• Price: £2350
• Year: 1984
• Mileage: 16,000
• Condition: Could use a little work but usable
• See the ad: eBay
It seems apt in the early days of our departure from a trading union to consider arrivals. And this car’s story is one of just such an arrival. If you arrive in a new country, perhaps with not much to your name, you’re going to need transport while you seek and build your fortune. During the 1980s, many people in this position would have looked to a Datsun Sunny, given their easy availability, low price as a second-hand car, and reliability.
This particular Sunny had a different fate. Someone, such as we’ve suggested above, bought this car as a reminder of his roots when he’d made his fortune. The vendor recalls collecting it from a mansion, parked amid the owner’s other toys from Rolls-Royce, Bentley and more. He wanted a nice Sunny to ensure he never forgot his roots, and this car – bearing Datsun and Nissan badging – was exactly that.
This is the sort of rags to riches with remembrance tale we like to see at the Festival of the Unexceptional. Indeed we’ve already given the top award to a Sunny, a car that is perfectly in the spirit of our Concours de l’Ordinnaire.
This Sunny may need a little work to bring it up to standard – the wings don’t quite match the brown paint and there’s some poor finish on the bootlid – but its mileage, overall condition and story make it a perfect entrant for the Concours de l’Ordinaire once that work is completed. Original dealer plates only reinforce this car’s status as a part of history, and would you get a load of those mudflaps.
Its vendor found themselves in the position many of us end up in – too many cars and too little space. He’d driven the Sunny all of eight miles since 2018, so passed the baton and ignition keys to someone who’ll use and enjoy it more. It sold for £2350.
A judge’s guide to preparing an entry for Hagerty’s Festival of the Unexceptional
