Good morning! Today I’m taking a little personal trip down memory lane, since I happened to have found vehicles very similar to ones I owned back in the ’90s. These are both considerably more expensive than the ones I had, but they’re also in better condition – in one case, a lot better.
Yesterday we looked at a couple of GM vehicles with their engines in the wrong end. I figured the Corvair was going to win, and I was right. Everybody seems to love a good Corvair, especially one with two doors and a manual transmission, and that definitely looks like a good one.
I have to agree. I have a thing for Fieros as well, but if that one was my choice, I think I’d talk them down a lot, or keep shopping. It’s mechanically fine, but it looks awful. However, I think the dark areas are just the plastic showing through thin spots in the paint, not mildew, as some of you thought.
I spent most of the 1990s absolutely flat broke, and with no credit to speak of, for reasons that were only partly my fault. As a result, I bought cheap crappy cars for cash, drove them until something catastrophic happened, and then bought something else. I went through at least a dozen cars between 1994 and 1998. One was a 1984 Honda Accord, and another was a 1983 Nissan/Datsun 720 pickup. Maybe that’s why these caught my eye today. Let’s check them out.
1985 Honda Accord – $3,200
Engine/drivetrain: 1.8-liter overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Beaverton, OR
Odometer reading: 140,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
In 1995, I paid $800 for a 1984 Accord that looked just like this one, except it was maroon. It was rusty, but it was the best-running car I found by far, so I chose to live with the rust. A year and a half later, a rear brake line rusted through, and I nearly rear-ended someone. I carefully drove it to a shop to have the brake line replaced, and they couldn’t even put it on a lift, because the rocker panels were so rotted out. I reluctantly took it to the junkyard and got $100 for it. It ran flawlessly on the way there.
This one runs very well, too, it sounds like. This generation of Accord had a 1.8-liter four, with Honda’s CVCC design featuring three valves per cylinder, and an unusual three-barrel carburetor. It drives the front wheels through a slick-shifting five-speed manual. The engine and transmission are in great shape, and the radiator is new. It does have a leak in the power steering system that should be addressed, but until you get it fixed, you can just keep adding fluid. It wouldn’t be the first time someone just kept feeding a car vital fluids instead of fixing something.
This is a little fancier than my Accord was; I think mine had cruise control as well, but I know it had crank windows. It’s in good shape inside, and it has a decent aftermarket stereo. The seller says neither the heat nor the air conditioning works, but the fan still blows. I have a feeling that it’s a problem with the controls, rather than both the heater core and A/C system failing at once. That’s the first thing I’d check, anyway.
The seller describes it as having “very little rust,” which isn’t none, but I doubt there has been a rust-free second-generation Accord in decades. The paint is nice and shiny still, and except for a little blemish above one headlight, I don’t see anything wrong with it at all.
1985 Nissan 720 Pickup – $2,500
Engine/drivetrain: 2.4-liter overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, RWD
Location: San Jose, CA
Odometer reading: 125,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
In 1994, in Duluth, Minnesota, in the dead of winter, I found mysef in need of a new car, after doing something really stupid to a VW Golf that I really liked. I went to a used car lot on a bitterly cold day and asked what they had for cheap. The salesman directed me to an enormous Oldsmobile Toronado that wouldn’t start. While he was finding a set of jumper cables, I asked about a beat-up little blue Datsun pickup that was half-buried in the snow. He gave me the keys, I got in, and it started up on the first try. I put it in gear, and it pulled itself out of the snowbank like it wasn’t even there. I bought it on the spot.
The earliest 720 series trucks were powered by the old L-series engine, but this one (like mine) uses the newer NAPS-Z four-cylinder, with two spark plugs per cylinder. Annoyingly, for anyone trying to do a tune-up on one, the spark plugs on the intake side of the head are different from the plugs on the exhaust side. Lucky for you, this one just had a tune-up, along with a new starter, radiator, and shocks all around. It runs and drives great.
This is a fancier 720 than mine was, with cloth bucket seats and a center armrest. I made do with a blue vinyl bench seat. It’s in decent shape, but the driver’s seat upholstery is dirty, and it looks like the door pull is missing on the passenger’s side. This is the only view of the interior we get, so I can’t give you any more information than that.
It’s not pretty outside; it’s a patchwork of junkyard replacement panels, and not all of them are straight anymore, either. But at least it’s not rusty, and it has a nice bedliner. The windshield has a pretty big spiderweb crack in it, but the seller says they’re in the process of getting it replaced, and it will be taken care of before sale.
I don’t miss being broke and having to drive shitty cars, but I do feel like those days were training for this job, in a way. It gave me an appreciation for simple, cheap machines and for those who work hard to keep them on the road, whether out of necessity or stubbornness. These two have quite a lot of life left in them, if you treat them right, and I can tell you from experience that they’re both pretty good machines to drive. Which one grabs you?
Both! I’m glad you had a both option today since these are both good…I still would have picked the Honda though…it sure is lovely especially in blue…I love it. I used to have 2 3rd gen Accords (pop-up lights!) and they were a blast to drive w/ stick.
That truck is great too- I miss (we all do) all the ol’ small trucks like this. I’d finish painting this one that nice light blue. It’s nice it has somewhat lower miles and the better engine
This is still what I think of when I think of what an Accord looks like.
Yep, I guess I’m almost not young. 😀
No thanks on the Frankenissan.
I bought a 720 a few weeks back. It was a rusty non runner that spent 2 years parked next to a hedge.
I only swapped in a new battery and cleaned the interior and that thing runs like a champ (although it’s a diesel).
I didn’t even changed the fluids! It already made a shit ton of yard runs since I’m taking car of the garden right now. It’s a tough, slow, honest work truck. It’ll get you there, but in no hurry.
I love that little fucker.
Get the Nissan and have a rattle can party.
720 is a neat little truck coiyld be useful too
I’ll take the not-quite-blank-canvas of a truck.
I learned to drive in the 84 Accord just like that. But with an automatic. If you saw it in person today, you would be amazed at how small those cars were. Not at all roomy inside. Even the 1990+ was much bigger and roomier feeling.
It’s been my luck that a power steering leak means it probably needs a new rack. Make mine the mismatched 720.
I guess I was fortunate, I spent the 90s driving a good 84 Jetta. I’m leaning Accord,, just because Beaverton is closer and my mom had an 84 Accord for a while
♫ I guess that I don’t need that, though
Now you’re just some auto that I used to own ♫
I had an 83 Accord hatchback. Terrific driving car; I was sold on this one until I saw the truck. Nissan or both for me.
I would buy that Nissan just for the seats
My first car was my mom’s old 84 accord in the late ninties… I think I was supposed to give my mom 500 for it, but she never took the cash and after driving it for a year or so I bought a wrecked 89 crx and gave it back. Had swapped on a set of 14″ bmw wheels and put a cheap stereo in it by then… Kind of a shockingly solid car for it’s age/mileage/amount of abuse it took from me as a kid. I’d go with the pickup though, would be more fun.
Definitely a both. If I had to choose a single answer I’d choose the Honda, simply because they’re rarer to see (there are still numerous 720’s running around my neck of the woods) and I already have an old import compact pickup in the stable.
Hooray! It’s a Both day!
Otherwise I’d have to go Honda here. That car’s in unexpectedly good shape.
I voted both purely because of the plaid seats in the Nissan. Otherwise I agree, the Accord is amazing condition. I honestly do not know the last time I even saw one.
A friend’s mom had an Accord of that vintage back in the day. One of the few times I drove it, it may have saved my life.
And you can’t say no to the utility of a small pickup.
Today was a Both day for me. The perfect beater garage.
An early 80s Accord is the only car I’ve ever driven on an actual racetrack—albeit briefly. Riding out in the boonies one Sunday in my gf’s car, she needed a pit stop, so we tried the local podunk roundy-round track. Gates open, but no one visible, so I did a couple laps before she yelled she REALLY needed that bathroom.
Voted for the truck, tho
Gimme the Accord!! I had this exact car, same year, color, and options as my 2nd car. I loved that car and miss it. It was totaled by someone turning left in front of me.
the 720 almost had me. California equals no rust in my mind, then I saw it and realized 2wd with a salvage title. It will likely stay in a temperate climate and end up with someone not concerned with the title. but that is not me. It likely will run and drive as long as the honda though. both are kind of like Roaches, they seem to be unkillable.
Both for me! I have never driven an ’80s Accord or Nissan 720, but these both look like affable little sidekicks. Great start for a three-car garage; now we just need something “fast” to round it out!
There is something charming about a cheap car that will keep doing its job. For most of my 20s, I would check CL religiously for something in the $1k-2k range in case my daily died. Over that time, I got pretty lucky (and had help from my family), scored some good deals, did my own maintenance, and think I saved a lot compared to my friends who financed/leased Corollas, Civics, and RAV4s. The two best cars of that era were a 2002 Mazda Protege5, and BMW 318ti.