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Datsun to make a comeback?

By Alborz Fallah |

If you’ve never driven a Datsun 1600 in the wet, you’ve never lived. The once mighty Datsun brand saw its demise in the late 1980s when Nissan decided to concentrate on its one-brand strategy to strengthen the Nissan name worldwide.

The Japanese giant spent a reported USD $500 million ($511 million) back in the early 80s to initially tell the world that Nissan and Datsun were the same company and eventually that it would no longer be using the Datsun name. Five years after the name change program ended in 1986, the Datsun brand was still better recognised in the United States than Nissan.

It’s no wonder then, that Nissan is considering bringing the name back to sell budget cars in emerging markets such as China and Russia. AutoExpress reports that Nissan is planning on extending its ownership of the Datsun name and to redesign its ageing logo. We can only guess that this means Nissan is serious about a revival.

In 2008 we saw Nissan show the world the Datsun XLink concept sports car, but given the global financial crisis that took place around the same time, nothing ever came of it.

Perhaps Nissan, which owns Infiniti as its premium brand, is looking at doing what Volkswagen does: having both premium and budget brands to push into as many markets as possible. In essence, Datsun may become what Seat is to Volkswagen and Dacia is to Renualt.

So, who wouldn’t love a Datsun 370z? Or maybe a Datsun version of the Micra? Or even better yet, a new Datsun 1600 rear-wheel drive sports car to compete with the upcoming Toyota FT-86?


 
  • supercujo

    What about a modern day reimagining of the 1600?

    Same size as a 1-series, RWD and a little boxy with a free revving turbo 4

    • Harry

      I agree with you entirely, and also affordable.

    • Tom

      Nissan made a big mistake by killing off the 200SX/Silvia. This could right that wrong.

      • Just

        Japs made a big mistake by killing off Leopard, Gloria, Cedric, Cefiro, Carina, Caldina, Sprinter, Chaser, Vista, Mirage,

        • Old Dog

          Ahh the cedric. my 1969 2300 supersix was one of the cars i’ve most enjoyed. from memory it cost me $700. was $1400 new, but that was as much as a brougham in its day. never sold many.

  • John West

    Would be good if Nissan did a world-wide comp to redesign the new logo.

  • Technofreak

    I have owned 4 Datsun 1600 over the years and every one of them brought me so much fun on race days :)
    I managed to grab one that was heavily modified by Rick & Neil Bates from parts they had for a group G rally car…it was the best :)

    I don’t think that kind of car could be replicated today. It would end up too soft and fat to be such simple fun.

  • Paul

    I think I owned a total of 7 Datsun 1600s ( I’d swear they were all the one car, if re-shelling counts) and only got rid of it when CAMS cancelled Group G. The sports-sedan levels of modification popular in the late 80s made legal road registration of Rally Cars near impossible (Rally-Rego was in it’s infancy and only available in ACT back then)

    CAMS canned Group G and busted 1600s back to stock standard spec (1600 motor and twin SUs) because no auto maker would enter the sport if they would routinely get their Group A / N asses kicked by some feral bridge ported 13B powered Datsun 1600..

    BTW Datsun had proper IRS back in 1968 and it took until VX series 2 for Holden to match it (ie. not wear out rear tires as a standard feature)

    Godzilla wasn’t bad for a dato either.

    • Mad Max

      Same for me. When I destroyed the 1600 ebgine I fitted a rotary from a wrecked RX3. My god was that one super quick car!!!!

    • Devil’s Advocate

      Paul, the 1600 didn’t have a “proper” IRS in the way that you are inferring. It was still a basic trailing arm rear suspension exactly like the early VS/VT/VX1 Commodore rear suspension (the VX2 only added a “control rod” to the system which actually made the VX2 “more advanced”, even though I wouldn’t say it was better). You are right though, it still took a long time for the locals, as well as most other mainstream imported manufacturers to catch up.
      The reason why the Datsun 1600 didn’t wear out tyres as quickly is because the geometry was much better than the Commodore’s. Also the different roles of the cars meant that the Commodore on average would carry more “weight” (towing, more passengers etc) which would have made the limitations of trailing arm IRS even more pronounced.

      • Paul

        The same Datsun rear end was used in everything from 1600s to 180B, 240k/z 260/280Z… none of these cars has a reputation for excessive rear tire wear.. Holden Commodore from VR to VY have a similar trailing arm rear end and it took Holden until VX2 (8 years) to make any attempt to patch the problem up. Datsun had it sussed out in 1968, Holden not until 2002! LOL

        Your statement that it’s caused by Commodores carrying more weight due to towing or more passengers just proves you’ve never owned one of these Commodores! (i.e. you don’t know what you are talking about!) I’ve owned both a VR and VX and covered over 350,000k. Neither of them had a tow bar and I don’t cart a large family around, yet they all eat the left rear tire! None of my Datsuns ever did that!

        • Devil’s Advocate

          As I said, the Datsun had much better geometry in it’s design, that is why it worked. The Commodore design most likely didn’t make adjustments to the geometry of the donor Opel Omega to compensate for the extra width/length of the Commodore. All of those things, as well as more weight, can make a differnce.
          As a side note my parents had an early 80s Mazda 929 when I was growing up and it never had issues with it’s trailing arm IRS and scrubbing tyres either. Plus mum and dad used to tow with it quite often (yes, it was very slow getting around when they did that)!
          It is just Holden’s substandard engineering of that assembly and how easily the rear end falls out of allignment with owners being too tight to align it often enough. Even then tyres never wore evenly.

          No, I have never owned a VR-VX Commodore. I am not that stupid…… ;-)

  • kejovi

    in the mid eighties all of our group had, at one time or another, 180B’s and 240K’s. simple to work on, fun to drive and really tough.

    • Bangel

      First car was 180b , did a 360 on a wet road one night , damn thing was flogged like a dog and still came back for more , tough motor , great suspension , nice copy of the 2002 rear end , body was crap .

  • Flabby Chap

    No matter what they do please please don’t rebadge Dacias or cr4ppy Renaults (Tiidas) as Datsuns.

    • Click here to cancel reply.

      Thats ok,they won’t be tiidas,they will be rebadged chinese brand cars.

  • ScottT

    I thought Nissan was a budget brand, how much more budget can they make Datsun?

    • Old Dog

      The problem nissan has is they need to sell sh#t boxes like the tiida, but also sell much more up market cars eg 370z, gtr etc. probably want some separation.

  • http://www.caradvice.com.au Goose

    Datsun never went away as such.They’ve always been with us as Nissan. In Australia I think the namechange occurred in 1983,not the late 80′s. Models that were then current simply got the new badges without any other changes outside their normal update phases. Datsuns were stylish cars in the 70′s,and often outsold the competition from the big ‘T’.After that,they lost the plot for a long time.

  • Sam

    So many manufacturers today have forgotten how to make affordable cars that drivers want like the Datsun 1600 SSS, one of the greatest cult cars in the late 60s and early 70s.

  • Yonny

    Damn, the Datto 1600 still looks good! Family had one, way back in the 1970′s. I still remember driving it when I got my P plates – the car would cruise comfortably at 160 km/h on the Hume (try doing that speed on the Hume today, wearing P plates, see how far you get).

    A modern-day Datsun 1600 sounds like a good idea.

  • Henry

    Here’s my Ideal Range:

    Coupe: A/SM/M trans, Turbo4/3.5 V6 Cheaper than the 370z but based on it

    Convertible: Based on the Coupe A/SM/M trans,Turbo4/3.5 V6 Cheaper than 370z roadster but based on it

    RWD Sedan: A/SM/M trans, turbo4/3.8V6/5.0V8 based on the new Infiniti G tweaked shoks and Chass sedan but alot cheaper

    SUV: A/M trans, turbo4/3.8V6/5.0V8 based on the Infiniti FX but cheaper…way cheaper

    Large Coupe: A/SM/M trans, turbo4/3.8V6TT based on GT-R but cheaper

    Small Ute: A/M trans, turbo4/Diesel4/3.8V6 based on navara but smaller and like a reborn Brumby or Jumbuck….

  • Simonsez

    You’ve certainly brought back some memories for me with that comment Alborz.The 1600 really was tricky in the wet if you backed off at all in a corner.Remember doing a 180* spin above Mt George (in NSW) at night in the wet and having to steer sliding backwards at 60 mph , looking over my shoulder, trying to dodge the guideposts by the light of my brake lights.
    It was pretty frightening at the time I’d have to admit.
    At a 40 year school re-union the very first thing someone said was reminding me of the time I insisted on re-doing a corner where I’d swapped ends in the wet because I’d eased up on the accelerator. For some reason he decided to “bail out” for the re-run. Probably sounds silly now but seemed to make sense at the time.Fantastic brakes , outstanding fuel economy and an ultra high 3rd gear that only made sense going up Mountain Straight at Bathurst.

  • Kieran

    The Datsun 1600 was a great car and huge fun to drive – a rally driver’s favourite.
    It had proper IRS back in 1970 (approx) and as a result its handling was 30 years ahead of its competitors.

    I’d like to see a modern version of it with rear wheel drive, turbo 4 and full-size spare (not awful runflats like BMW 1 series).

  • Old Dog

    Since we’re all going on a trip down the dato 1600 memory lane, an interesting photo i found once trawling the national archives was some photos of datsun 1600′s being put together on the same production line as VW kombies. (Clayton, victoria).

    • http://www.caradvice.com.au Goose

      I’m quite sure that Kombi was a VW. I don’t think it was a Nissan. Nissan did have a van at some stage,but the Kombi was fully done by VeeDub.

      • Old Dog

        thats why it was an interesting photo. the interesting is both vehicles were built around the world in knock down form.

        • Old Dog

          just checked, it was actually a vw beetle and a vw type3.

          State Library Victoria:
          http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictures/0/0/1/im/pi001254.jpg

        • Mad Max

          Old dog, you are 100% correct. The Clayton plant was built by VW and they did in fact build VW’s and Datsuns in the same plant towards the end of VW’s ownership and the time when Datsun purchased the plant. An interesting fact was that within the Clayton plant was a second production line that was used to assemble and paint Volvo’s. Nissan continued the contract with Volvo right up to the early 1990′s. Most of the Volvo 240 series sold in Australia were put together at Nissan’s Clayton plant!

  • Devil’s Advocate

    Ah, the old Datsun 200B. A 180B with 20 more mistakes… The good old 1600 was so far ahead of anything else at the time.

  • http://test.com E2e

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  • Test

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