There had been an epidemic of ‘80s Nissans on this site lately. Roger Carr’s excellent piece on the lamentable ARNA story and Paul’s 1983 Pulsar N12 re-post kind of highlighted to my recent capture of a late model N10 as the obvious subject of a quick post about the first generation of Pulsars, using this well-worn example I found a couple weeks ago up in Chiang Mai. The CC Effect strikes again.
The biggest problem with Datsuns of the late ‘70s/early ‘80s is their multitude of nameplates. This Datsun (and/or Nissan) N10 could also be called, depending on where you bought it, 100A/120A/130A/140A/150A, Cherry, B310, Pulsar, Langley, Syphilis or Key Lime Pie. OK, I made up these last two, but come on. How many monikers does one FWD hatchback need?
Even the brand name was in a state of flux in those days, as the name Nissan began creeping in to gradually replace Datsun. In Thailand, it seems the Nissan badge just started appearing on the rear, just like that. To be fair, another contemporary rebadging exercise I’m more familiar with (Peugeot’s ill-fated resuscitation of Talbot) was handled in a similarly haphazard fashion, with different marques and logos on either end of the car for a couple of model years. Though not rocket science, rebranding is also a lot trickier than one might expect.
The N10 Pulsar came out in May 1978 looking like the above, replacing the F10 Cherry as Datsun’s compact FWD offering. Aside from the new model name, this generation displayed Datsun’s conversion to the origami design philosophy, all straight edged and boxy, which would characterize Nissans for over a decade. It must have looked quite clean and mercifully unmolested when it came out, especially compared to the F10. Under the new skin, however, little had changed. The suspension, engines and transmissions were carried over from the previous generation, though our late model feature car might have the new OHC 4-cyl. that came (though perhaps not in Thailand) for the 1981 model year.
This is a 1981-82 car, which got a slight facelift, and some really cool and very period wheels. This is the JDM-style facelift, though: Australian, European and North American Datsuns did not look like this, it seems. (This is based on an empirical online image search, so please correct me if need be. Datsun/Nissan is not my forte…) I prefer the earlier cars’ front end, But this isn’t too dreadful. Reminds me of the Fiat 131 quite a bit. There were other Italian reminiscences coming from the Pulsar’s wedgy looks.
At the back, the Pulsar’s late ‘70s flavor is unadulterated. As I photographed it, I remarked how close Giugiaro’s 1979 Lancia Delta’s behind was to the Pulsar’s similarly hunkered down and angular rear quarters and fat C-pillar. Sure, this is all from the VW Golf / Chrysler Horizon school of hatchbacks, but the Golf and the Horizon have a more or less horizontal beltline, looking far less wedge-shaped overall. To me, the Pulsar’s rear half also had shades of Gandini’s 1982 Citroën BX, though those are a bit bigger than the Datsun and the Lancia. Convergent evolution, probably: the Datsun was designed in-house, it seems. And came out before these two.
I really tried to like this car. It was the first one I’d seen up close in ages – certainly the last couple of decades. But despite this relative novelty and a few interesting angles, the Pulsar N10 overpowers by its blandness. There doesn’t seem to be that much love for the Cherry / Pulsar bloodline in general – the ugly F10, the boring N10, its anonymous successor and the atrocious European N12… Previous CC posts and their comments provide a wealth of knowledge and experience on these well-known and truly global cars. There isn’t much love out there for these.
The Pulsar is an underdog. Everyone roots for the underdog. But this one doesn’t have much personality, be it outside, inside or underneath. And like they said in Pulp Fiction, personality goes a long way. This Pulsar’s not going far enough. But it also paled in comparison to two older Datsuns (as well as a couple other interesting cars) that I bagged on that week-end in Thailand’s second biggest city. So more to come, fellow CCurbivores.
Related posts:
Carshow Classic: 1985 Nissan Cherry Europe GTi – The Worst Of Both Worlds, by Roger Carr
Curbside Classic: 1983 Nissan Pulsar Five Door – So Rare I Forgot It Existed, by PN
My dad bought a brand new Datsun Cherry (as it was named in the Netherlands) in 1980 and really enjoyed it. Silver with a blue interior, and boy, that was a lot of blue, steering wheel, dash, seats, everything was blue. (I still think that needs to be brought back btw, mono color interiors) it was the first car I officialy got to drive with a license, and I remember it feeling pretty fast, after getting my license in an VW Jetta diesel. Think he kept it for 5 or 6 years, and sold it before the rust made it disappear.
Interesting! My father bought a silver Toyota Cressida with an all blue interior in 1982, but it was tastefully done.
My 1986 Ford Ranger pickup was blue, inside and out. Even the nice leather covered steering wheel was blue. I hadn’t thought about it, but not something one sees much anymore.
I enjoyed my N12 Pulsar coupe over the 11 years and 75K miles that I had it. So this means I’m probably more interested in its relatives than most people. I’ve forgotten about the N10 models for the most part, but seem to remember that these late 81-82 cars came with the new OHC 1.6L engine, rather than the pushrod mill of the earlier cars. I think they even rotated the engine placement 180 degrees as well.
Thank you Tatar 87 for sharing this rare find – I haven’t seen one in decades.
There’s room for speculation.
Yes, the engine might well be the OHC unit, but there’s a fair chance that this Thai market model kept the older (and smaller) 1.3 litre Cherry engine. This car was probably assembled in Thailand or Indonesia, and keeping the cheaper, well-known engine for the remainder of the model’s life would have made a lot of sense. These things happened all the time and still do.
Great find! For me, this blends in with yesterday’s question about what young people drive, because 30 years ago, many of the young drivers I knew drove (well) used Datsuns similar to this one. The interior picture looks like the way a 20-year-old’s car looked in 1990.
But aside from that, this is instantly forgettable. In fact, I can’t exactly remember which of Nissan’s plethora of names this car was actually sold under in the US market (310? Pulsar? Both?).
Those wheels are neat, though, even if they are somewhat out of character. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Nissan with these wheels, though the optional early-80s Maxima alloys look similar, but with prominent square holes instead of round ones.
Overall, one thing that would have helped this car is to have something other than the tiny Datsun name in between the tail lights. Even a black panel would make this look a little bit less austere. But still not quite memorable.
I don’t believe this was ever sold in the US, at least not in this body style. At first glance at the oblique angle of the first pic, I thought this was wearing 1986 CRX Si wheels. Obviously not after looking closer but these are a new one for me, I’d be surprised if they were stock to the car.
I’ve not seen these wheels pictured on any JDM-, Euro- or US-spec cars on the Internets. Neither in period photos, nor in more recent ones. So they’re likely not stock. But they’re so ’80s and fit this car so well! They’d look equally at home on, say, a Fiat Ritmo or a RWD Corolla of the same era.
Those wheels are killing me. I keep thinking they look familiar, but like you, I can’t find a match for them. I see the problem; they look a lot like Honda CRX wheels, but are different. That’s what’s throwing me.
The CRX SI wheels were especially odd given that the four circles/holes weren’t laid out in an even pattern, they were grouped together in two pairs back when some makers used non-circular arrangements (Subaru had a similar affliction for a while there)
These also sort of harken back to the second version of alloys offered on the first generation Mazda RX-7 and 626 (1981 or so mid-cycle refresh) with the black lines running toward the center. Those didn’t have the circles but the black line elements are similar in concept if narrower.
Those two are what these are making me think of. It’s probably some random Enkei wheel…
It was sold in the US as the Datsun (by Nissan) 310. It replaced the F10. It wasn’t all that common, but it wasn’t unusual either.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-asian/curbside-classics-1979-1982-datsun-310-nissan-pulsar-n10datsun-cherry-coupe-and-hatchback-sole-survivors/
Wow, I (happily!) stand corrected, thanks!
IIRC this trim level (called Deluxe) was only available as a 3-door, the 5-door and coupe came only in velour-trimmed GX form. The whole line was positioned slightly upmarket from the rear-drive Datsun 210 (Sunny) line.
I’d be thrilled to find one of these. They had a very short run here in Australia, only introduced in 1980 alongside the RWD Sunny. They were Nissan’s first FWD vehicle here but they don’t appear to have sold all that well – I’ve seen more, if not many, Sunnys over the years and they were sold for the same length of time.
The following Pulsar had a longer run and greater popularity but seems to have a reputation for fragility. It was also more anonymously European in styling – this one’s kinda fun and just a tad rakish.
The slabby sides with chamfered edges, chopped-off front and rear ends and wedge profile were very reminiscent of the concurrent C210 Skyline.
Very true. Works so much better on a larger car, without the hatch.
Bit too much front overhang, but overall, the Skyline is a much better-looking car than the Pulsar (or any other early ’80s Datsun/Nissan, for that matter).
Well spotted, Pete. I’m quite a fan of those Skylines. They got the wacko 240K and made it all respectable.
At the same time the Nissan Pulsar was marketed, Canada’s largest retailer of automotive, sports, leisure, and home products (Canadian Tire) sold electronics under their brand name, ‘Pulser’. For most Canadians the brand name Pulser was so synonymous with bottom of the barrel cheap electronics, that I think it may have adversely affected the car’s reputation. 🙂
You could be assured that Pulser cassette tapes would have the most noise, and would be the most common brand to be routinely eaten by cassette players.
So are you saying these were sold as Datsun Pulsar in Canada?
Not B310 or Cherry?
This baffling array of nameplates is stranger still when you compare it to the contemporary Toyota policy. Corollas were always Corollas the world over. Ditto most of Toyota’s range, with a few additional / different nameplates for the domestic market, of course. Datsun went the BMC way and created too many names for too many markets. And then they switched to Nissan in the midst of that. Money down the drain.
And thanks for the cassettes and the walkman. Those take me back… My brand of choice for blank tapes was BASF. Very sturdy, great quailty tapes. Maybe those guys should have made cars, too.
I recall these were the Datsun B310 in Canada. Nissan Pulsar came later. They weren’t especially popular, but several years later the similar shaped Hyundai Pony, sold remarkably well in Canada for a couple years at least.
This was the Nissan Pulsar that was for sale in 1983 in Canada
This model is so meh. I know Giugiaro was involved with Nissan around this time, and possibly Pininfarina as well. I’d say your reflections on the Italian influence of the facial upgrade might be close to the truth.
I don’t know. Feels a bit Italian, but possibly surimified.
The Skyline (see Old Pete’s comment above) does share more than a few commonalities with the 81-82 Pulsar…
Quick restyling by Italian consultant or in-house designers following the latest peninsular trends?
Probably both. I’m away from my books but Giugiaro worked on one of their small cars around this time (can’t remember which) and PF is mentioned on the Cedric wikip page for their work on the 430. Might could be Nissan took either or both inputs and applied them across other models.
Giugiaro did the Nissan March in 1981. Not sure if this predates or follows the Pulsar upgrade.
This Pulsar has the headlights, grille, and black surrounding trim of a Langley.
Pulsar Sentra Sunny same car many names and Nissan kept that going till the end of the last century, the cars are here with those names and all the other derivatives, 90s Sentra seem pretty good to me for a well made small car Ive had a couple a 93 and 97 both with over 350,000kms racked up both ran fine though the 93 had the usual electrical maladies and lots of rust it drove really well I off loaded it cheap via facebook the 97 I sold a year ago and I saw it recently still going well, they may have begun a bit ordinary but the brand proved itself and there are plenty of later ones still on the road.
agreed. when i first saw the these pulsars, i thought it was a big improvement on the crazy looking b210. of course, now what i want is a b210 fastback with the honeycomb wheels.
(picture credit http://datsun1200.com/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=7434&cid=1)
Oh, do be nice.
These wedgies looked rather good in the day, especially because minutes before, Datsun had been lowering street values everywhere with the ornately excreable B210 (or Datsun 120WhyBother in Australia. Alright, 120Y).
But the first ones were a dud. The old 1400cc pushrod iron motor from the WhyBother, with a whiny gearbox sitting in it’s sump, and a nitwit dog-leg gearchange. So, poor performance, notcho gearbag, shitty seats and only ok handling, and this slice of Datsun delight was supposed to be a serious competitor for the genuinely excellent Mazda 323 of the same year. Even when it got the OHC 1.5 and modern ‘box in 81 or so, it wasn’t good enough. And being a full import here, it was also priced upwards. There was a large queue the other way.
It’d be fun if you found one of the rare coupes from this gen, which resembles an unfinished Pulsar ute with a Renault Fuego hatch covering up the partly-done job. Now that would justify a picking-upon.
These were sold in the UK as the Datsun Cherry and were very popular. There was a time when the Sunny and Cherry were both in the Top 10 best sellers. I had a ride in this type of Cherry a couple of times and my overriding memory is of the distinctive and quite loud gearbox whine.
I thought Langley was a joke name, too. who names a car after CIA headquarters?
And Syphilis isn’t far off. Apparently, the ThatSoon? company also named a car Sylphy.