The luxury SGL version of the Vanette Coach was the first van in its class in Japan to offer a sunroof and swivelling captain's chairs in the back.
Lead trim: Vanette A12 1.2 (64 PS) · up to 82 hp
Nissan Vanette C1201978–1988
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Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Nissan Vanette C120 yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactThe luxury SGL version of the Vanette Coach was the first van in its class in Japan to offer a sunroof and swivelling captain's chairs in the back.
The Nissan Vanette is a cabover van and pickup truck produced by Nissan from 1978 to 1994 (production in Malaysia continued until about 2010, and the name went on a rebadged Mazda Bongo until 2017), the successor to the Datsun Sunny Cab / Nissan Cherry Cab (C20) of 1969 and to the Cablight of 1962. The first-generation C120, introduced in October 1978, borrowed heavily from the rear-wheel-drive Sunny (B210/B310) and shared its engines and transmissions, sold as the Nissan Sunny Vanette (Nissan Satio Store) or Cherry Vanette (Cherry Store) and, from March 1980, as the Datsun Vanette with twin headlights through Bluebird Store dealers; it was exported as the Datsun C20 and Datsun Vanette, junior to the Nissan Caravan, and came as a truck, a van and a nine-seat Coach (later ten-seat, with a long-wheelbase van and high roof from July 1979). The Coach had the 1.4-litre (1,397 cc) A14 with 75 PS at 5,400 rpm and the van and truck the 1.2-litre (1,171 cc) A12 with 64 PS; the Coach moved to the 1.5-litre (1,487 cc) A15 with 83 PS in June 1980, and in June 1981 came the LD20 diesel and a 2-litre Z20 gasoline for the top SGX (the SGL Coach was first in Japan with a sunroof and swivelling captain's chairs). Van and Coach production ended in September 1985 with the C22, and the trucks continued until September 1988; on 3 February 1986 Nissan and Daewoo signed an agreement for Daewoo to build the Vanette in South Korea, the first sold on 3 May 1987.
Collectors Spotted in the Nissan Vanette Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Nissan Vanette yet — the First · Worldwide stamp is wide open.
Trims & Figures
5 published trims in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vanette A12 1.2 (64 PS) | 1978–1988 | 1.2 L Inline-4 | 63 hp | — | — | — | — | — |
| Vanette Coach A14 1.4 (75 PS) | 1978–1980 | 1.4 L Inline-4 | 74 hp | 83 lb-ft | — | — | — | — |
| Vanette Coach A15 1.5 (83 PS) | 1980–1985 | 1.5 L Inline-4 | 82 hp | 88 lb-ft | — | — | — | — |
| Vanette LD20 2.0 diesel | 1981–1988 | 2.0 L Inline-4 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Vanette Z20 2.0 SGX | 1981–1985 | 2.0 L Inline-4 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Owning one
We don’t estimate running costs for a car like this. What it costs depends on its condition, its specialist and how it is driven, and an average would mislead.
Owners’ builds
Nobody has claimed one yet.
Photographs
Nissan stopped building the C22 Vanette in Japan, but Malaysia kept it going for another 13 years — making it the longest-running model ever built there.
The luxury SGL version of the Vanette Coach was the first van in its class in Japan to offer a sunroof and swivelling captain's chairs in the back.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
Chevy pitched the Astro as the anti-minivan, telling buyers life was too big for one, while it rode on a rear-wheel-drive truck frame.
The IIHS rated the Astro Poor in a 1996 crash test, yet 2001–2004 Astros later had the lowest driver death rate of any US passenger vehicle.
The boxy, unglamorous Astro quietly posted one of the best real-world safety records in America: IIHS found 2001-2004 models had the fewest driver deaths per million vehicles of any passenger vehicle on US roads.
The third-generation Tourneo Connect, released in Europe in October 2021, is a rebadged fourth-generation Volkswagen Caddy, assembled by Volkswagen in Poland.
Ford beat the 25% "chicken tax" by importing the Transit Connect as a passenger van — rear windows and seats included, then stripped out and recycled once it landed in the US.
Ford spent years in federal court over the second-gen Transit Connect: in June 2019 the US won its appeal, and judges ruled the van was cargo-only — ending Ford's workaround for the 'chicken tax.'
GM sold a rebadged Nissan NV200 as the Chevy City Express for four years, then killed it in 2018, citing weak sales and the fact that its parts weren't even compatible with GM's own parts catalog.
Its name is a pun: "S-Cargo" means "Small Cargo" but sounds just like escargot — French for snail, the shape the whole van was built to resemble.