Awesome post PB; that's a whole lot of cool J-tin there!
Interestingly, actually, that most of those cars were common as the 1970s is when the British car industry fell into decline in Australia; BMC built the Leyland Mini until 1978 and the Moke until about 1981, Ford dropped the RWD Mark 2 Escort in 1980 and the Cortina in about 1981 in favour of Mazda-based items.
During the 1970s, Datsun forged ahead with the 1200 (the little ratty matt red 2-door sedan) and, at the opposite end of their range, the Datsun 260C luxury car (the 'lord knows' sedan!), while Toyota assembled the RT40 Corona in Australia to instant success. To my mind, the RT40 was the car that most looked like the Bellett; I used to see them ALL THE TIME; they'd catch my eye and I'd go "OH, A BELLETT... on no, wait. It's a Corona".
Now they're pretty rare though; massive attrition over the last 10 years or so.
You might like to know that forum member Antus had a Datsun 260C. I think it cost him about $500 and was not only the same colour as a tank, but about as strong and about as thirsty. He ran into more than one thing in it (mostly deliberately) and it stayed solid!
The Datsun 1200 2-door sedan is quite rare here; I'm not sure they were sold here at all - we had 4-door sedans, 2-door fastbacks and the ute. And perhaps a wagon, I don't remember. I have seen one or two of the 2-door sedans though.
The real common one is the ute; came out in about 1971 and was sold in Australia through to 1985 and in Japan until 1997! You can still buy a new one in South Africa....
Thanks for the share!
Cheers,
Dave
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