This neo-510 has become one of the most enduring CCs in town. I’ve shot it a number of times, and I’m sure I posted it somewhere along the way, or not. But here it is, some ten years after I first saw it in a driveway, sitting at the trailhead where we start our ritual evening hike and swim. Is it ever going to stop?
Deciding to resurrect the 510 moniker for the replacement for the Datsun 710 in the US was doomed to make it a disappointment, as the original 510 was one of those cars that just can’t readily be replicated, in terms of its impact at the time. They should have called it the Stanza, as it was in Australia, and as its replacement would be.
Nevertheless, it certainly wasn’t a bad car, by a long shot. It was essentially a generic Japanese car, of the old RWD genre, a genre that was quickly running out of steam, thanks to the groundbreaking Honda Accord.
It was a simple and obviously a quite rugged car. Actually, it was essentially a 710 with a new body; same wheelbase, suspension (live rear axle) and same basic drive train. That included the now-venerable L20B SOHC 2.0L four, a direct development of the original 510’s 1.6 L four. It was still capable of showing some of that car’s lustiness, if dulled by emission controls and a heavier body. It was also a bit thrashy, as is the wont of so many larger four cylinder engines.
Obviously these neo-510s never developed any sort of following, unlike the cult of the original. But maybe there’s a cult of one, right here in Eugene.
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A perfectly practical car for 1980. Nice color, too. But I’ve always been partial to hatchback sedans.
I never noticed that body vent before, interesting location. And the tires look wider than stock. And there’s a higher-zoot Infiniti parked next to it. And the green color is indeed nice. And if that’s a 1980 model, the styling has aged quite well. And that’s all I’ve got, nice to see this one again.
It seems like the distraction of the dent crater on the Infiniti shows the bloat that was yet to come on so many Japanese makes that were, at the time, all trim and proportioned with slim, boxy lines. Not enough “padding” on the 510 to make a dent that deep!
It looks sort of like an Audi 400 hatchback!
Audi 4000 rather!
These were good cars, as were the 510 and 610. Not fancy, just good. As a teenager I had my eye on a 710 in the neighborhood, a white 2 door coupe.
It looked good because it was all white and looked like a Rally car before all the serious work would have been done to it.
Datsun must have had pretensions of the car being a little fast because it’s best feature was the dog leg pattern for the 5-speed. First gear back and to the left, leaving all the “fast” gears (2-5) in the H.
The Stanza as I recall were four door sedans I dont remember a fast back hatch with that moniker, there were one or two still alive in the Huon this century with fat tyhres and loud exhaust being driven hard by local kids but they werent fast as such they seemed to all be one bomb sticker from transport away from being left at the rubbish tip.
Nissan Australia sold a very small run of 3 door hatches, maybe 50. IIRC the story was that Japan sent the wrong CKD packages, but we assembled and sold them anyway.
My father bought a 79 510 sedan automatic. No power brakes or steering.
It was a nice looking car – two tone – with silver on top, gray on bottom.
It was also the first car we had with a cloth interior.
With the automatic it had decent acceleration – for the time – and it was quicker than the lemon Fairmont with the in-line 6 that he traded for it – and took a bath on,
It was sturdy and reliable – but rusted quickly. I think he got around 160,000 miles on it before he traded it for his first Camry.
My first car was the predecessor, a ’74 710. Automatic (my only automatic car since I owned it 44 years ago) and no power steering. It had white vinyl seats, and brown carpeting (but the exterior was medium blue)…would have liked cloth seats. I think mine had the 1.8 litre 4. I had it mostly in Vermont, and moved it to Massachusetts after I got my first job out of school. It rusted pretty much by 1981, when I hit some black ice on I89 outside of Sharon,Vt. and crinkled the front end (but fortunately not the battery so I could still drive it). It had a high idle when cold, so had to shift into neutral at stoplights else it would crab sidewards if the tires were on any slippery surface. But it was reliable, except for blizzard of ’78 where it wouldn’t start for a week, it got me where I needed to go (it was parked outside). It was dog slow with the automatic, remember when my alternator went, it felt like it was turbocharged or something till I got it fixed.
I worked for Hertz summers, and actually got to drive a 510 (while I owned the 710)…I liked it, it had the NAPS-Z engine, and I prefer hatchback to the 710 sedan (have only owned VW Hatchbacks since 1981).
I think the followon Stanza was FWD. Would have liked a Stanza, never drove one though, but my boss had one. Never had an Altima either.
My sisters went sportier, they owned a total of 4 200/240 SX cars (middle one still owns a ’97).nice cars, but a bit too low for me now that I’m a bit older and don’t like to have to squat down to get in or balance to get out.
A college acquaintance, whose father was a Nissan exec in Kenya, knew how to spec his car. The notchback version, with the manual transmission. Quite a decent small car package, all around, and it looked sharp, in two tone silver over blue. He drove it hard, zooming it around like Shekhar Mehta in the East African Safari. The car was well up to the task.
Had an early 80’s model, 4dr hatch., burgundy metallic, for several years. It had a 5-speed manual, dogleg, I think. The engine was a Z20S, with two plugs per cylinder; cap, rotor and wires were expensive back then. Replaced the cam due to a bad lobe or rocker. Car was reliable and practical overall, however rust was an issue.