1971 Datsun 510 Wagon

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1971-datsun-510-station-wagon-3/

This is pretty cool. My cousin had a blue one like this. 1st Japanese car I ever saw up close. I was 6 i think.

 

OMGoodness. Week or so ago we had a thread going about cars that got away. Mentioned my wifes 72 Datsun 510 wagon in Mango Orange and now we have one. Think I will be pick up some lottos before she gets up and I show her this.

 

What’s $10,000 or so for your wife’s happiness? Lol. It is a cool car. You guys really had some neat stuff. Probably didn’t know it at the time, or realize how unique it would become.

 

Sold $17,500

 

If I'm remembering correctly, $17.500 in 1971 would have bought you about FIVE of those - all brand-new.

 

It just goes to show how much the dollar has been inflated, since then. It was exactly in that year, that the Gold Standard was abolished

 

Factoring in inflation that car sold for only around $2000 1971 Dollars. Really not bad considering. But I would not have paid that much for it. But good example of early Japanese imports are starting to go for big $$'s the last few years.

 

How much import duty was levied on Japanese cars, back then? Subtracting that from the sticker price would give you the real price of which could be measured against any American sub-compact. Back then, there wasn't even any domestic-built one, except for the Ford Pinto which wasn't totally up to par with the 510

 

Also don’t forget under the theft of the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970, starting in August of ‘71 there were a variety of wage and price controls “The Freeze” that remained in place throughout the ‘72 Election cycle and reared its head again during the ‘73 Oil embargo to tamp down gas prices. Probably the last time the press fawned over a Republican President, and certainly rare for Nixon given his checkered, (yes pun intended) past with the press. It was quite short lived. Certainly by the summer of ‘73 with the Watergate hearings and into ‘74 there was a change in tides, and they were kicking Dick Nixon around again.

 

I don't think there were import duties on Japanese cars until around 1975. To lazy to look it up. So I do not believe this 1971 model would have had any to balloon its selling price at that time. Imports were not really taken as a serious threat until after the 1973 Oil embargo. If my memory is correct.
They were not taken seriously in Detroit until then at least. On the west coast that was probably a different story.

 

Sadly I don’t think Detroit big wigs ever took imports seriously until they started kicking their behinds. They gave lip service to “quality” initiatives through the ‘70’s, and don’t really think until the 1980’s they had a smidge of real quality standards. I remember in the early ‘70’s the films they produced to try and instill a work ethic to the line guys. That was their first defense instead of looking in a mirror. But the times were tough too. Lousy economy, more and more government controls on safety and mpg. What a rough time to be in the car business.

 

For them, maybe. Others took advantage of the new demands and therefore started tailoring their products with entirely new engine designs accordingly, while the Big Three followed the same policy as British Leyland did, through attempting to adapt ancient designs onto modern demands

 

Life is full of irony. I was looking to price out a Country Squire, like the green ‘71 vs. a true “family transportation” Torino wagon, as I still believe Country Squires, albeit family transportation were purchased by older couples with perhaps older children . When I couldn’t find my ‘71 price guide I stumbled on the ‘72 version of Car buying made easier. Come to find a notice from Ford that addresses both the Price Freeze I spoke about and addressed the excise tax, and import tax that cammerjeff spoke too. Looks like everything was either frozen or lifted about the same time. Fy

 

Nothing is mentioned about repealing import duties for Asian vehicles. I suppose, under the contemporary political atmosphere of today, it would be taken for granted that this repealing would not have been biased against non-European imports. Back then, however, this wouldn't necessarilly have been the case. Especially, because this was only three decades away from the bombing of Pearl Harbor

 

And anti Japaneese sentiment definitely still existed in the 70s. My cousin Suzanne stopped by her parents with a new Datsun B210 one afternoon in the early 70s. My Uncle John came home from work and, according to family legend, said something along the lines of "Hi honey, good to see you. You have 30 seconds to move that g d...d car down the street away from my house or I will push it down there with my Cadillac." Uncle was one of those who went to the recruiting station the Monday after Pearl Harbor and served as a Navy Corpsman in the Pacific during WW2.