Browse over 9,000 car reviews

Trending News

Datsun is back

The Datsun 240Z enjoys cult status in Australia.

But everyone who's old enough knows you're talking about Datsun. Well, rejoice. The name is back.

After being flung as signage from the corporate rooftops in 1986, parent company Nissan says the name Datsun will again be plastered on some of its cars.

But the deal is the cars will be inexpensive and initially for emerging markets. Production of the boot badges starts in 2014 for Russia, Indonesia and India.

Cars started wearing the Datsun badge in 1933 - 19 years after the first DAT car was made - and endured through Australian market cars such as the 240Z, 120Y and 180B before parent company Nissan in 1981 (1986 in Australia) put on its own moniker.

The name change campaign lasted from 1982 to 1986. Datsun-badged vehicles had been progressively fitted with small Nissan and "Datsun by Nissan'' badges from the late 1970s.

The announcement that Datsun would join Nissan and Infiniti nameplates came this week from Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn. 

He says the resurrected name will strengthen Nissan's foothold in emerging markets by offering inexpensive, fuel-efficient vehicles.

But no specific models have been announced. Nissan in 2011 sold 60,000 cars in the expanding Indonesian market, and forecasts that to swell to 250,000 by 2014.

Nissan this week announced a new factory in Indonesia which will become one of Asia's biggest Nissan facilities. It will build some Datsun-branded cars.

Neil Dowling
Contributing Journalist
GoAutoMedia Cars have been the corner stone to Neil’s passion, beginning at pre-school age, through school but then pushed sideways while he studied accounting. It was rekindled when he started contributing to magazines including Bushdriver and then when he started a motoring section in Perth’s The Western Mail. He was then appointed as a finance writer for the evening Daily News, supplemented by writing its motoring column. He moved to The Sunday Times as finance editor and after a nine-year term, finally drove back into motoring when in 1998 he was asked to rebrand and restyle the newspaper’s motoring section, expanding it over 12 years from a two-page section to a 36-page lift-out. In 2010 he was selected to join News Ltd’s national motoring group Carsguide and covered national and international events, launches, news conferences and Car of the Year awards until November 2014 when he moved into freelancing, working for GoAuto, The West Australian, Western 4WDriver magazine, Bauer Media and as an online content writer for one of Australia’s biggest car groups. He has involved himself in all aspects including motorsport where he has competed in everything from motocross to motorkhanas and rallies including Targa West and the ARC Forest Rally. He loves all facets of the car industry, from design, manufacture, testing, marketing and even business structures and believes cars are one of the few high-volume consumables to combine a very high degree of engineering enlivened with an even higher degree of emotion from its consumers.
About Author
Trending News

Comments