Datsun is Dead Again

Datsun is dead again and the likelihood of you having any emotions tied to the matter hinges upon whether or not you were driving prior to the 1990s. Formerly a catch-all brand for Nissan’s exports, the automaker eventually decided to unify its products under a single name when Ronald Reagan was in the White House and Max Headroom was talking up the merits of New Coke on cathode-ray tubed televisions.

While the Datsun moniker would grace the odd pickup on the Japanese domestic market after the 1980s, Nissan planned a compressive relaunch of the brand in 2013. The following year, Datsun became a low-cost car marque for Indonesia, Nepal, South Africa, India, and Russia. A few years later, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Lebanon were added to the brand’s list of markets. However, Datsun had announced a retreat from Indonesia and Russia in 2019 and has since confirmed that it will be halting production in India later this year — effectively ending Datsun’s existence once again.

Up until 1986, just about everything Nissan exported to the United States carried the Datsun name. The moniker can be traced back to the 1920s, when the business was known as DAT Motors, and would not become Nissan until the brand had reached true zaibatsu status and started focusing on building larger, American-style vehicles in the late 1930s. While the Datsun name stuck around, it gradually became known for the smaller non-truck models before shipping out its first batch of exports to the United States in 1958.

By this time, the automaker’s products had taken a more European approach to automobiles due to its relationship with the Austin — specifically in relation to the Datsun 1000 (210). By the 1960s, the company was establishing factories around the world to help with its worldwide expansion. Nissan elected to begin phasing out the Datsun name in 1981 after leadership decided it would be easier to market products globally under a single banner.

Ironically, the Datsun name would remain more recognizable for several years in the U.S. — though not for a lack of effort. During those interim years, Nissan launched an extensive ad campaign to explain the rebranding. Cars even left the factory with small Nissan badges for a few years to help ease the public into the transition. But this arguably made things even more confusing. New models (e.g. Sentra) were often given the Nissan prefix while older cars had a better chance of sticking around for a few years before officially becoming Nissan products. This often resulted in lots full of vehicles that were labeled as Datsun, Nissan, or “Datsun by Nissan.”

In this way, Nissan kind of became the New Coke of automakers. Much in the way Coca-Cola got spooked by Pepsi, Datsun became worried that Honda and Toyota had gained a competitive advantage by nature of having a single name for all regions. Swapping to the Nissan badge is estimated to have cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars. Despite delivering increasingly good products, consumers became confused and assumed the change had been made out of desperation — again, mimicking what happened with New Coke.

The only difference is that New Coke became Coke II (which I recall tasting great) before being discontinued in 2002, whereas Datsun stayed Nissan until it reemerged as a new subsidiary in 2013.

Production at the Renault-Nissan plant in Chennai, India, has officially ended. That means the Renault-based Datsun Go has followed the AvtoVAZ-built Datsun mi-Do (Lada Kalina) and on-Do (Lada Granta) into oblivion. Though there are conflicting reports about exactly when individual Go models were discontinued. Autocar India reported that production had all but ended at the start of 2021, with the Redi-Go being the final vehicle to get the ax. Considering the manufacturer didn’t even reach 5,000 deliveries for the market last year, it’s easy to see why Nissan pulled out.

The entire industry has also been prioritizing higher-margin (more expensive) vehicles in a bid to improve profitability during an inflationary period — or at least until it sees customers getting tired of paying more for vehicles. Though Nissan left its official statement pretty basic.

“As part of Nissan’s global transformation strategy, the company is focusing on core models and segments that bring the most benefit to customers, dealer partners and the business. Production of the Datsun Redigo has ceased at the Chennai plant,” it explained.

Datsun customers will allegedly be taken care of. They’ll simply have to get their vehicles serviced at Nissan dealerships, with the company confirming that existing warranties will be honored.

“We can reassure all existing and future Datsun owners that customer satisfaction remains our priority, and we will continue to provide the highest levels of aftersales service, parts availability and warranty support from our national dealership network,” stated the automaker.

[Images: Nissan; S.Candide/Shutterstock]