09-10-2008 11:44 PM

It was a relief to wake up this morning and find the planet still here, meaning we survived those wacky scientists flipping the switch on the Large Hadron Collider. Here’s another story of survival. In 1972 Nissan introduced the Sunny Truck to South Africa, based on the B110 series Sunny (known as the 1200 here in the US). But while the passenger car evolved into the B210 a few years later, the Truck continued largely unchanged for 37 years.

It’s not often a chassis outlasts its own name, but here it is. The original Datsun 1200 got a displacement bump in 1980 to become the Datsun 1400, and finally shed the old brand name to become the Nissan 1400 in 1990. Known as the Bakkie, it became synonymous with South Africa’s motoring landscape thanks to its low price and honest dependability. To retire the model with dignity, Nissan South Africa is sending it off with a run of 150 Heritage Edition Bakkies. If you submit a heartfelt story to them, you could win one of the Last 1400 Bakkies.

The replacement, the NP200, goes on sale next month and is based on some kind of Nissan-Renault shared platform that underpins the Nissan March, Dacia Logan, and Renault Brand Dilution. It goes on sale next month, as soon as Mr. Bean is done taking a swim in his giant vault of euros.

[Nissan South Africa, via Edmunds]

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...I'd rather have the Sunnycamino than the Dacia truck Looks manlier too, which is probably something important to truck buyers (not me though )

I miss the way Japanese cars looked in the 70s, with all the fat trimmed off while everything the US made was bloated... Hyundais and Kias are now obese, and Chinese cars will just copy that obesity, so I'll hold out hope for Indian cars to be the next bringers of obviously sheet steel, slim styling...

Edited September 11, 200816 yr by Danglybanger