I had a yellow one back in 92 which was my first car. Actually the body was immaculate apart from the faded paint. The engine ran so smoothly that at traffic lights passengers would think I'd turned the engine off. Used electrical tape to run some racing stripes vertically across the car. Looked cool!
Beauty! The one my dad bought back in 1977, and we had it till early this year, when my brother sold it off without us knowing, as it was in his use mainly. It became a wreck lately, but still used to start 'half-self' start!. Never had its engine made, except for rings replacement once only! Thats was the beauty of this car. A time tested vehicle, an extraordinary shaped body and dash board... Sturdy, durable, tough, economical and a life partner - the Datsun 120Y...
They were fantastically reliable compared to much of the British Tat around at that time, always started in the cold and damp, had things like heated rear window, radio, and hazard warning lights, rare options on entry level cars of the mid 70's ... I owned and sold loads of them, brilliant little cars and Datsun proved that they were a force to be reckoned with, yes they rusted in the end like most cars of that period, but the most likely thing you would hear as it went to be scrapped or sold for spares was ...... " Shame really, because it's never let me down and still runs and drives perfectly "
Thank you for that trip down memory lane! They were lovely little cars. I wish I still had mine, a late 70's example that rusted out quicker than I could fix it
Wow! The memories. First car my Mom had. Took us all over COSTA RICA 🇨🇷 when we were kids. Only difference was steering wheel was on the opposite side,LHD!!! 🥺
I had 1 it took a lot of grief smoked when got it was driven a lot raced round the lanes jumps filled with used oil even had pure grease from a drum chucked in it and still never broke down was jacked up using an old bed base lol
Mudflaps! WOW!!! Original Datsun mudflaps. Haven’t seen those in decades. What a beautiful example, we had a ‘79 T reg Bluebird 180B estate which I grew up in sitting in the back watching the world go forwards in reverse - you know if you’ve been there, but my best mates dad had a 120Y Sunny 4 dr with the Blake’s 7 hubcaps rather than the pie dishes this one has. Hats off to yer fella for keeping this beauty in such an amazing condition. Long may she stay in this state.
I bought the same car is 1983 and someone had painted a white strip on each side so it looked like Starsky and Hutches car... hehehehe i thought it was the bollox. Great memories.
I had one the very same, colour and even a ‘P’ reg. Loved that car, all the extras on other cars all came as standard on a Datsun. How things have changed now - for the worse, in a Datsun your only choice was what engine size you required
A gearbox that shifted soft like butter, a humming 4 cylinder and with half a meter of snow it always started. Mine was bought for forty honest Guilders and was nicknamed DIrrek after the D on the steering wheel. I never had a better car for such a small amount in my whole life. And would you believe that I learned much later that Datsun were teached how to build cars by Austin of England !
I remember a neighbour up the road from me in the 80's had one exactly like this, same colour, he painted a white Starsky and Hutch stripe on it. As a child I thought it was the best car on our street.
Beautiful Datsun which will run forever as a dry miler.This car saw off British Leyland's unreliable offerings,a workmate had one same colour and year and model as this one in 1985 and though the sills and door bottoms had rusted through it still ticked over like a sewing machine,in general though this model was the best Datsun for longevity,still a few being used as runabouts in the early 2000s.
127,000 were imported to Britain between 1973 and 1978, all except about 50 have been scrapped into oblivion. The earlier 120Ys have pie dish wheel trims, and the later ones honeycombed.
Beautiful! The first car i ever drove. I was around 12 or 13 years old. I remember asking my uncle who owned it if he would sell it to me one day. If all goes well i’ll be buying it from my uncle this summer! Fingers crossed!
An elderly gentleman round the corner had an exactly same one as this but his was on an N-reg and maroon. At the time the car was 14 years old and it was still like a show piece. I'm guessing he must have looked after it very well as some elderly people do.
Norman Ankers In York is now a fish and chip restaurant !We had. 120y coupe . Super reliable but needed loads of welding every year to get through mot. Fitted rear seat belts for the kids .Really easy as had all the bolting holes under the rear seats and c pillar
Oh Fish N Chips that's a pity. Its nice to have the original dealer sticker and key ring though. I fitted rear belts to a few of my Datsuns too. They were super reliable but did corrode badly in those days. My father got his 1st 100A in 72.
Norman Ankers were a well respected dealer in York on Gillygate. I think they were the first Japanese car dealer in York. I went in to see the Cherry ! If you google the name you will get an early photograph of the site .
The later facelifted B210 120Y had 13" wheels and the hub caps yoy are referring to. They also gained a revised front grill, velour seats, plain black carpets, a choice of metallic colours and numerous mechanical revisions.
Beautiful, just breathtaking I would love to own a vintage two dr 120y. If you still have it in a couple years and interested in selling I would definitely want to buy it.
@@andrewsmyth8615 hopefully when I'm ready if you still have it I will make you a sensible offer that would be accepted, I could only hope you still have it. One thing for certain it would be well looked after and appreciated.
These were perhaps the ugliest Japanese car ever produced but decades later, this is really their appeal. I absolutely love it! Actually I should have ignored advice when I was a student way back when and bought one of these. Those hub caps we use to call "cake tin hub caps." Is that a Datsun 240Z in the back ground?
@@andrewsmyth8615 thanks for the reply, I've recently bought a Datsun 1200 but it lives outside unfortunately, trying to use it once a month to keep everything working but wasn't sure if it'd be ok to sit over the coming winter months.
Hi Andrew - I am trawling the internet for resources as I just bought a "barn find" (actually under a car cover in an below-ground garage) B210 120Y in Gibraltar - has some minor patina but completely rust free. I need service parts initially to recommission it for a rolling resto. Could you point me in the direction of a good reliable parts supplier for OEM stuff? I am in Gibraltar but tend to ship things from the UK unless otherwise necessary. Thank you in advance. And by the way its a lovely car. Mines a 4 door in light blue.
@@andrewsmyth8615 if only I could I would. They have the same model in Trinidad & Tobago but never seen a two door. It must be worth a bombshell, if I could afford it I'd keep it for life.
How the heck do you do that? Everything original? It still looks 19,000 miles! How did you keep it looking that good?? I will really like to know. To my knowledge, even if it were parked, it would rot away..... Whao!!
I bought it about 10yrs ago off the grandson of an elderly gentleman who couldn't drive anymore. I guess he really cared for it. He wrote me a letter (yes a letter) asking me to take care of it.
@@andrewsmyth8615 so, how have you been able to keep it in this state for 10 years? Garage? Never driving it? How do you keep the rubber components and stuffs from degrading?
I bought a new Datsun 120Y in the 70s. Within a year it was starting to rust. In less than two years holes were appearing in the body. Not one of my favorite cars.
When a Japanese badge actually meant made in Japan and was quality.
My first car in 1983 was a Datsun 120y in metallic Burgundy, I loved that motor, it was a little gem.
😢❤️👍🏻 love em! Had a black one. So reliable. Bring em back!!
Very beautiful, better than all the modern cars that I own
I had a yellow one back in 92 which was my first car. Actually the body was immaculate apart from the faded paint. The engine ran so smoothly that at traffic lights passengers would think I'd turned the engine off. Used electrical tape to run some racing stripes vertically across the car. Looked cool!
We had a 4 door turquoise 120y in the 75-85. This brings back memories. First car, I totally loved it. Nice to see original, unmodified.
Beauty! The one my dad bought back in 1977, and we had it till early this year, when my brother sold it off without us knowing, as it was in his use mainly.
It became a wreck lately, but still used to start 'half-self' start!. Never had its engine made, except for rings replacement once only!
Thats was the beauty of this car. A time tested vehicle, an extraordinary shaped body and dash board... Sturdy, durable, tough, economical and a life partner - the Datsun 120Y...
Brings back the lovely memories of my childhood thanks for sharing your lovely datsun
They were fantastically reliable compared to much of the British Tat around at that time, always started in the cold and damp, had things like heated rear window, radio, and hazard warning lights, rare options on entry level cars of the mid 70's ... I owned and sold loads of them, brilliant little cars and Datsun proved that they were a force to be reckoned with, yes they rusted in the end like most cars of that period, but the most likely thing you would hear as it went to be scrapped or sold for spares was ...... " Shame really, because it's never let me down and still runs and drives perfectly "
My dad's first car was a 4 door Datsun 120y . Seeing your video brings back lot's of memories . Thanks for the video .
Thats incredible. I had a 73 one which was rust held together with holes and stickers
Did my driving test in 1982 in a 120Y, passed first time so nothing but good memories for the 120Y.
Did mine in '79 in my Dad's Sunny Coupe.
What a beautiful tour excellent camera work ..keep it up
Thank you for that trip down memory lane! They were lovely little cars. I wish I still had mine, a late 70's example that rusted out quicker than I could fix it
Wow! The memories. First car my Mom had. Took us all over COSTA RICA 🇨🇷 when we were kids. Only difference was steering wheel was on the opposite side,LHD!!! 🥺
I had 1 it took a lot of grief smoked when got it was driven a lot raced round the lanes jumps filled with used oil even had pure grease from a drum chucked in it and still never broke down was jacked up using an old bed base lol
My first decent car was this model , except manual, in this colour. I would buy this in a heartbeat.
My dad had a green one and mine was yellow. Like all the details. The crank in the booth :-)
Mudflaps! WOW!!! Original Datsun mudflaps. Haven’t seen those in decades.
What a beautiful example, we had a ‘79 T reg Bluebird 180B estate which I grew up in sitting in the back watching the world go forwards in reverse - you know if you’ve been there, but my best mates dad had a 120Y Sunny 4 dr with the Blake’s 7 hubcaps rather than the pie dishes this one has.
Hats off to yer fella for keeping this beauty in such an amazing condition. Long may she stay in this state.
I bought the same car is 1983 and someone had painted a white strip on each side so it looked like Starsky and Hutches car... hehehehe i thought it was the bollox. Great memories.
I had one the very same, colour and even a ‘P’ reg. Loved that car, all the extras on other cars all came as standard on a Datsun. How things have changed now - for the worse, in a Datsun your only choice was what engine size you required
A gearbox that shifted soft like butter, a humming 4 cylinder and with half a meter of snow it always started.
Mine was bought for forty honest Guilders and was nicknamed DIrrek after the D on the steering wheel.
I never had a better car for such a small amount in my whole life.
And would you believe that I learned much later that Datsun were teached how to build cars by Austin of England !
Nissan built Austin under licence after the war as a way to restart production. Many Japanese manufacturers did this.
Yes brilliant car's mechanically, engines were from bmc but improved upon
My grandad had one but in manual. He passed it on to my dad and was our family car until it fell to bits with rust!
I remember a neighbour up the road from me in the 80's had one exactly like this, same colour, he painted a white Starsky and Hutch stripe on it. As a child I thought it was the best car on our street.
I wonder if the Starsky and Hutch stripe would make it any faster. Mines an old 3 spd automatic and needs all the help it can get.
@@andrewsmyth8615 He drove it like Starsky and Hutch, so maybe! Lol,
My Primary school teacher has a bright yellow one. To me as an 8 year old it just looked so different to the Head master`s Rover
Beautiful Datsun which will run forever as a dry miler.This car saw off British Leyland's unreliable offerings,a workmate had one same colour and year and model as this one in 1985 and though the sills and door bottoms had rusted through it still ticked over like a sewing machine,in general though this model was the best Datsun for longevity,still a few being used as runabouts in the early 2000s.
Thank you.
I had an 'S' reg one in the 70's and loved the look of it. Always thought of it as a cheap stylish car, never ugly !
When I worked for Addams & Gibbon there was a radiator repair shop down the street one of the lads there had a one with a starsky and hutch stripe .
i love it i also have one Original 100% they still out there.lucky to find one.
Very nice, a Honey Bee! Amazing condition too. Unfortunately our weather is poor which makes it extremely difficult to keep them looking good.
This is the most amazing example that I have ever seen ! Well done sir !
It is a nice one. There's a bit of a story about how it came to be mine but I'm glad it did.
Had a 1976 4 door, very, very reliable, the engines derived from early bmc engine's but we're improved upon
One 1975 Datsun 120Y was white and had the interesting registration JAP120N, did not last too long, scrapped and rusty by 1986.
127,000 were imported to Britain between 1973 and 1978, all except about 50 have been scrapped into oblivion. The earlier 120Ys have pie dish wheel trims, and the later ones honeycombed.
The ones my dads on a 77 had were like moon craters
Great looking cars! I think they look best in duck egg blue and with dustbin lid wheel trims.
Thanks so much for posting...Memories!...Car I learnt to drive in and I bought this same colour as my first ever vehicle!
I learned to drive in 79 in my Dad's Sunny. Bought a met blue 120Y shortly after.
Beautiful! The first car i ever drove. I was around 12 or 13 years old. I remember asking my uncle who owned it if he would sell it to me one day. If all goes well i’ll be buying it from my uncle this summer! Fingers crossed!
That's a great story! The first car I ever drove was my Dad's 1973 Datsun 180B on the beach at Castlerock.
Very good condition 👍
An elderly gentleman round the corner had an exactly same one as this but his was on an N-reg and maroon. At the time the car was 14 years old and it was still like a show piece. I'm guessing he must have looked after it very well as some elderly people do.
The very odd good one still turns up but rarely.
Truly remarkable that it's survived in such pristine condition.
Yes it was a great find.
Thumbs up for a clean old Datsun 👍
Thank you!
Cracking looking car. Shame you never opened the bonnet
When I was a kid I used to think this was a shark car. Cause of the way the front end looks like a shark face and the gill design at the rear lol
Ah yes I see that!
Classic my mates nan had one and then decades later my mates older brother had one that belonged to his grandad lol... great funky cars.
Amyzing osaaam old is gold
Magnificent
That is one beautiful car mate
Thank you. I was very fortunate to find it in such original condition.
Excelente! Único!
My uncle had one he carried a breeze block in the boot as in slippery conditions the back would try to get in front and it held I'd down
That's an incredible survivor! It must be the best B210 in not just the UK but the whole of Europe.
It was nice to find one so original in the details.
Norman Ankers In York is now a fish and chip restaurant !We had. 120y coupe . Super reliable but needed loads of welding every year to get through mot. Fitted rear seat belts for the kids .Really easy as had all the bolting holes under the rear seats and c pillar
Oh Fish N Chips that's a pity. Its nice to have the original dealer sticker and key ring though. I fitted rear belts to a few of my Datsuns too. They were super reliable but did corrode badly in those days. My father got his 1st 100A in 72.
Norman Ankers were a well respected dealer in York on Gillygate. I think they were the first Japanese car dealer in York. I went in to see the Cherry ! If you google the name you will get an early photograph of the site .
I always remember the natty "tortoise shell" hub caps that certain versions of these had (not this one).
The later facelifted B210 120Y had 13" wheels and the hub caps yoy are referring to. They also gained a revised front grill, velour seats, plain black carpets, a choice of metallic colours and numerous mechanical revisions.
Oh yes, some people called them "Honeycomb" wheel covers.
Even the clock still works.
Turquoise was the nicest colour for a 120Y, but I've never seen a Cherry 100A or F11 in turquoise.
No I haven't either. I have a yellow FII and a grey 120A Coupe.
Beautiful, just breathtaking I would love to own a vintage two dr 120y. If you still have it in a couple years and interested in selling I would definitely want to buy it.
I'm ready to accept a sensible offer.
@@andrewsmyth8615 hopefully when I'm ready if you still have it I will make you a sensible offer that would be accepted, I could only hope you still have it. One thing for certain it would be well looked after and appreciated.
My Mums friends had a Datsun 120Y 4 dr in Metallic Blue.
The facelift 120Y was available in metallic blue. My Dad had a pre-facelift in solid dark blue then a facelift in metallic blue.
Once they rusted they were near impossible to weld as the metal was so thin in them. Same goes for Subarus. Don't ask how I know.
My first car ❤️
These were quite a reliable car and economical too. But they weren't as well built as their competitor the Toyota Corolla.
I passed my driving test in a pale metallic blue one of these in 1984
I passed my test in a B310 Sunny in 1979.
Qué chulada de carro si lo vendes avísame por favor
This was my parents first car they had.
My father had a 2dr same as this in '75 then traded it in for a 4dr facelift.
I also have this car and want to restore it
These were perhaps the ugliest Japanese car ever produced but decades later, this is really their appeal. I absolutely love it! Actually I should have ignored advice when I was a student way back when and bought one of these. Those hub caps we use to call "cake tin hub caps." Is that a Datsun 240Z in the back ground?
Yes. Thats my '73 240Z.
Wow Andrew. Divine.
Beautiful example, looks like its in good hands too. How often do use them to keep them in working order just out of interest?
During the winter I don't use them due to the salt on the roads. In summer I use some more than others but maybe 6 times or so.
@@andrewsmyth8615 thanks for the reply, I've recently bought a Datsun 1200 but it lives outside unfortunately, trying to use it once a month to keep everything working but wasn't sure if it'd be ok to sit over the coming winter months.
Are you in the UK?
@@andrewsmyth8615 I am indeed :)
Hi Andrew - I am trawling the internet for resources as I just bought a "barn find" (actually under a car cover in an below-ground garage) B210 120Y in Gibraltar - has some minor patina but completely rust free. I need service parts initially to recommission it for a rolling resto. Could you point me in the direction of a good reliable parts supplier for OEM stuff? I am in Gibraltar but tend to ship things from the UK unless otherwise necessary. Thank you in advance. And by the way its a lovely car. Mines a 4 door in light blue.
Hi. Yes, join Datsun Club UK on Facebook and speak to a guy called Datman (William Lightburn). He is the no.1 source in UK.
I want to buy this car from you. How much do you want for it?
Sweet car!
Thank you
Would love to buy it.
Make me an offer!
@@andrewsmyth8615 if only I could I would. They have the same model in Trinidad & Tobago but never seen a two door. It must be worth a bombshell, if I could afford it I'd keep it for life.
How the heck do you do that? Everything original? It still looks 19,000 miles! How did you keep it looking that good?? I will really like to know. To my knowledge, even if it were parked, it would rot away..... Whao!!
I bought it about 10yrs ago off the grandson of an elderly gentleman who couldn't drive anymore. I guess he really cared for it. He wrote me a letter (yes a letter) asking me to take care of it.
@@andrewsmyth8615 so, how have you been able to keep it in this state for 10 years? Garage? Never driving it? How do you keep the rubber components and stuffs from degrading?
I just keep it in a dehumidified garage with rest of my Datsuns. I take it out a couple of times a year.
@@andrewsmyth8615 Is that gentleman still alive now?
I'd love to have a talk with him!
I bought a new Datsun 120Y in the 70s. Within a year it was starting to rust. In less than two years holes were appearing in the body. Not one of my favorite cars.
THE ENGINE ??? PLEASE
do you still drive it?
I drive all of my Datsuns, weather permitting. I don't believe in museum pieces.
What about the engine
Lmao in Trinidad&Tobago these are everywhere. You can buy one dirt cheap.
They are increasingly rare here in UK. I turned down £10k for mine.
@@andrewsmyth8615 damn....you can get one there for 1000 tt dollars...about 100 quid
@@HostileLemons start exporting them to UK and make some good money then.
Mate if you were to sell that, what’s be the price? I’d kill to see the look on me mums face if I bought her “first” car 😩
I was offered £10k for it a couple of years ago.
It's that car for sale ?
Hmm, I hadn't considered it.
@@andrewsmyth8615 Noo.never. !! No, that car must be on a museum
@@jlatala4655 thanks. It's not perfect but it is in remarkable condition.
they were reliable but rust buckets
I remember seeing them with angle iron between the strut towers to stop them collapsing in on themselves.
Please sell this I will buy it
My email address is
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Omg. I had one of these. In a sort of British racing green. The inside was really nice.