How come you hardly see any old Datsun's on the road anymore? (Japanese, versus)

[Mopac1980]

The only Datsun's I see often are the pickups and the Z-cars, I never see any of the 210's, 310's, 510's, 610's, 710's, 810's and the 200SX's anymore and I always liked the looks of the old Datsun's but often wish they weren't so hard to find anymore, I even see more American cars of the same vintage on the road today.

[Merc63]

Depends on where you are, but the fact is, most of those cars are from the '60s and '70s, and in most areas, if they were daily drivers, they rusted away from salt in the winters. Like most cars of that age, when they got too old and rusty, they were scrapped, which is why, even though there were hudreds of thousands of them made, you rarely see domestic cars of the same era anymore, either in much of the midwest and east coast. Think about it, when was teh last time you saw an '80s Citation, Tempo, or Escort? or a late '70s Dart or Volare?

On the west coast, however, there are a lot of Datsun 510s, pickups, and older etc that are still daily drivers due to the lack of rust.

[Sayantsi]

I loved how my old Datsun would randomly drop a part from rust when I parked it. Kept things interesting.

Fwiw, you can still find many in the non-rust southwest and California.

[iTsLiKeAnEgG]

I still see a good number of them. There's a good number of 510's, 240/280Z's and Datsun pickups running around here.

[sliverbox]

Out here in Cali you see a fair amount. But that said, some of the models like the 510's have become very popular cars and are quite costly these days. So many are now being stuck in people's garages versus being daily drivers anymore.

[Tourian]

Like practically all Japanese cars from that era, they used low grade steel without much protection and they mostly all rusted away.

[camaro69]

I had a 1975 Datsun B210 for 10 years. Great little car, but it was truely a rust bucket.

Had to have the fenders replaced due to rust and my father in law used sheet metal for new floor boards as they rusted away also.

[Yellow Jacket]

I see plenty of them and they are hallowed amongst the enthusiast crowd in my area. They adore those old Datsuns from the 240z to the pickups.

[Hemlock140]

Never see them here. I had a 1980 210 that got 40 mpg, and traded it in when it got too tight for the 3 kids. While it was good mechanically, it did have thin metal and flimsy interior. That's what you got for $6,000 back then. It was mid-late 80s before the Japanese cars learned to
make their cars solid like the US cars, but then did a better job of it.

[Mopac1980]

I know the Datsun's had solid mechanical workmanship but did have rust issues, I live in SE Washington State and it seems to be pretty rare to find a Datsun that isn't a Z Car or a pickup in our area, the other day I did see a 610 at a grocery store parking lot and a B210 at a Wal-Mart parking lot, I still see a good number of Volare's, Dart's and Tempo's in our area but hardly any Citation's and early Escort's