datsuns . datsun industry automotive fate discontinued 1986 re launched 2013 founded 1931 ; 85 years ago 1931 2013 ; 3 years ago 2013 headquarters japan key people yoshisuke ayukawa nissan founder katsuji kawamata nissan president yutaka katayama nissan usa president products automobiles light trucks parent nissan website datsun.com datsun is an automobile brand owned by nissan . datsun s original production run began in 1931 . from 1958 to 1986 only vehicles exported by nissan were identified as datsun . by 1986 nissan had phased out the datsun name but re launched it in 2013 as the brand for low cost vehicles manufactured for emerging markets . in 1931 dat motorcar co. chose to name its new small car datson a name which indicated the new car s smaller size when compared to the dat s larger vehicle already in production . when nissan took control of dat in 1934 the name datson was changed to datsun because son also means loss son in japanese and also to honor the sun depicted in the national flag . 1 nissan phased out the datsun brand in march 1986 . the datsun name is most famous according to whom for the 510 fairlady roadsters and later the fairlady 240z coupes . contents 1 history 1.1 origin of datsun 1.2 datsun in the american market 1.3 rebranding 1.4 datsun truck 2 re launch 2.1 current models 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit origin of datsun edit further information nissan before the datsun brand name came into being an automobile named the dat car was built in 1914 by the kwaishinsha motorcar works kaishin jid sha k j in the azabu hiroo district in tokyo . the new car s name was an acronym of the surnames of the following company partners kenjir den den kenjir rokur aoyama aoyama rokur meitar takeuchi takeuchi meitar . 2 the firm was renamed kwaishinsha motorcar co. in 1918 seven years after their establishment and again in 1925 to dat motorcar co. dat motors constructed trucks in addition to the dat passenger cars . in fact their output focused on trucks since there was almost no consumer market for passenger cars at the time . beginning in 1918 the first dat trucks were assembled for the military market . the low demand from the military market during the 1920s forced dat to consider merging with other automotive industries . in 1926 the tokyo based dat motors merged with the osaka based jitsuyo jidosha co. ltd. jitsuy jid sha seiz kabushiki gaisha also known as jitsuyo motors established 1919 as a kubota subsidiary to become dat automobile manufacturing co. ltd. datto jid sha seiz kabushiki gaisha in osaka until 1932 . jitsuyo jidosha began producing a three wheeled vehicle with an enclosed cab called the gorham in 1920 and the following year produced a four wheeled version . from 1923 to 1925 the company produced light cars and trucks under the name of lila . 3 the dat corporation had been selling full size cars to japanese consumers under the dat name since 1914 . 4 in 1930 the japanese government created a ministerial ordinance that allowed cars with engines up to 500 cc to be driven without a license . 5 dat automobile manufacturing began development of a line of 495 cc cars to sell in this new market segment calling the new small cars datson meaning son of dat . the name was changed to datsun two years later in 1933 . 6 the first prototype datson was completed in the summer of 1931 . 7 the production vehicle was called the datson type 10 and approximately ten of these cars were sold in 1931 . 8 they sold around 150 cars in 1932 now calling the model the datson type 11 . 8 in 1933 government rules were revised to permit 750 cc 46 cu in engines and datsun increased the displacement of their microcar engine to the maximum allowed . 8 these larger displacement cars were called type 12s . 9 by 1935 the company had established a true production line following the example of ford and were producing a car closely resembling the austin 7 . 10 there is evidence that six of these early datsuns were exported to new zealand in 1936 a market they then re entered in may 1962 . 11 after japan went to war with china in 1937 passenger car production was restricted so by 1938 datsun s yokohama plant concentrated on building trucks for the imperial japanese army . 10 when the pacific war ended datsun would turn to providing trucks for the occupation forces . 10 this lasted until car production resumed in 1947 . 10 as before the war datsun closely patterned their cars on contemporary austin products postwar the devon and somerset were selected . 10 not until 1955 did datsun offer an indigenous design . 10 that year the occupation returned production facilities to japanese control and datsun introduced the 110 saloon and the 110 based 120 pickup . 10 datsun in the american market edit the classic datsun logo based on the flag of japan and japan s nickname as the land of the rising sun . after the nissan rebrand the logo remained the same with datsun replaced by nissan . the use of the datsun name in the american market derives from the name nissan used for its production cars . in fact the cars produced by nissan already used the datsun brand name a successful brand in japan since 1932 long before world war ii . before the entry into the american market in 1958 nissan did not produce cars under the nissan brand name but only trucks . their in house designed cars were always branded as datsuns . hence for nissan executives it would be only natural to use such a successful name when exporting models to the united states . only in the 1960s did datsun begin to brand some automobile models as nissans and these were limited to their high end models for example the cedric luxury type sedan . the japanese market z car sold as the fairlady z also had nissan badging . in america the nissan branch was named nissan motor corporation in u.s.a. and chartered on september 28 1960 in california but the small cars the firm exported to america were still named datsun . corporate choice favored datsun so as to distance the parent factory nissan s association by americans with japanese military manufacture . in fact nissan s involvement in japan s military industries was substantial . the company s car production at the yokohama plant shifted towards military needs just a few years after the first passenger cars rolled off the assembly line on april 11 1935 . by 1939 nissan s operations had moved to manchuria then under japanese occupation where its founder and president yoshisuke ayukawa established the manchurian motor company to manufacture military trucks . ayukawa a well connected and aggressive risk taker also made himself a principal partner of the japanese colonial government of manchukuo . 12 ultimately nissan heavy industries emerged near the end of the war as an important player in japan s war machinery . after the war ended soviet union seized all of nissan s manchuria assets while the occupation forces made use of over half of the yokohama plant . general macarthur had ayukawa imprisoned for 21 months as a war criminal . after release he was forbidden from returning to any corporate or public office until 1951 . he was never allowed back into nissan which returned to passenger car manufacture in 1947 and to its original name of nissan motor company ltd. in 1949 . datsun fairlady american service personnel in their teens or early twenties during the second world war would be in prime car buying age by 1960 if only to find an economical small second car for their growing family needs . yutaka katayama mr. k former president of nissan s american operations would have had his personal wartime experiences in mind supporting the name datsun . katayama s visit to nissan s manchuria truck factory in 1939 made him realise the appalling conditions of the assembly lines leading him to abandon the firm . 13 in 1945 near the end of the war katayama was ordered to return to the manchurian plant however he rebuffed these calls and refused to return . datsun 240z us model katayama desired to build and sell passenger cars to people not to the military ; for him the name datsun had survived the war with its purity intact not nissan . this obviously led katayama to have problems with the corporate management . the discouragement felt by katayama as regards his prospects at nissan led to his going on the verge of resigning when datsun s 1958 australian mobilgas victories vaulted him as leader of the winning datsun teams to national prominence in a japan bent on regaining international status . the company s first product to be exported around the world was the 113 with a proprietary 25 hp 19 kw ; 25 ps 850 cc 52 cu in four cylinder engine . 14 datsun entered the american market in 1958 with sales in california . 15 by 1959 the company had dealers across the u.s. 15 and began selling the 310 known as bluebird domestically . 15 from 1962 to 1969 the nissan patrol utility vehicle was sold in the united states as a competitor to the toyota land cruiser j40 series making it the only nissan badged product sold in the usa prior to that name s introduction worldwide decades later . from 1960 on exports and production continued to grow . a new plant was built at oppama south of yokohama ; it opened in 1962 . the next year bluebird sales first topped 200 000 and exports touched 100 000 . 15 by 1964 bluebird was being built at 10 000 cars a month . 15 for 1966 datsun debuted the 1000 allowing owners of 360 cc 22 cu in kei cars to move up to something bigger . 15 that same year datsun won the east african safari rally and merged with prince motors giving the company the skyline model range as well as a test track at murayama . 15 the company introduced the bluebird 510 in 1967 . 15 this was followed in 1968 with the iconic 240z which proved affordable sports cars could be built and sold profitably it was soon the world s 1 selling sports car . 16 it relied on an engine based on the bluebird and used bluebird suspension components . 17 it would go on to two outright wins in the east african rally . 17 katayama was made vice president of the nissan north american subsidiary in 1960 and as long as he was involved in decision making both as north american vice president from 1960 to 1965 and then president of nissan motor company u.s.a. from 1965 to 1975 the cars were sold as datsuns . what we need to do is improve our car s efficiency gradually and creep up slowly before others notice . then before detroit realizes it we will have become an excellent car maker and the customers will think so too . if we work hard to sell our own cars we won t be bothered by whatever the other manufacturers do . if all we do is worry about the other cars in the race we will definitely lose . 18 rebranding edit datsun 720 in japan there appears to have been what probably constituted a long held official company bias against use of the name datsun . 19 at the time kawamata was a veteran of nissan in the last year of his presidency a powerful figure whose experience in