Nissan Fitted a Tiny Hook, and Takeaway Customers Knew Exactly What to Do With It

The Nissan curry hook was a dashboard bag hook that appeared in the Almera in March 1996. Intended to hold handbags and shopping bags upright, it earned its nickname when motoring journalists spotted its usefulness for carrying takeaway food. 

A bag of takeaway food is a surprisingly awkward passenger. Leave it on the seat and it leans into the first corner. Put it in the footwell and there is usually just enough room for it to fall over. By the time the car reaches home, one container has escaped and something fragrant is soaking into the paper bag.

The Almera offered a small hook.

It was hardly the sort of feature that would bring crowds to a motor-show stand. Yet its usefulness needed no demonstration beyond hanging a bag from it. The handles stayed up, the contents had a better chance of staying where they belonged, and the driver could concentrate on getting home.

The name helped. “Bag hook” sounds like something buried near the end of an equipment list. “Curry hook” immediately suggests a Friday evening, a warm car and the faint anxiety of hearing containers shift beside you.

It also suited the Almera’s quietly practical cabin. The RAC’s review describes a retractable hook alongside briefcase and umbrella holders and concealed storage compartments. Someone had clearly spent time thinking about the things people actually brought into a family car. 

There is a particular pleasure in discovering that sort of detail after buying a car. A compartment happens to fit the object that has been sliding around for months. A hook turns out to have a purpose beyond catching a sleeve. Ownership becomes a little easier, without a visit to the settings menu.

Nissan was sufficiently fond of the hook to celebrate its twentieth anniversary in 2016. By then, its account noted, bag hooks had migrated into the luggage compartments of models including the Qashqai and X-Trail. The location had changed, but the basic idea remained useful. 

Of course, hanging up a bag cannot rescue a badly sealed container, and no small cabin fitting deserves to be treated like a cargo anchor. There are limits to what a hook can achieve.

Still, the Almera found a wonderfully modest way to earn its keep. Long after engine specifications and trim names have blurred together, people remember the little fitting that helped them bring dinner home.