Japanese Banana as First Car
You never forget your first love. That’s why we look back with enthusiastic car owners at their first ride. When René van Winden was 18 years old, he took over his father’s Datsun 120Y. The Datsun proved to be extremely loyal.
Your father bought a brand-new Datsun in 1977. Five years later, you took over the car for a fraction of the new price. Talk about luck?
“That car cost my father 12,750 guilders new. When he wanted to trade in the car for a Ford Escort after five years, he was offered 2,000 guilders. Nowadays, that’s an unprecedented depreciation for a car, but back then, that’s just how it went. Perhaps even more so with Japanese cars, which were just becoming somewhat respectable in those years. As a teenager, I worked for my father in the market garden, and with the money I earned, I could cough up those 2,000 guilders. I decided to take over the Datsun.
It turned out to be a golden move, because the Datsun remained loyal to you for years?
“It simply wouldn’t break down. I did regular maintenance myself. I have a background in automotive technology, so that went well for me. I didn’t have a car lift, but with the help of ramps, I got quite far. The rust was dealt with, as was a leaky head gasket. That was immediately the biggest repair. Furthermore, the exhaust needed replacement every two to three years. A pot just didn’t last longer than that. In terms of maintenance, the Japanese car was otherwise perfect.”
As a young student with your own car… you were quite the man. Could you afford all that?
“I’ll tell you this. That Datsun actually made me money over time. I lived in Pijnacker but studied with a couple of friends at the Automotive School in Apeldoorn. On the way to school, I picked up those guys in exchange for a contribution to fuel costs. That’s how I could keep the car running. In one of the photos, you can see us together in the trailer behind the car. I meticulously kept track of all expenses in a Shell booklet. Over time, the car even started to earn me money. I was hit twice with the Datsun. The left side was pretty crumpled as a result, but for both dents the car sustained, I received 750 guilders from the insurer.
The furthest trip was to Yugoslavia. Did that go smoothly?
“My wife Monique worked at a travel agency in The Hague and could arrange cheap tickets for the car train from Böckstein to Mallnitz in Austria. That was quite an adventure. We drove the entire return journey from Bled, Slovenia. We crossed the Alps in first gear. No issue at all, because everyone did that in their little car with fifty or sixty horsepower.”
What happened to the Datsun?
“After nine years of loyal service to us, the car was truly done for. My wife drove the car in its last years. When the brakes got stuck again and she had to drive home using the handbrake, we decided: we’re not doing this anymore. A junkyard picked up the car, and they even pressed 25 guilders into my hands. The Japanese car was succeeded by a Renault 11 Diesel with a commercial vehicle registration. Cheaper driving didn’t exist.”
What do you drive nowadays?
“I do my daily kilometers with a Tesla Model S. I love innovation and change. I’ve been driving electric since 2014. I encountered a lot of resistance because of that choice. There are four classics in my garage, and I realize this is blasphemy, but if I can ever provide them with an electric drivetrain for an affordable price, I’ll do it. I find the history and the legacy of a car beautiful, but that can also be preserved with a conversion electric. It is the future. It used to be perfect normal for cigarettes to be on the table at a birthday gathering, and now we find that bizarre. I predict a similar outcome for combustion engines.”
