We found this Datsun 510 wagon for sale by an individual in Massena.  Although a compact, the 510 was the top of the Datsun line at that time.  What memory there is of it tells us that it had a 2.0 liter 4 cylinder with a 5 speed floor shifter.

David drove this car for four years and our most vivid memory of it was from a camping trip.  We towed a pop-up camper with this for at least three summers.  In retrospect, that probably wasn't a good idea, but it worked at the time.  For a week in July 1986, David did an teacher/industry exchange thing at IBM corporate headquarters in Albany, New York.

We stayed at a nice little family run campground in Mechanicsburg, about 30 minutes up the Northway, I-87.  We went there the week-end before he was to start.  As he went to set up the camper, he realized that the hitch was loose on the back of the car.  He soon realized that it wasn't the hitch but the bumper.  The bumper attached to the car with two brackets, each held on with four bolts.  Two of the bolts on each side had rusted off and the other two weren't far behind.

The Datsun dealer in Albany couldn't get the parts for over a week.  We called Parkview Auto in Watertown where our good friend Paul Ferry was Service Manager.  He could have the parts in two days.  We made arrangements with the campground owner to leave the camper there when we left Friday night.  When we got home, Marcia's dad offered the use of his Chevy pick-up to go back and get the camper.  We drove back down Saturday and retrieved it.  There was no electrical hook-up on the truck but we weren't long coming home.  That 3/4 ton diesel didn't even know the camper was there!  Better yet, we made the trip at 24 MPG.  This little Datsun got over 30 on the road, but only about 14 when you hitched onto the camper.  It was this experience that made us realize that maybe it was in our best interest to get a truck for towing and camping.  We made that purchase the next summer.