5k: 1963 Datsun Pickup

Most of the time when we find a sweet car for the Daily Turismo we give some background, make stupid puns, make jokes, blah blah blah.  But with this car, we first have to figure out what it is..since the ad says that it is a 1963 Datsun 1200 Pickup for sale on ebay in Twin Falls, ID currently bidding at $2,075 reserve-not-met.  However, Nissan didn’t release the 1200 until 1970 and this car clearly looks older, so we need to do some digging.

Nissan did sell a pickup under the Datsun brand in the USA in 1963 – technically called the 320 Pickup.  This Pickup is reported by the seller to have been a two owner car – but when he can’t actually get the model name of the vehicle correct, just about everything else that is said needs to be severely questioned.

The 320 Pickup is powered by a 1.2 liter inline 4 cylinder Nissan E-series gasoline engine putting out 60 horsepower (proudly displayed on a Datsun “60hp” badge) into a 4 speed manual transmission.  The 320 won’t be fast by any measure, but at least it is rear wheel drive and manual trans.  It would probably be fun in the snow – but you probably wouldn’t want to drive this classic in any kind of wet conditions.

Inside this 320 looks nice given the fact that it will be 50 years old next year.  It has probably been the subject of several restorations in its lifetime, but the red/white color scheme looks fantastic.  It still keeps a plaque displaying the original owners names “Ken and Martha”- probably a nice farming couple from Kansas who would have no problems raising an alien visitor from planet Krypton.

This 320 Pickup is the version with a separate bed like a classic pickup – but there was a version called the Sports Pickup NL320 that had a sleeker bed integrated with the cab sheet metal.  Pics

below.

Bottom line: we like this Datsun and think that it will potentially be a great deal for anyone looking for a classic pickup on the cheap.

See another cheap pickup for sale?  email us here: tips@dailyturismo.com