I didn't realize it went away
Posted on 03/25/2012 1:16:55 AM PDT by derfel
Nissan Motor Company announced the return of the Datsun brand after 30 years, with plans to introduce a low-cost car in several emerging markets in 2014.
In a nod to the growing importance of developing markets, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn made the announcement Tuesday in Indonesia, one of three markets the new car line will debut.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Nissan shot itself in the foot taking away the Datsun brand in the mid-1980s, confusing potential car-buyers. Datsun was a very well-known brand, particularly for their racing heritage with the sportscar line. I am glad they brought the name back, although I don’t like the idea that the name is only being used in 3rd-world countries for their low end of the line. I own several vintage Datsun sportscars, one is a 1966 with over 150hp that leaves modern cars in the dust - still runs great even with modern gasoline having 10 percent ethanol. These cars are rugged.
Honeybee Ping !
Wow.. I am having flashbacks about the 240Z, then the 260Z, and then the 280Z.
Stopped keeping track after that. Nice cars, though.
I didn't realize it went away
Some of my fondest childhood memories are bouncing around in the back of my uncle’s Datsun pickup with my cousins one summer at our family’s camp up in the woods of northern PA...
I owned a 510. It was a great canyon racer! (til I wrecked it)
My first car was a Datsun. It served me well for about seven years. Some good memories with that car.
>I don’t like the idea that the name is only being used in >3rd-world countries
Agreed.Considering the popularity of Datsun in US, they should not limit its market in developing countries.
I remember the Datsun pickups. They were pretty good trucks. I currently own a 2004 Nissan Frontier and unfortunately it is a POS.
The 510 was one of the ‘classic’ auto models built.
In fact, I like it so much I intend to drive it until it stops running and then buy another one.
My dad had a 1973 Datsun four-speed sub-compact that he used to drive back and forth to the coal mines. Best damned car we ever owned...he traded it for a brand new 1980 Chevette and regretted it almost immediately.
There has never been an American sports car that could beat a Datsun. If a Corvette reached the speeds of the Datsun, it would spin out in the corners.
A Shelby Cobra could compete but was not a production vehicle, but a race car
The same is true of the British cars of the era.They could hold the road but lacked the speed.
The Datsun was but a precursor of what was to come. Accord, Corolla, Civic , Camry........ industry destroyers
YEAH!
Dump ALL this new Age BS! of the hippy+ generations!
I wish I had never sold mine.
Welcome to Obamaville.
I love small rear wheel drive cars. If Nissan built the 510 again, with updated electronics and engine it would sell like hot cakes.
The 510 was a favorite of rally drivers in the late 70’s/early 80’s. It was considered a near copy of the BMW 2002.
2005 was the beginning of a new generation of Frontiers. 2004 was the last of the prior generation. Your’s may very well be good. I just know my 2004 gets the worst fuel mileage of any small truck like that I’ve ever seen. The most I ever got light footing it on the interstate was 19mpg and it usually only gets around 18 at best and usually 17 or even 16 around town. With that kind of mileage, I should have just got a full size. It is 4x4 with 5 speed manual, but still, that’s terrible mileage. I had a 4x4 Ford Ranger 20 years ago that was the same format pickup and I got 23mpg on the interstate with it and never below 19 in town. The real problem with the 2004 Frontiers is they were geared way too low. At 65 to 70mph on the interstate, the V6 motor is turning right at 3,000rpms. If it was a 4 cyl, it would be ok, but that is rediculous for a V6. What’s even worse, if a vehicle is geared lower, you would think it would have better “get up and go”. Not so with mine. It is very underpowered for what it is. I had to spend $234 to fix a tailgate latch, some hoses went out in January that cost $468 to fix, and since December, the top end of the motor, somewhere in the valve train, is making a knocking noise when the motor is pulling, usually when I’m accelerating to shift gears to get to highway speed(It’s not spark knock). I’ve mostly owned Hondas and Fords for 29 years or so I’ve been driving and I’ve never had these problems before. My next vehicle is probably going to be some kind of crossover SUV, Subaru Forester, Hundiya Tucson, Ford Escape, etc.
Datsun’s are coming back?
Dat sun do rise in the East!
My first time in a car over 100mph was in a Datsun 240Z.
Mark
I had a ‘72 Z. What a car. Put Cyclone headers, konis, spoilers, three 40 DCOE Webers....poor man’s Ferrari.
It cost them over $200 million to switch their name from Datsun to Nissan. I could never figure out why. Neither word has any connotation in English: equally null, not positive, not negative, just random pairings of syllables, as far as Americans are concerned. Maybe the words have meanings to the Japanese.
If I remember correctly, the 240Z used to sell for about $3,500 in around 1972.
We had a 240Z in our early married years. My dh loved that car.
Just a little over $19,000 today by the inflation calculator.
I remember the Datsun pickups. They were pretty good trucks. I currently own a 2004 Nissan Frontier and unfortunately it is a POS.
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Think they were advertised as the “’Lil Hustler” or sumpthin’ similar—one of the first of the great smaller PUs—now gone from obamaland!
The story I heard, which I could never verify, is that the Datsun name was tied to military production during the war years (as was Mitsubishi and other manufacturers). Somebody decided that was hurting sales. However, by the mid-1980s I don't think anyone in the U.S.A. remembered or cared about the name. After all, Mitsubishi kept their name despite producing the Zero fighter-planes. The Datsun name didn't bother my dad when he bought a Datsun 510 in the 60's, despite having fought in WWII and being part of occupation forces in Tokyo. The war was long over.
The fact that "Volkswagen" means "People's Car" in German, and that name was given by Adolf Hitler, didn't seem to hurt their sales.
The DAT car, and the smaller DATson predate World War II (and the parent Nissan Corp.) by several decades and were not tied to military production.
Nice ride! If you get nostalgic, there are annual Datsun car shows in California every year, where examples of the '67 sedans pop up. Every July at Mt. Shasta in Northern California, and a couple shows in Southern California - Long Beach area and San Diego area, unsure of the dates. At Doheny State Beach show near San Diego, I've seen lots of these Datsun cars and trucks. Some early 1960s examples had a slot in the front bumper, where you inserted a crank to crankstart the car if your battery went dead.
I had a datsun pickup that broke on me on the old Maricopa Rd. 30 miles from nowhere. The water pump pulley snapped. I got out and rerouted the belts to the crankshaft and alternator and magic convection got me home to Chandler. Made it home without a water pump in 110 heat. Good little truck.
Sure they were. The Dot, later changed to Dat, was started in 1923. But during the war years, all the car makers were producing military vehicles, particularly Datsun. They were rolling out jeeps, trucks, artillery trailers, you name it. The allies bombed the crap out of the Japanese car company factories. And after the war, the U.S. helped them get back in production again in order to rebuild Japan (to help us fight the communists in Asia). Mitsubishi was more tied into aircraft and ship building, but Datsun made land vehicles.
I think the DATs go back to the teens.
No real idea about the name change. My perception at the time, unlike all those here with fond Datsun memories, was the name Datsun was tied to the old “made from beer cans” meme about Japanese products being inferior.
Datsun later shot themselves in the foot with execrable commercials. Awesome! GMAFB
Yes, they do. I was joking about the Dot thing. I have several books on their history. Goes back to 1911, Masujuro Hashimoto founded the Kwaishinsha Motor Car Works. His first car was exhibited in 1914. His financial backers names provided the initials for a name. The DAT firm in 1923 merged with Jitsuyo Jidosha Seizo (which means Practical Automobile Manufacturing), and became DAT Jidosha Seizo Company, Ltd. Doesn’t roll off the tongue, does it? In 1933 it was renamed Nissan Motor Company, Ltd. Between then and 1938, they had technical assistance from the American Graham-Paige Motor Car Company. So Americans had an influence on their cars before WWII. Much of the Nissan production facilities were in Manchuria and disappeared into the Russian hands after the war. The Japan facilities were taken over by the Americans, where they allowed resumption of manufacturing of Datsun trucks and cars. In 1949, they took the name Nissan Motor Company, Ltd.
A lot of fascinating history there. I’ve met Yutaka Katayama several times, he was the one who built Nissan Motor Corporation USA, he’s mostly known as Mr. K. He was the founder of the Sports Car Club of Japan in 1951, and simply loved sports cars. He is the main guy who pushed the 240Z and made it popular.
It's hard to see that as a reason to drop the name in the 80s. By that time Datsun has a reputation on four continents of building nearly unbreakable rally cars.
1966 East African Safari Rally. 88 cars entered, two of them Datsun 411s.
Nine cars finished, two of them Datsun 411s: 1st, 2d in class, 5th, 6th outright.
Class win by a 510 in 1969. Outright wins by Datsuns in 1970, 71, 73. By this stage 40 of the 85 entrants were Datsuns - Porsches, BMWs, Volvos being considered too fragile.
Then there was the 1971 U2 Trans-Am.
IN the 70s, the BMW2002 was known as the rich mans Datsun 510.
Ten years later Nissan Co threw that all away.
It's NOT GUILTY fer shore!
Wife had a Sentra that I had to drive for several months. Also borrowed one of those 280Z things for a while. Not like I have no personal experience with their cars.
And a hand built race car has absolutely nothing to do with factory produced street cars, but you knew that.
The Trans-Am 510s were very cool. Datsun sold a bunch of nice race bits for them. Can't do that now with the EPA BS. I seriously thought about buying and building my own street legal Trans-Am car.
Great history.
The relevant thing I recall from spending most of my life in Minnesota is that Japanese cars had inadequate batteries and were prone to rust in the harsh climate. But they got ahead of the curve, correcting those and other problems while American manufacturers disrespected their customers and their competition.
bttt
41 mpg 37 years ago.
Unfortnately, that, aka Sunny, aka 120Y was not a car that enchanced Datsun’s reputation.
It took awhile but I now see that there is actually a car in that picture.
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