Word: datsun
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...White House had to make still another awkward admission last week: Allen, a former consultant to Nissan Motor Corp., which manufactures Datsun automobiles, had met with Takase and the president of Toyota Motor Sales last March at a time when the Administration was deciding whether to seek lower import quotas for Japanese cars. The next day Allen attended a meeting with Reagan and Japan's Foreign Minister, Masayoshi Ito, to discuss import quotas. Worried about a possible conflict of interest, White House officials asked Allen to review his records for past contacts with Japanese businessmen...
...Japan has agreed to limit its exports of cars to the U.S. for the next two years, its producers are radically changing their sales strategy. Tiny gas misers are giving way to more premium-priced sporty models, such as the Toyota Celica, and expensive full-size cars like the Datsun 810 Maxima...
Japan's Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. last year sold 1.5 million cars and trucks in 130 countries under the name Datsun. Now, in a move that has stunned its dealers around the world, the company has decided to phase out the Datsun nameplate by the end of 1983 as part of the company's 50th anniversary celebration. After that, Datsun cars will be called Nissan, just as they now are in Japan...
...Datsun Dealer Lou Porreco of Erie, Pa., feels betrayed by the change. Says he: "The Datsun name already has a lot of recognition and respect. I don't know if we can ever develop the same confidence in the new name." A Detroit auto executive agrees, saying, "Any time you pull the rug out from under a brand name, you kiss off years of marketing...
Company officials also note that the Datsun name is meaningless. Dat, the word for rabbit in Japanese, comes from the initials of the company's three chief financial backers. It was originally lengthened to Datson or "son of rabbit." But the word son had an unlucky connotation in Japanese, which was seemingly proved correct when a typhoon hit a Datson plant in 1933. Therefore, the company changed the marketing name to Datsun. Executives at Nissan are convinced that despite the worries of their dealers, a Datsun by any other name will sell as swiftly as ever...