Word: datsun
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...sighed. "It looks like I'll have to get rid of them They don't meet the new mileage standards. Even the best only get 12 miles a prance. I'm thinking of buying a Datsun...
...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...
...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...