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.
Lead trim: Vanette Coach SC / GL A15 1.5 (67 PS) · up to 109 hp
Nissan VanetteC22 · 1985–2010
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Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Nissan Vanette 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.
FactNissan 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 second-generation C22 Vanette (1985–1994; also the Nissan Largo, Nissan Nomad in Australia, Nissan Ichi Van in Mexico, Daewoo Vanette in South Korea and Ashok Leyland Dost in India) was a Coach range in Japan of five trims with four engine options: the SC and GL (5–6 and 8–9 seats, 1.5-litre A15 at 67 PS or 2-litre LD20.II diesel at 67 PS, manual only), the SGL with automatic option, high roof, collapsible and rotatable seats and rear air conditioning on a longer 4,050 mm body (with a Panorama Roof glass sunroof) and the top SGL Excel (eight seats, 2-litre Z20S petrol or LD20.II diesel, later CA20) with colour-coded bumpers, chrome trim, central locking, glass roof and a centre-console cooler box. Tan Chong Motor Assemblies built it in Malaysia from 1997 to 2010 — the longest-running model built there, in truck and van forms with a 1.5-litre 82 PS pushrod A15 — and the Philippines sold the Vanette Grand coach until the end of 1999 with only the Z20. Daewoo built it in South Korea from 1986 to 1992 with a poorly performing Isuzu 2.2-litre diesel, and an enlarged version like the US Nissan Van was sold in Japan as the Largo until the Serena-based Largo of 1992.
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
4 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 (Malaysia) A15 1.5 pushrod (82 PS) | 1997–2010 | 1.5 L Inline-4 | 81 hp | — | — | — | — | — |
| Vanette Coach LD20.II 2.0 diesel (67 PS) | 1985–1994 | 2.0 L Inline-4 | 66 hp | 94 lb-ft | — | — | — | — |
| Vanette Coach SC / GL A15 1.5 (67 PS) | 1985–1994 | 1.5 L Inline-4 | 66 hp | — | — | — | — | — |
| Vanette Coach SGL Excel Z20S 2.0 | 1985–1994 | 2.0 L Inline-4 | 109 hp | 119 lb-ft | — | — | — | — |
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.