Towards the end of the ’70s, Nissan Motors introduced two models into the Malaysian market, which I clearly remember — the Datsun 120Y, and the bigger brother Datsun 160J.

The 120Y gained fame as a miserly sipper of precious gasoline, and found widespread adoption by taxi drivers all over KL (especially).  On one occasion, I borrowed my cousin’s prized possession for a drive from Butterworth to Sungei Petani — guess what, the fuel indicator hardly moved from the “Full” position for the entire two-way journey.

On the other hand, on a second run of the same drive using a friend’s Datsun 160J saw it gulp down half a tankful before arrival at SP, requiring a top-up for the return leg (just to be safe).   Of course, the 160J had a 1600cc twin-carb engine versus the 120Y’s 1170cc single-carb one. 

Sipper or Guzzler? One had to decide.