For he’s a jolly good fellow

As a follow-up to Lou Toerien’s 17-year-old Toyota Corolla in the August-September issue, I present to you my own veteran.

I bought my Datsun 1400 De Luxe bakkie new in 1982 to use as a second vehicle - my daily driver was a BMW 525. I pretty much traded in my student car, a 1973 model Mini, for the bakkie. The Datsun’s purchase price was R5 630, and it still has its original license plate today.

Even though I’ve never used the bakkie for camping, for example, I’ve hauled away loads of garden waste – not to mention all the other loads. Its odometer currently reads 64 000 kilometres, but the meter has already skipped once. You therefore need to add 100 000 km, which gives you an average distance of just over 340 km per month over the past 40 years.

My longest trip was from Paarl to GraaffReinet and back: about 1200 km. But I have also been down the coast as far as Plettenberg Bay and Nature’s Valley.

The bakkie hasn’t missed a single service – remember, it still has a carburettor and points that you simply don’t see anymore. In between its 10 000 km services, the oil level never drops, and the engine is in good working order.

You also don’t see brake drums all around a vehicle anymore. I recently replaced the brake shoes and drums. Otherwise, the biggest repair was a hole in the radiator.

My bakkie has never been in an accident either. She sleeps in the garage, of course, and over the years I’ve polished and vacuumed her myself. Hopefully she’ll run for many years to come.

The Datsun bakkies – later becoming Nissan – were built from 1971 to 2008 in Rosslyn, Pretoria. From 1985, they got front disc brakes – and by then the bakkie was a 100% local product. – Ed