Yahoo Autos 1980 Datsun 210 Wagon with 445,440 Miles Is Junkyard Treasure in Colorado
Toyota just vaulted to the top of the Murilee Martin Junkyard Odometer standings with a seemingly unbeatable 949,863 miles spotted in a Kentucky-built 1996 Avalon.
That shouldn't take away from an arguably greater mileage achievement, however: 445,440 miles found on one of the cheapest new station wagons available in the United States during the Late Malaise era.
Nissan went to six-digit odometers in its US-market vehicles for the 1980 model year, which makes me wonder how many earlier Datsuns with intergalactic final mileage totals I've walked right by in junkyards after glancing at their uninformative five-digit odometers (this especially applies to the rugged 520 and 620 series Datsun pickups). This figure represents well over 10,000 miles per year for 44 years on the road.
445,440 miles puts this car at No.10 in the overall MMJO standings, and it pushed another Nissan (a 1990 Sentra edged out by just 146 miles) out of the Top Ten in the process. I've been finding quite a few high-mile Yokohama (and Smyrna) machines in car graveyards lately, so let's take a look at their presence in the MMJO Top 25:
1980 Datsun 210 wagon: 440,445 miles
That's nine Hondas, five Mercedes-Benzes, four Toyotas, three Volvos, three Nissans, and one Ford. Today's Junkyard Treasure is also the oldest car in the Top 25, though only Volvo and Mercedes-Benz had six-digit odometers in most of their US-market vehicles prior to the 1980s.
Datsun sold this car's predecessor, the B210, in the United States for the 1974 through 1978 model years, and its cheap price and great fuel economy made it a strong sales success during those years. That car was known as the Datsun Sunny in its Japanese homeland (B210 was Nissan's internal model code).
So when the B210 Sunny was replaced by the B310 Sunny… oh, wait, Nissan couldn't call the new car the B310 here due to the 310 name already being applied to the North American version of the first-generation Pulsar.
So, the B310 Sunny became just the 210 here, even as the old 510 name was pasted on US-market A10 Violets. This generation of Sunny was the last to have rear-wheel drive and was sold here from the 1979 through 1981 model years.
After that, it was replaced by the front-wheel-drive B11 Sunny, which was called the Sentra here and debuted as a 1982 model. Even as that was going on, the Datsun name was being phased out during the "Name Is Nissan" campaign that wrapped up in 1984 (though Datsun badging still appeared alongside Nissan emblems on some models that year).
That means every Sentra in the world right now is the direct descendant of this car. Sadly, the final model year for the Sentra wagon in the United States was 1990, but the B310 Sunny was built with two different wagon body styles: a squared-off version known as the Sunny Van (which wasn't available on our shores) and a fastback version known as the Sunny California in Japan.
The 210 was the most affordable model in the American 1980 Datsun lineup, which also included the 310, 510, 200SX, 810, 720, and 280ZX. It was available in two-door sedan, four-door sedan, three-door hatchback, and four-door wagon form that year. In fact, 1980 Datsun shoppers in North America could choose between three different sizes of station wagon (210, 510, 810), since 1980 was just a few years removed from American Peak Wagon.
The MSRP for this car started at $5,099, which comes to about $20,470 in 2024 dollars. If you wanted the absolute cheapest 210 for 1980, you could get the base two-door sedan with four-speed manual transmission and no frills for $3,899 (an amazing $15,653 in today's money).
You won't see many cars this cheap last for so many miles; a few of my finds that very roughly get close to this 210 in the Bargain Basement High Miles ballpark are a 317k-mile Ford Festiva, a 300k-mile Honda Civic VX, and a 360k-mile Toyota Tercel (I've found a Tercel 4WD wagon with 413k miles as well, but that version of the Tercel wasn't especially cheap).
It's also unusual for a car this rough-looking to rack up such an impressive final mileage total; most extreme-high-mile vehicles I find in the boneyards had been kept in reasonably decent cosmetic condition. This makes sense, because people who keep their cars looking good generally take care of all the scheduled maintenance on the dot.
This car appears to have been optioned up to a certain extent, including the $560 air conditioning (which comes to $2,248 after inflation).
The engine is a pushrod 1.4-liter straight-four Nissan A14, rated at 62 hp. Curb weight was just a hair over a ton.
The 1980 210 wagon came with a five-speed manual transmission at no extra cost. These transmissions are much sought-after today by owners of MGBs, because they'll bolt up to MGB engines without too much trouble. Back in the 1950s, Nissan paid Austin for the right to license-build the BMC B engine, which evolved into the Nissan A engine.
However, I feel certain that every junkyard customer who goes transmission shopping backs away in horror from a car with this many miles. This gearbox would be quite a gamble! I thought about buying the speedometer from this car for my collection of high-mile odometers, but decided it should remain in place as a warning to prospective transmission buyers.
This car looks to have been sold new at the Thoroughbred Car Company in Colorado Springs. It was auctioned off last month. Its stories from the 44 years between those two events must have been interesting ones.
The biggest little bargain in wagons.
Datsun had 16 models that ran on cheap Vitamin Pb-infused gas for 1979!
The fastback wagon version of the B310 Sunny was sold as the Sunny California in Japan, while the regular wagon version (not sold in North America) was called the Sunny Van.
This car has air conditioning and the optional five-speed manual transmission, but there's a block-off plate where a clock would live.
This car was the successor to the B210 Sunny and was known internally at Nissan as the B310. However, the 310 name was applied to the first-generation Pulsar in North America and so the old 210 name was recycled on the B310s sold here.
1980 was the first model year for six-digit odometers on most new Datsuns sold in the United States, which means we can see that this car traveled 445,440 miles during its 44-year driving career.
These cars were rust-prone, to put it mildly, but they didn't rot as quickly in Front Range Colorado as they did in Rust Belt regions.
The engine is a carbureted pushrod 1.4-liter straight-four, rated at 62 horsepower. Curb weight was a mere 2,010 pounds for the fastback wagon, so these cars were slightly quicker than intolerably slow.
The Datsun name began its transition to Nissan in the United States soon after this car was built.
There's a sticker from a Pueblo print shop here, so perhaps this car toiled as a delivery vehicle for decades.
There's also an Uber decal on the windshield, but I don't believe a car this old and hooptie would have been allowed to work for Uber.
A junkyard shopper bought the right front door before I arrived. The door was on when the car was auctioned off.
1980 Datsun 210 wagon in Colorado wrecking yard.
1980 Datsun 210 wagon in Colorado wrecking yard.
1980 Datsun 210 wagon in Colorado wrecking yard.
1980 Datsun 210 wagon in Colorado wrecking yard.
1980 Datsun 210 wagon in Colorado wrecking yard.
1980 Datsun 210 wagon in Colorado wrecking yard.
1980 Datsun 210 wagon in Colorado wrecking yard.
1980 Datsun 210 wagon in Colorado wrecking yard.
1980 Datsun 210 wagon in Colorado wrecking yard.
1980 Datsun 210 wagon in Colorado wrecking yard.
1980 Datsun 210 wagon in Colorado wrecking yard.
1980 Datsun 210 wagon in Colorado wrecking yard.
1980 Datsun 210 wagon in Colorado wrecking yard.
1980 Datsun 210 wagon in Colorado wrecking yard.
1980 Datsun 210 wagon in Colorado wrecking yard.
1980 Datsun 210 wagon in Colorado wrecking yard.
1980 Datsun 210 wagon in Colorado wrecking yard.
