Datsun Cablight

The Datsun Cablight was a light truck and van built by Nissan and sold under the Datsun brand in Japan from 1958 until 1968, when it was renamed the Cabstar. Launched in August 1958 as a semi cab-over design, it put a simple cab and a slightly longer load bed on the chassis and side-valve four-cylinder engine of the bonnet-type Datsun truck, a recipe copied from the Toyota Toyoace, which had already succeeded in the small truck market. Its 860 cc engine was smaller and older than the Toyoace's, and early sales were poor. The second generation of 1961 gained an overhead-valve 1,046 cc four in 1962, and the third generation of 1964 introduced the first sliding rear doors on a Japanese-made van and coach, with a 1,136 cc engine from 1966. It was replaced by the Cabstar in March 1968.