You have to love the Japanese, they have made, and still do, some truly mental looking cars!. I am well aware of the existence of this particular oddity though. Have you seen a Nissan s-cargo?, look it up if you haven't. One of a group of retro inspired, and just plain weird (the s-cargo falls into the latter category) cars Nissan made around the same time. The figaro is probably the best known one, a micra based retro 2+2 coupe/soft top. The pao was a cool, retro, utilitarian looking hatchback with ribbed body panels, while the rasheen was a weird mini SUV type thing which had hints of hummer about it from some angles. The s-cargo though, really pushed the boat out for weirdness, a bizarre looking small van, clearly inspired, as it's name suggests, by the snail!. You see them crop up from time to time on ebay being sold for 'mobile advertising', along with the daihatsu midget, a tiny single seat (or 1+1 if it was the automatic) pick up.

The S-Cargo also has echoes of the 2CV van which is why I think the choice of name is really inspired. I always fancied one of my own, but changed my mind recently when I got up really close to one and found how small and fragile they are. I've been in a "concertina" accident where my Astra G estate was pushed into the rear of an 8-wheel tipper lorry. The car crumpled front and rear as it should and we got out with just seat belt injuries. In an S-Cargo I think we'd have been in a metal sandwich. I really like the look of them though and the same goes for other small oddities such as the Suzuki Lapin, Nissan Be1 and Subaru Sambar.