1980 – 1984 Datsun 200-SX: Giving Voice to The Future

You never forget your first one. A Car that is. My first one was a well-worn 1980 Honda Civic 1300. While it was a great car, it was not the kind that captured my imagination when I was young enough to be dreaming of my first car. The first car that got the Sinclair ZX loving’ geek kid in me excited was the Datsun 200-SX.

While mowing lawns to raise money to buy music and stereo equipment, I had just finished up with one of my regular customers who had just bought a brand new 1983 200-SX hatchback. I remember being fascinated by his proud demonstration of the talking voice prompts and the stereo with a graphic equalizer.

His car was also equipped with a 5-speed manual transmission, making it a bit more engaging to drive than those with the more common 3-speed auto. He seemed a bit conflicted in whether to call his new car a Datsun or a Nissan (it had both tags on it). Nissan did not help much with it’s confusing “Datsun by Nissan” badge on the cars during this transitional era in the brand’s marketing.

1982 Datsun 200-SX Notchback

Thinking about it now, the 200-SX was more than ready to drop the small econocar associations of the old Datsun name. This 200-SX  was bigger than the previous one

1981 Datsun by Nissan Ad

and aspired to be a Japanese version of a Thunderbird or Monte Carlo. It lacked the baroque elegance of those cars, instead it looked as if it could have been designed by the Ford Fairmont team bent on making a cut-rate sporty personal coupe. The 200-SX had a futuristic look with the kit to match.

There was nothing cut-rate about the 200SX, although there were sportier ones sold in the Japanese and European markets. In America, the versions we had were fitted with a four-cylinder SOHC 2.2 liter engine that never made more than 102 hp. In Japan, it was a competently different animal (with names like Silvia and Gazelle) with higher power turbo and fuel injected performance variants.

While just over 100 horses might not have seemed like a lot, it was still a more favorable power to weight ratio than the typical American personal luxury coupe. At just over 2600 pounds for the hatchback version, the rear wheel drive 200-SX was just light enough to provide sprightly performance for those who wanted a more grown-up alternative to the flashy 280Z. One byproduct of being light was high gas mileage numbers. As a Datsun, the 200-SX might have been expected to be frugal, but with a manual transmission, a careful driver could approach 38 mpg on the highway. Not bad for a personal luxury sports coupe.

There was never an official convertible option, but conversion by California-based American Custom Coachworks, Ltd. was available. The conversion brought the 200-SX more in line with its Toyota Celica competition who’s drop-top came from another California-based company, American Specialty Cars (ASC). It was just as well that the occasional coupe would get cut up for the sake of topless driving because it’s awkward notch-back roof profile was considered the least attractive of the two body styles.

Some notchback coupes were further treated to dealer installed landau-like roof options that increased the baroque elegance factor. Who knows how many Monte Carlo owners it might have tempted. Those cars fitted with the dealer installed landau option resembled the Chrysler Lebaron more than anything from Japan and were rare (as any roadgoing 200-SX must be by now).

1983 Datsun 200-SX Convertible

Sophistication and technology were what the 200-SX was all about. The 200-SX had moved to a larger (A-series) platform and initially was slated to have a rotary engine for export markets. The Wankle engine was a reliability disaster, prompting the car to be held back until it could be refitted with a standard piston engine. Nissan would leave rotary cars to Mazda (the 200-SX even shared the same engine code name as the Mazda Cosmo).

While the rotary might have been a dead-end option, there were plenty of other tech distractions to make up for it. The 200-SX became known mostly for its use of gimmicky technology, the same kind that made teenage boys like myself dream of a Sid Mead future.

Many cars had chimes, but the 200SX went further with scripted voice-activated prompts. The prompts were from a tiny phonographic record encased in a vibration-proof housing  – like what NASA used on early space missions. The space ship theme continued to the dash with its array of dials and displays housed in a geometric setting.

1983 Datsun 200-SX interior (convertible)

Other features were more substantial like the advanced four-speaker stereo with auto reverse cassette player. There was even a moon roof option.  The Car had two distinct personalities. The hatchback coupe was the sportiest and resembled a Celica in some respects while the traditional two-door coupe with its trunk could be tarted up to resemble a Thunderbird type car complete with a fake partial cloth top cover.

There were hints everywhere that the 200-SX had the potential to be a real performance car. The 4 wheel disc brake system, 5-speed manual transmission, and rear wheel drive were the biggest cues. However, the American bound cars were as mild as they came with the excitement limited to two-tone color schemes. In Japan, the 200-SX could be had with a turbo engine with fuel injection.

Of course, for those like me who were dazzled by technology, or the appearance of it in a car, Nissan (still making the transition from the Datsun name in the U.S.) embodied the future – a future I did not see in most American cars at the time. The technology in the 200-SX no doubt had its part in helping form the image of Japanese cars as being tech savvy (Cannon Ball Run II) and might have even inspired fictions like the K.I.T from Night Rider.

More importantly, for people of my generation, cars like the 200-SX represented the beginning of our memories of the cutting edge in affordable and reliable imports. No doubt part of a generational bias towards Japanese imports that would come back to haunt the domestic car industry in the ’80s and ’90s.  Sadly, few Nissans today capture my imagination like the futuristic 200-SX did back in the day.

1984 Datsun 200-SX