#DeadBrands

Today's UCOTD got me thinking -- what now-dead '90s brands do you miss?

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.

The Great Recession of 2009 wasn’t kind to many automakers, a few of whom were forced to jettison brands like the crew of a sinking boat heaving cargo overboard. With a decent level of consumer confidence and continued cheap gas, things are looking up — even as they’re looking down (January results were less than favorable for a few).

Imagine for a moment you could conjure the ability (and the funds) to revive a brand that’s recently departed this landscape. We have four from which you can select — and a brand new way for you to vote.

Last month, I brought to you a Question of the Day about resurrection; saving something from an untimely death. Naturally, we were talking about car brands — specifically, which dead brand you’d select to bring back to life in a modern world, with a modern lineup.

In the well-established TTAC interest of balance, fairness, and equality in all things, now we ask the opposite question: Which car brand deserved its death?

Lately, I’ve taken you back in time when it’s my turn to offer up a Question of the Day. Today is no exception, as we’re going to discuss the past and the future at the same time. Now, while your head is spinning and you reach for a VHS copy of Back to the Future, allow me to explain.

We’re going to discuss the car brand you’d like to resurrect, and the models it would offer today. Sound like fun?

I’ve gotta hand it to Edmunds. Whenever we at TTAC talk about a car produced in the last 15 or 20 years, I can usually find at least one photographic example of it within our media library. And it seems in the many, many years since TTAC switched to WordPress, we’ve not once needed a picture of a Daewoo Lanos …

… until now.

According to the aforementioned automotive site, Generation Z has a pretty odd taste in cars. Of the top 20 used vehicles bought by the 18-24 year demographic, the Daewoo Lanos — a car that’s been out of production since 2002 — topped the list.

I made my first small fortune in this business selling old Volvos.

I started way back in the mid-2000‘s when I got downright militant about outbidding anyone on an older rear-wheel drive Volvo. In one year, 2007 to be exact, I managed to buy at least one Volvo every year from 1983 all the way to 2004.