Move at a Snail’s Pace In This Hilarious Nissan S-Cargo for Sale
This car has a ton of character but not much else. And that’s enough.
I'm not sure you can find a cargo van with more character than the Nissan S-Cargo. Its name alone is one of the all-time greats, being a play on the French word for snail—"escargot"—because it looks like a snail and is a small cargo van. So any time an S-Cargo goes up for sale, like this one in Bushnell, Florida, I sit up in my chair and point, Leonardo DiCaprio meme-style.
This 1989 Nissan S-Cargo currently has 80,000 miles on the odometer and the seller is asking $10,500 for it. That might seem like a steep price for a cargo van that's only marginally bigger than a shoe, has manual wind-up windows and only two seats. However, what the S-Cargo lacks in creature comforts, it more than makes up for in charm. I mean, just look at it. How can anyone look at an S-Cargo and not instantly be in a better mood?
The Nissan S-Cargo was built from 1989-1991 and was only sold in the Japanese market, so it's right-hand drive. The seller doesn't list when this car was imported, nor how many owners it's had since, but the they do claim to have its maintenance records. Under the hood is a 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine and it's paired to a three-speed automatic, which drives the front wheels. This specific car also has optional air conditioning, the optional port hole windows, and a power locking/unlocking tailgate.
The Nissan S-Cargo might not seem like a sensible car for many people at first and ... that's because it isn't. Despite being a cargo van, it's a comically impractical vehicle. It has a back seat but it's pretty much useless for humans. And, despite having a tiny engine, its three-speed automatic makes it shockingly bad on gas. Combine surprisingly poor fuel economy with a tiny seven-gallon gas tank and you'll be stopping to refuel often. Its trunk isn't even very big, so if you're using it as an actual cargo van, you're going to need some really small cargo.
However, buying a Nissan S-Cargo for its sensible practicality is like watching watching The Simpsons for parental advice. You buy an S-Cargo because it's hilarious, it looks like a snail, and its name is stupid pun. It's such an absurd, silly vehicle that it's hard to not smile when you see it and that alone is reason to buy one.
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