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First, we had our Top 20 Vintage Toyota ads . Now it's Nissan's turn. Here's our favorite ads from the 70s through the 90s, from North America and Japan. You'll see sideburns, implied Quaalude consumption, fuel economy boasting, and just general awesomeness in these ads. When you're done here, you might enjoy our Top Ten Ads of the 60s , 70s , 80s , and 90s . 1982 Sentra 1984 Skyline 1982 Silvia 1972 Skyline 1979 200SX 1985 Sentra 1984 200SX Turbo 1980 Datsun 210 1980 280ZX 1982 Pickups 1985 Pickups 1973 610 1981 All Models 1976 B210 1977 280Z 1990 Sentra 1981 280ZX Turbo 1980 280ZX Turbo 1983 280ZX 1980 Black Gold 280ZX
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Times are good for Z-car fans looking for a low-mileage 50th Anniversary 300ZX Turbo, because two different sellers are vying for your money… nearly $30,000 of your money! It turns out that 65% of you believe that $76,000 is too much for an armored Mercedes-Benz S500 , but it's really hard to find any basis for comparison for such an oddball machine. Not so with today's cars; we've got two very nice, low-mileage, T-top-equipped '84 300ZX Turbos, each priced within spittin' distance of the $30,000 mark. The first one (go here if the ad disappears) doesn't come with much description, but the odometer speaks loudly: 18,897 miles! $28,500 for that Nissan jewel. Then we've got this nearly identical car , which is being sold by the same folks who gave us the $25,000 Dodge Daytona Turbo Z . This one's got 27,129 miles on the clock and the price is $28,900, but you get way more info about the car in the description; in fact, we're a little disturbed by the very...
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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Today we've got Exhibit A in the Datsun/Nissan Rebranding Story. It seemed like utter madness when Nissan decided to ditch the Datsun name they'd spent so much to build up, but that's what they did in the early 1980s. At first, they just added an inconspicuous "By Nissan" to their vehicles' emblems, and apparently they figured that, while they were at it, they'd also do a gradual transition for the model name of their big six-cylinder machine. So, for 1981, the full-luxe top-of-the-line 810 was sold in North America as the "810 Maxima." I found this car, with its brake lights in 24/7 "on" mode, parked on the same commercial strip that gave us the 1968 Mercedes-Benz 280SL . It's rough, but it's the first non-junkyard 810 I've seen in years. The 810 Maxima for '81 came with a smaller...
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newVideoPlayer("/82_Nissan_Sentra_494.flv", 506, 423,""); Of course we realize that the books were cooked on that 58 MPG figure; the old EPA test had about as much to do with real-world driving as the image of Sea Monkeys has to do with real brine shrimp. Still, though, the '82 Sentra sipped gas through a cocktail straw, and entry-level econoboxes 26 years later are guzzling the stuff by comparison. Would present-day car buyers find this Datsun intolerably loud, cramped, and bouncy, pissing themselves in terror every time an Expedition loomed in their field of vision… and what's with the hand-cranked windows and lack of air conditioning? Yeah, a car like this would have no chance today, but let's see what happens when gas hits 10 bucks per!
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It's Nice Price Or Crack Pipe time again, which means you have another chance to pass judgment on a car seller's possibly overoptimistic price tag! Today's car is one you don't see every day in North America, no doubt about it; the seller brought this '80 Datsun Skyline over from the UK, so it's even weirder than the occasional JDM car you might encounter. It's in pretty good shape, other than a spot of quarterpanel rust-through; we're pretty sure the L28 engine was never installed by the factory in these cars, so either the seller has the engine wrong or it's been swapped. Regardless, many common-as-dirt 280ZX parts will fit. Thanks to Justin for the tip! galleryPost('NPOCP80Skyline', 3, '1980 Skyline For 19 Grand'); [eBay Motors] Is $19,000 too much to ask for a UK-market 1980 Nissan Skyline? ( polls )
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newVideoPlayer("/84_Skyline_PaulNewman_476.flv", 506, 423,""); Paul Newman did a lot of ads for Nissan in addition to racing their cars, and the association went far beyond the usual "big in Japan" deal in which foreigners make major yen for appearing in car ads, then flee back home. Nissan even came out with a Paul Newman Version R30 Skyline, which is featured in one of the trio of '84 ads here.
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Amazingly, a Chevy (well, Chevy/Buick) managed to beat an obscure, 40-year-old German microcar in a heads-up Project Car Hell competition, with a 57-43 split in yesterday's voting . Today we're going back to the common-theme idea; inspired by all the love for the DOTS Cressida , we decided we ought to do a Project Car Hell matchup featuring a pair of Late Malaise boxy Japanese midsize sedans, complete with luxury features, independent rear suspensions, and big inline-six engines. Japanese stuff isn't normally hellish enough, however, due to their boring reliability and tediously good build quality. In order make things more interesting, these projects are going to require massive horsepower upgrades. Boost, engine swaps, whatever it takes! These days, the demand for the "four-door Supra" is so high that it's tough trying to find one cheap enough to serve as the basis for a project that's going to involve a lot of cutting and pasting. That doesn't mean it...
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The Malaise Era Japanese cars are just about all gone by now, and it's especially obvious with Datsuns. The Datsun-Nissan changeover happened during the early 80s, just as digital engine controls and less restrictive catalytic converters signaled the end of the Malaise Era and the beginning of the Turbo Mullet Era (feel free to start throwing that name around). Today we're going to look at one of the last of the rear-wheel-drive econo-Datsuns, sold during the crazy gasoline price spikes of the 1979 Energy Crisis . Yes, back when disco was king and the echoes of Jimmy Carter's Malaise Speech were still reminding us of the diminished expectations that lay ahead. Malaise or not, the B310 Sunny (as it was known in Japan) got the job done. You got the gas-sipping 1.4 liter A14 engine and pretty solid reliability. It was crude by the standards we've come to expect in an econobox these days, but you weren't paying to haul around 800 pounds of sound insulation and fake wood...
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newVideoPlayer("85_Nissan_Sentra_476.flv", 506, 423,""); Overhead camshaft! Front-wheel drive! Computer-controlled carburetor! Life was good back in '85, because the cheapest Nissan was also the most technologically advanced (though we're pretty sure you couldn't get the futuristic "Door Is Ajar" talking alerts in the Sentra that year). And why don't car ads have voiceovers like the Nissan Guy any more?
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Wouldn't you know it, the 60s BMW coupe beat the 80s one in our last Choose Your Eternity poll . Sure, the 633CSi is more complicated, but you might be able to find a parts car or three in your local wrecking yard... and where's the Hell there? Today we're going to return to the perennial France-versus-the-world battle for the All Time Global Project Car Hell JiggaChampion Trophy (which leaks rusty water and has to be jump-started), and- just because we love an underdog- we're going to let Japan take on the mightiest of PCH Superpowers! We really dig the Dangel 4x4 conversions for the Peugeot 504, and we'd totally drive one... but we Norteamericanos can't get them, thus sparing us the agony joy that is French four-wheelin' action. Or so we thought, prior to Kleinlowe sending us the tip on this Dangel-ized 1981 Peugeot 504 wagon (go here if the ad disappears). As Kleinlowe says "check out the angle of the Dangel," and we have to agree there's something...
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newVideoPlayer("84_200SX_Turbo_476.flv", 463, 387,""); Was there any word that summed up the 1980s better than TURBO? Turbocharging was a magical thing back then, with electronic fuel injection finally making the technology work pretty well for street-driven vehicles. Turbocharged cars such as the Mitsubishi Starion and Buick Grand National let everyone know that the Malaise Era was finally over, and Nissan's 200SX Turbo was packed with all manner of 80s-tech gizmos in addition to forced induction. As the man says: "Give me a turbo and I come alive!"
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Those of you who believed El Suburbanimo to be the ultimate New Jersey vehicle might want to reconsider after you take a look at this '73 Datsun 240Z. Back in the early 80s, with just 19,721 miles on the Z's clock, its owner decided some custom touches were in order. A little body kit here, some stripes and TURBO emblems there, and then the finishing touch: a small-block Chevy engine. It's awesome! BZR found this gem for us; make the jump to read his description. [eBay Motors] galleryPost('TimeCapsule80sZ', 9, '80s Time Capsule Datsun Z on eBay'); Like a time warp straight out of the 70s, with every optimistic Malaise-denying piece on there. Every angle induces another "Oh my God" reaction, every feature seems like some unholy caricature of a kitsch utopia. Makes "Black Gold" look restrained and tasteful by comparison, and pretty much every other 70s special edition seem subdued as a result. If you're featuring this car on Jalopnik (and...
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newVideoPlayer("85_Nissan_Trucks_Rodeo_476.flv", 463, 387,""); After a decade of their vehicles getting vandalized by enraged Rust Belt residents whose local economies were failing faster than the mechanical components in a Ford EXP, Japanese automakers figured they'd better start working on the whole image thing; you know, associate their products with wholesome values from the American heartland, that sort of thing. Toyota went with the happy American farmers schtick in '85, and Nissan decided to break out a rodeo theme for their trucks the same year. The "Major Motion" slogan seems to have been a short-lived one for Nissan- anyone remember it?
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newVideoPlayer("80_Datsun_210_476.flv", 463, 387,""); Red-blooded Americans normally don't give a rat's ass about fuel economy in their vehicles , but certain events in Iran made gas sippers such as the Datsun 210 look quite appealing. Every time you pass a gas station, you'll want to kiss your 210 (unless you're angry at it because there's no place to set your Big Gulp and the lack of 400 pounds of sound deadener means you're forced to hear road noise).
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We've seen 240Z and 280Z so far in this series, but how about the Late Malaise 280ZX? I see a few of them in my travels on the island, but this '82 280ZX Turbo kept catching my eye. It's been in the same spot in the West End for several months now and clearly hasn't moved for quite a while. However, it has 2008 tags, so I'm guessing it hasn't been abandoned. This one is very close to being a true beater, but it's not quite there yet. The '82 Turbo's engine produced a respectable-for-Malaise 180 horsepower, 20 more than the Camaro Z28's 305-cube V8. And this one has some snazzy pinstripes! Do you suppose the owner of a car with the license plate MO GIGI has anything in common with MO REES across town? And T-tops, for that true Malaise sensation. Do the Datsun T-tops leak as badly as the GM ones? galleryPost('DOTS2280ZXTurbo', 19, '1982 Datsun 280ZX Turbo Down On The Street'); First 200 DOTS
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