Sometimes I will be stopped in my tracks while in the junkyard. At times it’s due to a Maserati, other times a Lancia, and ever so slightly more often anything badged as a Datsun. This one seems to have undergone nature’s version of a Colin Chapman-esque “add lightness” program, but that’s where any resemblance to any Lotus ends. Still, the 210 played a strong second Japanese fiddle to Toyota’s Corolla, so let’s take a closer look at this second generation 210 in the relatively obscure hatchback format. At least, let’s look at what’s left of it.
I don’t really know why I’m a Datsun (and by extension Nissan) fan, I’ve only owned one of their products, which was actually badged as an Infiniti (and was a great car), my wife had a Nissan Murano (which was an alright CUV), I don’t really aspire to own any of their current offerings, but somehow I especially enjoy looking at their ’70s and ’80s cars and trucks. Maybe because they seemed to be a perennial underdog (except they did outsell Toyota at times), and lately have become a bit of a punching bag, not necessarily always deservedly so.
But somebody here in the Denver area took a chance on one and while on the surface it may initially seem they made a poor choice, looking a little closer reveals that this little puppy was always there for its master. And then some. This car gave a total of zero Fs, is still looking proud of itself, and will go down fighting at the ultimate end no matter the visible wounds. I think The Crusher is going to realize there’s a load of grit in there somewhere and while it won’t choke on it, that’ll be this little car’s goal. It’ll carry the flag of Nippon Steel high and proud and leave a slightly glittery flaking legacy of itself upon the bumpy soil of the ‘yard as it’s carried to the jaws.
At first glance one might look at this nugget and think that someone at Datsun took the lesson of the Volare/Aspen to heart and made sure that the front fenders wouldn’t rust. And this one looks good. Then perhaps it’s more likely that the front fenders actually rotten even quicker and this isn’t the first set that were on this car. The paint on the passenger side fender looks too good to be the same age. But not on top, it’s faded there too. Who knows, maybe the fenders were from a different batch of steel or someone in the paint shop did an extra good job one day.
Overall this is representative sample of a very basic economy car line that’s in that awkward phase after transitioning from a somewhat curvy if not always admired 1970s shape into a more boxy 1980s shape, headlights were transitioning from round to rectangular, bumper forms were being prescribed by federal edict, and like on a gawky teen not all the bits seemed to fit the frame just right all the time. Still, I wouldn’t say this is ugly per se, and if one thinks so, perhaps I might direct their attention toward several other shapes from the same styling studio just a few years earlier in order to readjust their relative perception?
The grille is gone, and it may have simply rusted loose of its mountings and fallen by the wayside, or the owner may have removed it in order to avoid the necessity of opening the hood to adjust the cardboard blocking panel in front of the radiator. This car knew cold weather, and then some.
The front bumper still sports this parking permit from 1982 when this car was still shiny (probably), however I can’t figure out what LCRD is, if it’s even local. Larimer County something something? Lakewood Community something something? Perhaps one of our longer-term local readers or contributors knows. Still, that’s some good glue and ink the sticker people used to still be working and readable after dozens of years and hundreds of thousands of Colorado miles on the leading edge of the car.
The missing grille at least makes it easy to locate the hood release (not rusty), and popping it displays the inline four in all its glory. Rear wheel drive for its last generation before morphing into the Sentra, the 210 had three engine options, those being a 1.2liter, a 1.4 liter, and what I believe this one to be, the relative “powerhouse” 1.5liter. I was a little surprised to see that a 1.2 was actually on offer, but it apparently was so on the standard basic 2-door sedan with a four speed manual and clearly performed dealership loss leader advertising duties (that engine was known as the A12. Or maybe it was known as the A123456789howhighcanIcountuntilIhitsixtymilesperhour… )
The MPG model got the 1.4liter A14 engine and a 5-speed, was otherwise fairly stripped out but returned 40mpg, and the 1.5 A15 engine was new for 1981 with 65 horses worth of power (it sounds stronger if you say it that way). All three were OHV designs, and like most (all?) older Datsuns sported the light blue air cleaners that add a little visual pop to the engine bay when clean.
The insides are more than a little ravaged, this cloth seems to be from before Japan discovered UV protection methods. Once the cloth goes, the foam is not far behind. This car may also have sat for quite some time (I’ll restore it someday!) before it made its way here but who really knows.
I don’t think Datsun offered two-tone interiors on these and it doesn’t strike me as a car that would have much owner intervention done to it, so the only other explanation I can offer for the odd blue to tan color morphing of various components is that Nissan used GM’s plastic supplier for a while. The two-tone does spice things up a bit in here with the bonus that the dusty dashtop really blends in well with the tan lowers and steering wheel horn hub. But this isn’t what you came here to see so let’s move it along.
Room for four dials on the cluster, with only the inboard two used for gauges, at least there is a temperature gauge here in addition to fuel and the speedometer….
And there it is, 354,281.5 miles on the odometer. I love the fact that Datsun has the tenths of a mile readout on the big dial, in addition to a smaller tripmeter that also had it. It’s always better to be exact I suppose. Anyway, 354+ big K miles is a big deal for any car, especially one dating to 1981, and even more so for one that was pretty much a disposable good from day one.
This was not a dream car or a luxury family mobile, but a bog simple, get it done cheaply and provide good service for a long time type of car. The definition of value. The kind of thing that any car that sells in the bottom quartile of car prices should provide because that’s what the owner likely needs and will bestow honor on the maker. I certainly hope the owner was pleased enough to go and purchase another product from the same dealer and manufacturer after this one. That kind of service should be rewarded.
No air conditioning on this one but the radio has been upgraded to an aftermarket Sanyo IntelliTuner unit with tape deck, if you’re going to spend that much time in one of these and likely a good amount of it in the mountains without much reception, going higher with your own supply (of tunes) is important.
While the engine was in place, the gearbox was not, the three pedals though confirm it was the standard five speed box. The glovebox is a little unhinged here, and the passenger seat is in more dire straits than the driver’s one. It’s pleasant to see color here, I believe the earlier (1970s) models were mostly black inside like many of today’s cars, this is more appealing. Or I suppose would have been when clean, fresh, and daisy-like.
Circling around the back shows us the original paint color underneath where the license plate resided, and while the badging is gone, the bumper is still connected to the car, even if the fill panel is mostly gone too. The lights are attractive and somehow detailed nicely, I enjoy the way they curve to the bodywork and then have the clear and amber quadrants, overall the rear is more than vaguely Alfa GTV6-like.
The hatch opened just fine, the struts still worked, and the back seat folded down, leaving a large loading area for whatever might need to be carried.
This hatchback model weighed just over 2,000 pounds when new and shiny, I wonder how many pounds this extreme Jenny Craig diet took off of it. The rear end is like swiss cheese and I love the way the paint is curling up below the rear marker light as if repulsed by the rust. I’ll bet that light still works too.
The passenger door has some very cancerous boils going on with more than a little perforation….
…and the fender in front of it looks like Rusty, the Cookie Monster’s cousin, took a big bite out of it as well while the blue paint here looks virtually factory fresh. Comparatively speaking of course, the bar is pretty low here.
January of 1981, Nissan Motor Co,, Ltd, and J-VINned for Japan. The tags are usually bright and shiny on Japanese cars, the domestics seem to use some sort of printed and laminated labels that seem to fade over time. Well, I’m all out of pictures for this one so I’ll just leave you with an example of a bright and shiny one eager to get that odometer rolling along…
“It’ll carry the flag of Nippon Steel high and proud and leave a slightly glittery flaking legacy of itself upon the bumpy soil of the ‘yard as it’s carried to the jaws.”
I’d say this is about as good a sendoff as you can give this tough old Datsun – well played. 🙂
I knew someone with one of these (dark green with tan interior) and rode in it once in back as the owner was trying to teach the front passenger how to drive a stick shift. This was the sort of basic-transportation car Datsun (and other Japanese brands) were so good at, The 210 replaced the odd-looking B-210; this is the post-facelift model; previous 210s had reverse-canted grilles with round headlamps.
The windows and lights look remarkably good given the condition of the rest of the car. I would have guessed this one spend the last 25 years in someone’s backyard if not for the odometer reading. Maybe the last 10 years then.
GM seemed to have liked the 210 dashboard (also 510 and other Datsuns of this era) – the J body Buick Skyhawk and Olds Firenza have a clone of this dash.
I think that sticker might say I.C.R.D., although I can’t find a relevant organization by those initials either.
When it was headed to the salvage yard, I hope the owner patted it on the fender and said: “Well done faithful companion, well done.”
The under hood area still looks great, with the rest of it just fading in a tetanus shot inducing sort of way. I’d wager it’s been sitting for a while although that doesn’t explain the pristine cardboard. The date code on the tires might help tell the story.
While imports were a novelty piece where I grew up, one lady in town had a Datsun/Nissan similar to this 210, but in brown (the town was 450 people; it was easy to know who was who). It was Thelma’s second Datsun, always parked in front of her house parallel to the street. The sight of Thelma, whose already long cigarette looked even longer when stuck in her mouth while she wasn’t wearing her teeth, driving her Datsun has stuck with me.
L.C.R.D. could stand for “Look, Charlie. Rear Drive”. Or not. Might be a road district or rural development program’s parking lot sticker.
The ultimate cockroach of the road? How many tons of toxic salt did it take to finally kill it?
Superlative find and specimen. But are you sure it’s 100% dead?
My old truck had a sticker “HCR” The only folks who knew what it meant were my neighbors in the Hickory Creek Ranch neighborhood
I have to wonder if the grille reached the junkyard intact and was harvested along with the transmission.
I seem to remember the hatchback coupe as being one of the more common variants along with the fastback wagon, both slightly upmarket of the cheapskate 2-door sedan which was third.
I purchased at that time a 3 year old (1979) Datsun 210 coupe from the original owner that was a family friend. That car was the biggest piece of junk ever made. It would burn an exhaust valve every 40k miles, it would use a quart if oil every 700 miles since new and things that you never knew could rust did. The dome light bulb rusted out along with the windshield washer pump. The armature fell out. The radio could not pick up anything but static.
Second appearance for this Datsun at this site!
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-cohort/cohort-pick-of-the-day-datsun-210-whats-left-of-it-and-happy-new-year/
I caught it in Longmont 2 years ago. Looks like it finally died from too much livin’.
Wow! Thanks for reminding us, and interesting that it wasn’t just tucked away behind a barn for several decades but actually in use. I suppose the “L” on the sticker is likely for Longmont.
This was at the Denver UPull which is about 30 miles south of Longmont btw.
Datsun kept that Austin derived A series going nearly as long as British Leylandry very few of these 1200 Datsuns survive here the powertrains became Saturday night fun in the dirt at the speedway track as ministocks a no contact learner class for kids, they had a good rep better than the OHC engines Datsun was spitting out,
“Christine 2: The Economy Years.”
An outstanding performance by that 210. You gave it a fitting send off.
I was surprised by the lack of rust under the hood, I always figure the hidden rust is 10 times worse than any visible rust, but that’s impossible on this car because there’s already 20% gone.
At least two of our neighbors in the outer suburbs of Chicago had the cheapskate two-door sedan versions of this generation of 210s. These were bought on the basis of low initial price, high fuel economy, and a degree of reliability above that of the Pintos, Vegas and Gremlins they replaced. Along with legions of Corollas, Chevettes, and Chrysler-badged Mitsubishi products, these 210s lived hard lives, accumulating miles quickly, endured the abuse of new drivers and trudged through bitter winter weather without complaint. After 4-5 years, they were beat and thrown away, as their owners moved on to the next set of cheap wheels.
Holey moley, that’s a lot of rust.
Oh so long ago…somebody at work had one of these when new, but I can’t remember who now.
A friend’s mother had a 210 sedan for about a year. I drove it once when new, and found it uninspiring, to say the least. After the nearly new car was rear-ended, she got a new Sentra, which was a little more fun to drive.
This post reminds me that I need to visit the auto junkyard, and although I need a few odds and ends, I love finding cars like this.
I had a 1972 Pinto that was in about this state when it went to it’s great reward around 1980. I take my hat off to this Datsun. 40 odd years and it’d probably still start up and drive its way out of there.
Back in the 90s, before there was a Curbside, there was a 70s Chevy C-10, parked on Anza between 18th and 21s Avenue, the Richmond District, San Francisco. Land’s End is at 48th Avenue. I lived in the area from 88-98 and saw this truck many times but never took a picture. Had I you would have seen a truck which looked like it had been shot up with a 12 gauge shotgun over and over again. It makes this Datsun look whole.
Someone needs to just crush this poor thing and be done with it.
I would love to know when it was last in regular use and whether it ran mainly on original or replacement parts. You couldn’t even use this thing to do UberEats people would be repulsed as it pulled up!
Here is an 81 in South San Francisco for $5900. Come and get it but don’t pay over $4K for it. It is a 4 spd. Original CA car and slightly more than 50/50 it will pass smog based on past results.
Only possible where the law calls for zero inspections I suppose. Here in Austria it would have failed our road-worthiness test l o n g before it could have reached such Methuselah-like mileage. I found one, a sedan of the FWD variety, advertised as not road-worthy and even that most likely on account of its 71,000 Km. Others have been gone long ago, nobody ever thought to preserve those back in the day…
Not surprising that the gearbox is gone as the five speeds are very desirable to the A-series powered Austin Healey Sprite and MG Midget owners. I briefly owned a 210 2dr sedan and the engine ran amazingly smooth. It was a shame the advertised “needs clutch” turned into broken gearbox.
This makes me feel old. Seeing ads for these as new cars makes me feel that way.
In 1981 my ’74 Datsun 710 hit a patch of black ice when I was driving from my home in Massachusetts to my parents’ in Shelburne, Vt. I bit the cable guardrail, part of my 5MPH bumper wrapped around it so I had a time getting it dislodged, but fortunately the battery was on the other side of the engine compartment from the hit, so I was able to nurse it the rest of the way to my parents’. I got the car fixed up, but didn’t trust driving a light RWD car, I sold the 710 and bought a ’78 VW Scirocco with FWD.
I had the 710 for many years up in Vermont, and though it was tuff-koted, by ’81 it was really rusty. Other than not having good traction when slippery, it was a good car for the undergraduate I was, despite being parked outside it only failed to start one week during the blizzard of ’78 and being pretty old school made it easy to work on, though nothing major went wrong with it (other than the rust that got worse as time wet on), though hardly exciting.
I did look at Datsun in ’81, primarily the 310 since it was FWD (the 210 was RWD). A co-worker who lived in my same apartment complex had a ’79 310 Coupe which she used in our car pool, so I was familiar with it, but can’t remember why I didn’t consider another Datsun. My family moved south to central Texas in ’82, and my sisters took up the Nissan habit I abandoned, between my two youngest sisters they had qty-4 200SX or 240SX’s between them (surviving sister still owns the ’97 she bought new).
My ’78 started my watercooled VW habit…I’ve owned nothing else since ’81.
I wonder why this tag from an ’80 210 looks vastly different.
That’s the tag in the engine bay either on the firewall or on the inner fender, they all have that and it gives info on the engine etc. along with other codes. The tag i showed is the one from the door jamb, your 210 will have one there as well. Sometimes I’ll show both but usually just one.
Look at the picture I included of the engine bay, the same type of tag as what you pictured is visible on the firewall at the top of the picture.
My father’s then-girlfriend had a first-series 210 in the mid 1970s. It didn’t last well in Quebec – I remember driving on the highway and bits of rust detaching themselves from the front of the hood and hitting the windshield.
She replaced it with an F10, which… no. My teenage self was appalled.
A hearty bravo, both to the car and to the author!
That dash color thing is a puzzler, especially given the way so many other blue plastic pieces have kept their coloring intact.
Tendencies towards body rust was a problem for most Japanese cars for far longer than it should have been. This one hung on for an amazingly long time.
Wow memories I had a 79 210 4dr. 5sp I think. Ran forever and 1991 rotted away due to CNY winters. $8 filled the tank which lasted all week. Definitely a BC (birth control) car because you are not getting laid driving that around on Friday night.
Hah! That car was in Longmont before being sent to the junkyard. Here’s a pic of it two years ago.
Goodbye Old Paint .
I remember these, like Pintos they were blah but ran forever with basic care .
The bell housing patter on older Datsuns didn’t change for decades making 5 speed up grades a cinch .
I hope someone saved the engine .
-Nate