Land of the rising Datsun

[ChiprZ]

Herald Sun Cars Guide- 2nd June 2006

 

Datsun is not dead. Nissan has no immediate plans to dust off the name-plate it shelved more than 20 years ago, but admits the Datsun name could be used in the future. The Japanese carmaker changed the name of its brand from Datsun to Nissan in 1983. If Nissan does reinstate the name, it will probably be used as a youth brand in the US. Toyota has introduced the Scion brand to the US, an arm of the Japanese carmaker aimed at attracting young people who would have not considered a Toyota. Nissan has investigated launching a youth brand using the Datsun name, but decided it is not needed at the moment. "We have less of an issue in terms of the average age of our car buyers (than Toyota)," Nissan global communications vice-president Simon Sproule says. "We are not struggling to attract younger buyers. Frankly at the moment we are still developing the Nissan brand. "We have only just started repairing the Infiniti brand, so to go off and start a new brand with the enormous costs that entails with dealers, brand awareness et cetera; it is not in our plans right now."

Infiniti is the luxury arm of Nissan set up in the US in 1989 in a similar way to Toyota's Lexus luxury brand. Infiniti struggled as Nissan came close to shutting down in the mid-90s, mired in debt, until Carlos Ghosn led the company back to profitability. The Datsun brand generates mixed feelings in Australia. Cars such as the 1600 and 240Z have cult status, but others such as the 120Y (120 why?) and 200B (180B with 20 more mistakes) are ridiculed.

Sproule says there are mixed feelings about the brand name Datsun around the world. "Any brand carries good and bad baggage," he says. "Some people get very misty-eyed and say, 'Oh, remember when I had a 510 (Datsun 1600) and I thought it was the best car I ever had and why did those idiots change it to Nissan?' "Other people think Datsun is completely irrelevant. They have no knowledge of the brand."

"If we were going to use a brand like Datsun, you bet we would do research first." The most appropriate model that Nissan could use to launch a youth brand is the Cube. The next version of the cool, boxy Japanese model will be engineered so it can be sold around the world.