent comment. The Japanese aren’t alone in wanting conservative, comfortable, reliable product. Maybe that’s why they sell so many cars all over the globe. You’d think a few others would have caught onto this idea after all these years.
I dont need to go to Japan to see the incrediblly diverse range of Jappas NZ has had a thriving used import industry fo many years On returning from Aussie it was amazing whats on the road over her from Japan all sorts of strange looking and strangly named vehicles all fully loaded and very cheap to buy once used again JDM spec cars leave a lot to be desired in the drivability stakes though their roadholding is appalling they ride on very soft suspensions and vey skinny tyres handling on NZs twisty roads is a joke every single model seems to have a 4WD version and diesel vesion but dont expect Subaru style road manners speaking of Subarus NZ has the highest ownership rates of these in the world they are every where slowly rumbling along $10 gas and Subs dont work well there has never been an economical one yet but all those silly looking baby cars are about fuel economy is the attraction for them .Toyotas aboundhere reliable though boring to drive and lethal at speed with their JDM?US spec shocks there are more Corolla types than I can name most of which were never destined to leave Japans shores Repairing this lot has been a challenge as there is no published data in English and even looking in a fuse box is con fusing unless you read Japanese and safety can be a concern as most of these do not meet any foreign safety standards often no side intrusion bars and the stupid stand on the brake to move the shifter automatics are a pest and take getting used to Its scary too as after the Kobe disaster lots of water damaged cars turned up here now after the tsunami are the shady dealers going to start importing flood damaged cars again I never saw these cars in Aussie as the only shipment that came during my tenure was scrapped because they were not up to roadworthy standard and could not be registered this also happens here and occasionally I see on trademe cars for sale that cant be complianced often because some Japanese tuner has been at it first. The scrap industry thrives here sending these cars on to the next owner in blocks probably China but again back they come with Great Wall on them or Geely. We even have that merican Toyota Cavalier here badged both ways they are rubbish and sell for peanuts how on earth did GM get Toyota to accept those awful cars and guarenteed to break down.
That’s the longest sentence I have seen since James Joyce.
Sorry about that,. trying to make a 50 year old Lucas electrical system work is softening my brain.
As a man who has tried that same feat twice, the best I can say is to give up.. Only American Motors could come close to what Lucas did. Sadly as much as AMC tried being as heinous as the Dark Prince even they couldn’t punish humanity as Lucas did..
Oh I wont give up ,its quite a simple system just old and lots of bad contacts to sort thru all the pieces work just not in the car. I really want this thing legally back on the road as it runs and drives well
Please, please, please, for the love of all that is holy, use some punctuation! You make some interesting points, but they are buried in an impenetrable avalanche of words. Show the world that we Kiwis are more literate than average. Or perhaps you spent way too much time in Oz. (j/k)
The new Kia Optima reminds me of this car (the 610 sedan). Same “J curve” C-pillar.
I remember the explanation at the time for Japanese styling preferences was that they looked at cars a little bit closer and admired surface detailing. Right up Chris Bangle’s alley, in other words.
Also remember that 5 mph bumpers made everything look awkward. I noticed that customized yellow 610 coupe lacked them. Much nicer.
You can certainly draw a parallel between 1970′s Nissan/Datsun and 1960′s Chrysler as it transitioned from Exner craziness to Engel understatement.
And the Nissans of the 1980′s-early ’90′s were pretty good-looking cars. The original 240SX, three generations of Maximas, three more of Sentras, two 300ZX permutations, the second-gen Pulsar NX, the original Infinitis, not a loser in the bunch. Couple them with the sweet SR20 four-cylinder and VQ V6 and you had a very sound lineup. If anything, things got a little goofy in the mid-90′s, hence the Renault rescue.
Did all 610s have red above and blue under the “AT” of DATSUN or just ones equipped with automatic transmissions? It looks odd.
As a kid growing up in California in the ’80s, I remember these swoopy, Baroque ’70s Japanese cars looking so much prettier than the K-cars and such that were then topping the sales charts. A neighbour had an orange B210 fastback that I thought was just about the coolest car on the road: