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Detroit, 1:44 PM
Wed Nov 25
25 posts in the last 24 hours

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  • posts about #datsun210 more →

    Put Your Money In The Bank, Not In The Tank: 1979 Datsun 210 Hatchback

    1979 Datsun 210 For An Economical $4,995, Plus A Bonus Poll!

    1980 Datsun 210 SL Station Wagon, With Bonus Datsun Poll
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    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of adidascrosscountry adidascrosscountry
    08/30/09

    In reply to Put Your Money In The Bank, Not In The Tank: 1979 Datsun 210 Hatchback
    These little 210s were awful little cars. The wheel wells were pre-set to have rust holes within six years. If any are on the road today, they must be living in a hermetically sealed garage. It's amazing how inexpensive cars have improved in thirty years.
     Reply
    Mike the Dog promoted this comment adidascrosscountry was starred adidascrosscountry was unstarred
    Image of Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face. Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face.
    08/30/09

    @adidascrosscountry: These little 210s were awesome little cars. There, fixed that for ya. I saw a '79 2-door sedan at the Dream Cruise this year. I had to have Engineerd confirm that it was really there and not an Oberon-induced flashback to my pizza driving days. I got about 100k miles each out of two different 210s, they were (and still are) great little delivery cars as long as you didn't get one with an automatic.
     Reply
    Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face. was starred Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face. was unstarred
    Image of Murilee Martin Murilee Martin
    08/31/09

    @adidascrosscountry: Cars did rust more back then, but the 210 was actually a lot of fun to drive.
     Reply
    Murilee Martin was starred Murilee Martin was unstarred
    Image of dal20402 dal20402
    08/30/09

    In reply to Put Your Money In The Bank, Not In The Tank: 1979 Datsun 210 Hatchback
    If we were collectively willing to drive cars with 13 sec 0-60 times, we could be doing a lot better than ~30 mpg. Just check out the mileage numbers (even after converting to the tougher U.S. cycle) on small European diesels.

    But we've determined that 0-60 is the single most important stat in a car review, and we pay for it at the pump.

    (bitches a guy who drives a car that does between 4.5 and 4.9 0-60...)
     Reply
    area_educator promoted this comment Edited by dal20402 at 08/30/09 12:59 PM dal20402 was starred dal20402 was unstarred
    Image of MushyHeirloom MushyHeirloom
    08/30/09

    @dal20402: I think my car gets to sixty in about a minute and a half, and it gets about 23 combined, I believe. 3200 pounds.

    Of course, the 240 was not a pioneer of aerodynamics.
     Reply
    MushyHeirloom was starred MushyHeirloom was unstarred
    Image of Novaload Novaload
    08/30/09

    In reply to Put Your Money In The Bank, Not In The Tank: 1979 Datsun 210 Hatchback
    Maybe this marks the turning point when the only thing people cared about was mileage. To hell with style, fun, power, everything else.
    When the Sh*tbox became king and average people stopped caring about them except in terms of cost per mile.
     Reply
    Novaload was starred Novaload was unstarred
    Image of Murilee Martin Murilee Martin
    08/31/09

    @Novaload Is Just Plain Novaload Again: The 210 was lots of fun, and just look at the tape-striped style on that hatchback!
     Reply
    Murilee Martin was starred Murilee Martin was unstarred
    Image of If FromaBuick6 has to watch one more Chevy commercial, he's going to punch Howie Long in the face If FromaBuick6 has to watch one more Chevy commercial, he's going to punch Howie Long in the face
    08/30/09

    In reply to Put Your Money In The Bank, Not In The Tank: 1979 Datsun 210 Hatchback
    Here's a similar ad. The fact that it's sponsoring a Neil Diamond TV special and is promoting the entirely unremarkable late '70s 510 makes it that much better.
     Reply
    If FromaBuick6 has to watch one more Chevy commercial, he's going to punch Howie Long in the face was starred If FromaBuick6 has to watch one more Chevy commercial, he's going to punch Howie Long in the face was unstarred
    Image of If FromaBuick6 has to watch one more Chevy commercial, he's going to punch Howie Long in the face If FromaBuick6 has to watch one more Chevy commercial, he's going to punch Howie Long in the face
    08/30/09

    In reply to Put Your Money In The Bank, Not In The Tank: 1979 Datsun 210 Hatchback
    Well, that jingle's going to be stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

    It seems to me that Datsun was able to do a pretty good job marketing itself in the late 70s, which makes the Nissan name change that much dumber. That whole "The Name is Nissan" rebranding campaign, including new signage for all the dealers, cost a fortune and it took them years to regain the same name recognition Datsun had. Basically, it was the exact same mistake AMC made by ditching Rambler. Nissan could have competed a lot better in the mid '80s with Camrys and Accords if people actually knew what a Nissan Stanza was.
     Reply
    If FromaBuick6 has to watch one more Chevy commercial, he's going to punch Howie Long in the face was starred If FromaBuick6 has to watch one more Chevy commercial, he's going to punch Howie Long in the face was unstarred
    Image of Dhillaz 2.0 Dhillaz 2.0
    08/30/09

    In reply to Put Your Money In The Bank, Not In The Tank: 1979 Datsun 210 Hatchback
    When making coupes/liftbacks, the Japanese used to have a bad habit of making the nice profile, and giving up when it came to the rear end. This worked in favour of the AE86, but otherwise the formula failed miserably.

    They have since redeemed themselves though.
     Reply
    FP: Your Volvo is awesome! Anyway promoted this comment Dhillaz 2.0 was starred Dhillaz 2.0 was unstarred
    Image of MushyHeirloom MushyHeirloom
    08/30/09

    @Dhillaz 2.0: Nice profile, disgusting nose and tail... Acura ZDX?
     Reply
    MushyHeirloom was starred MushyHeirloom was unstarred
    Image of that ain't the way to have fun, son that ain't the way to have fun, son
    08/30/09

    In reply to Put Your Money In The Bank, Not In The Tank: 1979 Datsun 210 Hatchback
    Well, while ahead of my mother's '77 B210 2-door, it's still not exactly a looker. How many roof pillars do you need for a 2-door?!

    We AAAARRRREEEEE driven!

    /will have that earworm for at least a day
     Reply
    Edited by that ain't the way to have fun, son at 08/30/09 11:43 AM that ain't the way to have fun, son was starred that ain't the way to have fun, son was unstarred
    Image of Paul Y. don't drive too fast. Paul Y. don't drive too fast.
    08/30/09

    In reply to Put Your Money In The Bank, Not In The Tank: 1979 Datsun 210 Hatchback
    It's important to bear in mind that we've barely made any progress in terms of fuel economy, because cars are faster and more powerful than they've ever been (while polluting less), despite model and feature bloat. Any engineering gains that could have gone towards improving fuel economy in the last 30 years instead went towards increasing horsepower and reducing the deadliness of our overweight cars.

    So, no bitching about the relative inefficiency of modern compact cars, unless you want to go back to the days of 0-60 in 18 seconds being acceptable.

    That said, that jingle is serious business, and will soon eat my brain.
     Reply
    Edited by Paul Y. don't drive too fast. at 08/30/09 11:21 AM Paul Y. don't drive too fast. was starred Paul Y. don't drive too fast. was unstarred
    Image of badco/LoJ badco/LoJ
    08/30/09

    @TV's Paul Y.: Don't forget about safety. By modern standards, a 1979 Datsun 210 hatchback is an epic deathtrap.

    Was there a single company responsible for spots like these? I'm getting a strong "3-2-1 Contact" vibe from the production.

    EDIT: I guess you did mention "reducing the deadliness of our overweight cars," but I'd contend that increasing safety is a big reason behind modern cars' relative portliness.
     Reply
    TV's Paul Y. promoted this comment Edited by badco/LoJ at 08/30/09 12:20 PM badco/LoJ was starred badco/LoJ was unstarred
    Image of Paul Y. don't drive too fast. Paul Y. don't drive too fast.
    08/30/09

    @badco/LoJ: That, and the fact that marketing geniuses have decided that each redesign of a car must increase size and content, in addition to safety equipment and improved structural integrity.
     Reply
    Paul Y. don't drive too fast. was starred Paul Y. don't drive too fast. was unstarred
    Image of Maymar Maymar
    08/30/09

    In reply to Put Your Money In The Bank, Not In The Tank: 1979 Datsun 210 Hatchback
    Sure, 35/47 is good for an economy car, but it's not phenominal like 20/30 for an F-150!
    [jalopnik.com]

    Also, I didn't realize that'd work, just putting money in my tank, I've always gone through the middleman of going to a gas station.
     Reply
    Maymar was starred Maymar was unstarred
    Image of FTGDWolverineEdition'09 FTGDWolverineEdition'09
    08/30/09

    In reply to Put Your Money In The Bank, Not In The Tank: 1979 Datsun 210 Hatchback
    Put your money in the bank! Not in the tank! Buy a Datsun!

    Now I can't get the damn thing out of my head.
     Reply
    FTGDWolverineEdition'09 was starred FTGDWolverineEdition'09 was unstarred
    Image of Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face. Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face.
    06/09/09

    In reply to 1979 Datsun 210 For An Economical $4,995, Plus A Bonus Poll!
    I put about 100k miles on one of these delivering pizza. Fucking awesome little car, it would utterly spank any Eclipse variant that tried it. Except the turbo ones, but since the little punks were always goosing the throttle at the light, I could tell by the whine (or lack thereof) whether or not to even try.
     Reply
    Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face. was starred Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face. was unstarred
    Image of MushyHeirloom MushyHeirloom
    06/09/09

    In reply to 1979 Datsun 210 For An Economical $4,995, Plus A Bonus Poll!
    I haven't seen one of these in ever.


    Nice.

     Reply
    MushyHeirloom was starred MushyHeirloom was unstarred
    Image of Six Flags Over Tomsk Six Flags Over Tomsk
    06/09/09

    In reply to 1979 Datsun 210 For An Economical $4,995, Plus A Bonus Poll!
    Knock a grand or two off and you might have a good deal. As it is, not so much.


    Oh, and Datsun > Nissan.

     Reply
    Six Flags Over Tomsk was starred Six Flags Over Tomsk was unstarred
    Image of Schm, enjoying his first desert winter. . Schm, enjoying his first desert winter. .
    06/09/09

    In reply to 1979 Datsun 210 For An Economical $4,995, Plus A Bonus Poll!
    Jesus, look at those seats! My couch has more side bolstering.
     Reply
    Schm, enjoying his first desert winter. . was starred Schm, enjoying his first desert winter. . was unstarred
    Image of christauph christauph
    06/09/09

    In reply to 1979 Datsun 210 For An Economical $4,995, Plus A Bonus Poll!
    Wait, there's actually a San Dimas in California? I always thought that was a fictional city created for Bill & Ted. Anyway, love the car, hate the trans, but could never drive it here in Detroit. There would be a running competition between the road salt and SUV drivers to see who could kill the car quicker. Definitely a west coast car.
     Reply
    christauph was starred christauph was unstarred
    Image of Six Flags Over Tomsk Six Flags Over Tomsk
    06/09/09

    @christauph: It's real alright. And mostly a really nice town, TBH.
     Reply
    Six Flags Over Tomsk was starred Six Flags Over Tomsk was unstarred
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