The name Century has been attached to two very different things on either end of the Pacific. Likewise, Caravan can refer to both Mopar minivans and the Nissan not-so-mini van we have here. But whereas the Dodge one was pretty groundbreaking and heralded, alongside its Plymouth and Chrysler brethren (and the unrelated Renault Espace), the people-carrier craze of the ‘80s / ‘90s, Nissan’s Caravan was far more conservative. But guess which one is still being made today?
The Nissan, of course. And it’s way older, which perhaps explains why it’s so old-school. Cab-over, 4-cyl. engine, RWD, leaf-sprung live axle – a ‘60s van for the ‘80s. No wonder they sold these as the Datsun Urvan in certain markets.
This is the second generation (1980-86) Nissan Caravan, distributed via the Nissan Bluebird sales network. As per many JDM Nissan products of this era, it had a twin brother called the Homy (sold through the Nissan Prince Stores), which was the actual origin of the lineage.
When the Nissan-Prince merger took place in the late ‘60s, the 1st gen Homy (1965-70, above) was deemed a better vehicle than Nissan’s own Caball, silly names notwithstanding. So the Prince vehicle became the basis for Nissan’s larger vans.
Nissan Caravan coach / minibus 1983 brochure excerpt
Broadly speaking, the Caravan/Homy range was divided in two: the cargo van and the passenger coach / minibus. Within those categories, there were a lot of trim levels and layouts available, as well as a high roof. In mid-1983 came a pretty thorough facelift, complete with quad headlights and a redesigned grille, as can be seen above.
This one is an earlier model though, with the 1980-83 front end. Just as well, as the quads make the Caravans look a little less distinctive. It’s a near top-of-the-line SGL 7-seater coach; the most luxurious one in this era was dubbed “SGL Silk Road” – they really milked this Caravan thing.
Nissan retired the Homy nameplate in 1999, but kept the Caravan on the order books through to today. The current iteration, the E26, is the fifth generation, launched back in 2012 and given a thorough facelift last year. As shown above, today’s fully-optioned Caravan is the Autech version. There are a lot more toys in this one and it’s quite a bit longer than the E23, but it’s still rear-wheel-driven, leaf-sprung and live-axled. Hey, if it ain’t broken…
Jumping back into the early ‘80s and straight into a velour-upholstered world of browns and beiges. Deluxe variants such as this SGL were routinely ordered with the 3-speed automatic, which usually entails a 2-litre petrol 4-cyl. (i.e. the most powerful engine available) – originally the H20, but changed to the 105hp Z20 for 1982.
Base models and vans were more likely to be fitted with a middle seat and a 5-speed on the column, either with the 2.2 / 2.3 litre Diesel or the 1.6 / 1.8 litre petrol 4-cyl. – the engines grew a bit over the course of this generation. Not sure why there is a Homy emblem on the tailgate here. Some sort of Homyage, perhaps?
Gotta love that little porthole on the passenger side door. The amount of glass area compared to the 21st Century Caravan is impressive. This is one minibus that gives its passengers something to look out of.
Related post:
Curbside Outtake: 1973 – 80 Nissan Caravan (E20) – The Box the Toaster Came In, by Jim Brophy
Ah the Urvan. My late uncle had one from the late eighties in that exact same colour, though his was a double cab. Aside from its usual work duties, it had no problem taking a family of seven and all their supplies on a several thousand kilometer camping trip.
It would do this several times a year, since he didn’t mind swapping vehicles when his siblings went on holiday. I have some fond memories of that slow rattly van with its distinctive metally smell. The lacking 80s Japanese rust prevention eventually did it in, though it probably still ended up in Africa.
He replaced it with a VW T4. A much more modern vehicle, though also underpowered with the base diesel. Considering he grew up driving a T2 he probably didn’t mind.
Bought a T5 California when he retired and drove that til he sadly suddenly died a decade ago.
A Nissan Urvan panel van was the work van where I worked 30 years ago.
Known as Rocket Van ironically, you had to lift the middle seat and fill with water before each journey. Better than squeezing onto that seat with its thin brown vinyl cushion and lap belt.
One day someone ‘forgot’ to put water in and the engine seized. Glad I wasn’t on the middle seat that day.
A friend of a friend had a 1990’s Nissan Caravan here in the US a few years ago, and I always referred to it as “Homy”. It’s just one of those names (spelling included) that sounds goofy, but is somehow just right for a JDM van with all of its inbuilt quirkiness.
This one was a high zoot model with a V6 and overdrive automatic, seats that would slide and rotate multiple directions so that you could configure it many different ways, and lots of other goodies. It also had power operated curtains all around. To my American mind, those were weird, full stop. I remember fiddling with the seats a bit, but never got to the point where I could employ the secret handshake to get ’em to go where I wanted ’em to.
At first it’s just another van but if you take time to study the bodywork, it becomes very interesting in how all of the corners just wrap beautifully and tightly around the edges of the vehicle and all the little details are just “so”, integrated perfectly such as the front side markers in the little groove that hold the bodyside strip as well. Everything just seems to be sort of ’80s flush-mounted while still being ’70s and not really being completely flush either. Even the grille which is a little discordant at first and then looks like the largest ever straightened out Chevy bowtie works in the end, enveloping the headlights and then opening up to provide the necessary sized air opening in the middle. Badging is quite large but well placed also, someone took pride in designing this van. I’d be happy if this were my Homy.
I agree, excellent detailing. It somehow nicely treads the line between basic van-shape one-box simplicity and visual interest, without being overdone.
These were fairly common in Australia, once. I don’t remember the pasenger-door porthole window though, yet the brochure shows it on all trim levels – well, those six, anyway. Maybe this wasn’t used on export models.
It almost looks as if you could swap panels with a Toyota Hiace, almost…..
Great find. The very basic exterior design reminds me, what an early ’80s styling evolution of the GMC Handi-bus, might have produced.
And the 1st-gen front end remind a bit of the Dodge A100 van.
Oui absolument !
My Dad bought one of these in Australia in Dec 1984 . We had the 9 seater with a 5 speed column manual and the 1.9 litre engine. It was actually quite zippy with only one on board and first gear used to provide good acceleration. In Overdrive doing 100 km/h ( about 60mph ) on Perth ( Australia ) freeways it would sway a bit on the rear end. It drove better with a full load but it slowed down significantly – it was noisy ! The engine noise was really loud!
These Vans where everywhere in Oz .They where delivery vans , trades men vehicles but slowly they got over taken in the sales race by Toyota HiAces ( dont know if you have them in the US ) and they failed our safety crash testing .So that was it for Australia. The engine was very well suited to its purpose – lots of low torque and ( reasonably ) fuel efficent. An Aussie Motoring journalist rolled one on a car magazine test ( Wheels magazine ) It only had lap seat belts too. I wouldnt put my own kids in one now – zero frontal crash protection too . My old man used to haul us ( 7 ) kids around in it. We hammered that car .
A nice find T87. Haven’t seen an E23 on the road here for a year or four now. My parents had an E24 converted into a campervan, and a friend still has an E25 which I rode in last month. I wouldn’t mind betting that the E23 is a facelifted E20 – the windscreens look identical to me. The E23 had lovely big windows all round, especially that tall windscreen; but the E26 rivals the Gen1 Homy for poor driver visibility.
Looks like a “Winnebago, window van”(circa 1970’s); had there been one.
I’ve not had the pleasure of driving an E23, but have been a passenger in one, a long time ago. They’re mostly hilariously under-powered, but do the job. It wasn’t until the E24 with the VG30 that they got any decent power, but that was a bit uncommon. The E25 with the ZD30DDTi is more than adequate.
I love the styling of the E23, a real in-between from the earlier styles, before the super-boxy E24.
A friend in Tassie had diesel version last time I saw him he fits all his market and cider deliveries in it and it just kept going
We dreaded seeing these as camper conversions, as they invariably had dodgey LPG installations in them.
External cylinders, BBQ gas regulators, no fixed ventilation, gas cylinders mounted to close to ignition source, you name it, they didn’t comply.