Datsun To Use Lada Platform In The Quest For $3,000 Pricetag

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

It’s hard enough to find a decent used car for $3,000. Nissan’s new line of Datsun cars are being designed in mind with a starting price of $3,000, and there’s only one way to make sure the cars come in at such a rock-bottom sticker – use a pre-existing low-cost platform.

The first Datsuns will be based off the Lada Kalina. Renault-Nissan recently took control of AutoVAZ, Lada’s parent company, enabling the transfer of technology between the two marques, as well as the utilization of production facilities in Russia. CEO Carlos Ghosn is betting big on Russia, and both Datsun and Lada are part of his plans for expansion in what is set to become Europe’s largest car market by the end of the decade.

Lada cars will ostensibly positioned above their Datsun brethren, something unthinkable in the pre-globalization era. Remarks by Nissan’s Colin Dodge appeared to be trying to put a fair amount of distance between Lada and Datsun, with Dodge telling Automotive News Europe

The cars will use a modular platform with shared elements such as braking and fuel systems as well as steering mechanicals, Dodge said. However, he stressed that Datsuns would differ visually from the Russian subcompact. “The upper body and interior will be completely different, You won’t notice it as a Lada,”

Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

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  • MrWhopee MrWhopee on Jan 02, 2013

    The B13 Sentra certainly would be a better base for Datsuns, I think. Though the famous Lada, the Zhiguli, does have some eerie resemblance to a Datsun 510, if you want to go the classic way.

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    • Windsormarxist Windsormarxist on Jan 03, 2013

      @th009 The reason Datsun-Lada won't go for the Tsuru or Lada 2101/Riva as the base is that both platforms are too expensive to produce- too many welds, bolts etc. A modern car takes far less time to go down the assembly line than one from 1991, let alone 1966. Thus, the Kalina, which although not modern by Euro/US standards is much easier and cheaper to make than its predecessor the Samara- let alone the '66 Fiat based cars. It is a shame though that Datsun won't just churn out mid 70s B210's with honeycomb hubcaps. After all, nothing says $3000 car like a brown 70s Datsun without AC and an odd smelling vinyl interior. Datsun saves.

  • Speedlaw Speedlaw on Jan 04, 2013

    The 4-9k new car would be a good seller. Try to find a clean used car for that price point....not happening. You want it for your kid, and compete with all those folks who "just need a car to get to (crappily paid) work". Meanwhile, the auto industry has no incentive to sell them. Given that the base cost to make a car is x, and to sell that car with options does not cost too much more to make. If it costs 10k to make a 23k retail car, and 15k to make a 35k retail car, there's no incentive to try to sell a car for less. The economics don't work for the maker. The cheap car will also take the space of the expensive car. There's a reason every car maker wants to make the next three series....18k to make, 58k retail. I'm guessing here as to numbers, but it has been known for years that the cost of production for a Pinto vs a Lincoln isn't nearly as wide as the retail spread.

  • Phxmotor Phxmotor on Jan 05, 2013

    ho boy... it just rattles the chaines of the industry pundits to see the inevitable...and logical... end... complete and utter end... to all the sillyness and posturing of the industry. Once you have antilock brakes and airbags... laid on top of fuel injection and electronic igniion.. what do you really have? juat more pointless styling year after year after year. Blutooth and etc notwithstanding, its all pretty much redundancy once the backbone technologies are in place... and paid for. The Fiat 124...beefed up in the Lada... does just fine in unforgiving environments... and a plethora of ...again...fully paid for and reliable engines (Suzukis 3cyl 1.0 is a perfect example...amongst manymanyothers)... add all these together...mix in a little high quality low cost labor...treat them like adults... make sure upper mgt and scumbag "investors" don't get a chance to skim off what they might feel entitled to and BOOM... you've got the recipie for the car of the future. Namely: a very...very... low cost and high quality vehicle that doesnt hit the top of the charts in ANY catagory... but ... it will last 300,000 miles with minimal repairs... and take all the abuse that can be handed it. That...is... the... car of the future. And it will have the following and the admiration of people from all over the world.And it will be made all over the world. And admired and loved all over the world. The niche players? The supposed "drivers cars"?... yep... they will survive as items to be aspired to by many ... and mocked by even more... because... for all their better qualities they just wont be all that much better... or be all that much more fun to drive... than this car of the future made using 15 year old technology...and 15 year old technology isnt all that bad. My LS400 and Impreza and Crown Vic and a dozen others attest too that obvious face...each...and...every...day.

  • Phxmotor Phxmotor on Jan 06, 2013

    Thx Now if someone can somehow help address...somehow...the following: In 1978 I invented and patented an embedded software that EPA tests proved a 3.4% improvement to gas milage. I worked with Motorola and Ford to have it integrated into 1st the Tempo in 1984... and then the Taurus in 1986. But: the EPA made a rule against it! The long and short of it? It is control strategy built into all mfgrs EEC systems that improves A/C efficiency by over 80%. Problem? The EPA would not regognize inprovements to CAFE numbers that result from inprovements to A/C. A bit of a real world Catch-22. A formal petition to EPA thru the offices of senators Goldwater and Garn received...in writing from the administrator of EPA... that while they...the EPA... recognized the shortcoming in their CAFE test regulations, they had no intention of letting those improvements be part of CAFE numbers. Joseph Heller was right in ways he never imagined. 4 years of living at the YMCA in downtown Detroit, a huge investment on my part, success in getting it integrated into EEC systems and nothing to show for it except a $15,000 contract with Ford for a low freon indicator. A nice bone thrown to me from sympathetic Ford engineers. The patent was rendered moot. Yet run the overall savings since 1984 and the number becomes astounding. If anyone knows how to confront the EPA about this I'm open to suggestions. The patent laws have all long past and prevent recorse thru that avenue, but if anyone has connections with any public interest firm that in search of a cause concerning such abuse of technocrats then I am truly interested in speaking with them. The industry is a behemouth. An exhausting labyrinth when combined with the equally convoluted asylum that the EPA has become. You should have heard what Mr. Goldwater said when he was rebuffed so flippantly. It's all pretty funny when one has the right sense of humor.

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