Cramped So-Called King Cab Dooms '79 Datsun Pickup
I’ve been seeing quite a few junked Datsun pickups in recent years, and most of them have featured the King Cab option. To those of you accustomed to 21st-century pickups with four doors and luxurious back seats, the few additional cubic centimeters of the Datsun 720’s King Cab must seem a cruel joke.
Sure, you could fit more toolboxes and stuff out of the weather, but what about leg room? Cup holders? The small Toyota trucks of the era seem to be evading The Crusher much better than their Nissan contemporaries, no doubt because every plumber in North America wants the same Hilux-grade reliability that warlords and strongmen throughout the world demand from their trucks.
The good old L20 engine held together just about as well as the Toyota R, but the iconic profile of a Hilux sporting a 23mm cannon mounted in the bed and a couple dozen 14-year-old “soldiers” hanging off the tailgate helps keep depreciation from reaching scrap level. Thus, little Toyota trucks live, little Datsun trucks die.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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My grabdfather had one they bought new. I actually rode in the jump seats of his truck a few times. I also made several road trips in the bed of the truck under the basic camper shell that kept the bed dry. The truck was good but the paint was starting bubble when he sold it. As I've gotten older I worry more and more about those "jumpseats" in extended cabs. I imagine a rear-ender that shoves the bed forward and traps the occupants of those little seats. Not to mention a rollover while riding unbelted in the covered bed of a pickup... I like trucks but on the modern road you either need a huge crewcab truck or plan on carrying a couple of people. I'd still prefer the little trucks over a big fuel sucking truck that I had to drive on a regular basis.
This guy Murilee Martin must be an idiot !!
Bet he never had a Datsun King Cab.
I owned one for 5 years, it was a great truck.
Mine was an automatic trany, and I even towed a 16' trailer with a race car inside.
Never had any problems with it.
"Beaver head" Murilee needs to shut his mouth about things he never experianced !