Datsun brand name to make a return in 2014

Datsun brand name to make a return in 2014Well, you’ll be seeing Datsuns on the road again, and nearby at that. Not quite rebuilt 120Ys though. Seems Nissan’s old brand name is being revived for use on low-priced vehicles tailored for emerging markets, and Indonesia is one of the countries that will feature entry-level Datsuns when the brand re-emerges in 2014.

According to the Nikkei, the vehicles, which will be priced at around 500,000 yen, will initially be built and sold in India, Indonesia and Russia, with a rather moderate annual sales volume of 300,000 units being targeted.

The return of the Datsun name is supposed to be only in those markets, but you can imagine that there’ll be expansion if things go well. The mothballed brand – which was created during Nissan’s early days and was discontinued from the mid ’80s – was synonymous with small, inexpensive cars, and the upcoming revival essentially marks a return to the roots.

Models are set to be tailored to the specific needs of each market. The vehicles will meet safety standards, but will utilise inexpensive parts and materials as well as drop dispensable features such as cabin noise reduction, the report adds. And, a Datsun network of dealerships are set to emerge.

The Datsuns that will be produced for India and Indonesia will feature Nissan’s low-cost V-platform, and 90% or more of the parts for the models will be locally made. In India, a 1.0 litre vehicle is expected to retail for around 300,000 rupees, or roughly 500,000 yen, which is half the price of a March hatchback that uses the same platform. In Russia, platforms from local automaker Avtovaz will provide the basis for Datsuns there, with initial plans aiming to deploy a 800cc model.

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Anthony Lim

Anthony Lim believes that nothing is better than a good smoke and a car with character, with good handling aspects being top of the prize heap. Having spent more than a decade and a half with an English tabloid daily never being able to grasp the meaning of brevity or being succinct, he wags his tail furiously at the idea of waffling - in greater detail - about cars and all their intrinsic peculiarities here.

 

Comments

  • rosmah on Mar 02, 2012 at 12:21 pm

    i want the spring leaf suspension lol

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  • Jeremy Clarkson on Mar 02, 2012 at 12:27 pm

    But the Datsun 240 Z was a high end car in that time? wasn’t it
    My dad told me the Datsun 120Y used to be his 2nd car back in 1977, before that he used to have a Peugeot 404 ( early , circa 1972, 1973

    BTW new DATSUN only cost 500000 yen? thats only RM18000 and is seriously cheap? BUT Y u no sell in Malaysia??? =(

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    • Najib on Mar 02, 2012 at 12:33 pm

      Meh, I dun care for this shit cars, we robbbed so many money from rakyat, we should use their money to buy Lamborghini, Maybach, Rolls Royce, Bentley.. We need not to care whether leaf spring =P

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      • VOLVO FOR LIFE on Mar 03, 2012 at 1:30 pm

        nah of course you don’t care. but nobody in the rakyat must drive better car than you. because rakyat must know they are rakyat. and must respect and obey you thus only you can drive big big cars.

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    • Jeremy Clarkson on Mar 02, 2012 at 12:58 pm

      And his 3rd car was the popular legendary Nissan Sunny 130Y in 1983. That was the succesor to the 120Y. lol

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      • Jeremy Clarkson on Mar 02, 2012 at 5:15 pm

        My dad just told me that my late grandfather used to have a 1962 Datsun Bluebird (The only japanese car he owned) At that time Malaysian road dominated with Beetles, minis, and vauxhalls

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    • menzz on Mar 02, 2012 at 1:14 pm

      P1 and P2 will go bankruptcy… LOL…

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    • Nizam80 on Mar 02, 2012 at 4:36 pm

      But if its sold in Malaysia, it will never cost RM18,000. :(

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      • Jeremy Clarkson on Mar 02, 2012 at 5:46 pm

        at least they sell rm40000 and the RM 22000 will goes to mr N and rosmah’s pocket

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        • Chris on Mar 02, 2012 at 8:08 pm

          I think It’ll be well over 40k…

          Toyota Yaris is 1million yen in Japan, look at how much they cost here… :(

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  • auto-guy-but-not-quite on Mar 02, 2012 at 12:29 pm

    thank goodness its not coming to Malaysia…

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    • even if it come to bolehland and get the boleh signal, you, me and all the people reading this blog knows it will be slap with bolehland tax. so people at Datsun will say tak boleh!

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    • Barkcrack on Mar 02, 2012 at 9:24 pm

      let those Indonesian get low price car, at least Proton give more value for money

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  • zainal abidin on Mar 02, 2012 at 12:46 pm

    The ‘DATSUN’ brand kinda’ remind me of those days when the 120Y and 160J SSS were ‘Kings’.

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    • Just me on Mar 02, 2012 at 2:33 pm

      I think SSS is a good car. If carefully restore, it can be a nice car.

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    • Kumar san on Mar 05, 2012 at 4:47 pm

      Ah,what a sense of nostalgicness,reminds me of the good old days.I have to agree with you.The Datsun’s of yore were really well engineered and built cars>No bullshit mechanically simple automobiles.They were cheap to maintain and run,extremely economical(Hitachi carbs mind you),parts were cheap,stupidly reliable,mostly indestructible and they will run forever.

      You can still some beautifully restored early pre 1970 Datsun120Y saloon’s and the later 78YM 160JSSS running around in some small towns,and for some unique reason,they are almost all owned by old pakcik’s and ketua kampung’s who are reliving their youth when these rides were the kings..forget about offering them,all resolutely refused to sell them to me.

      I passed my driving license in a pre 1970 Datsun 120Y,great little car.My late father’s first foray into Japanese car ownership was a deep blue 1970 Datsun Bluebird 160J SSS (A510 Twin Carb).He absolutely loved that car to bits,kept in mint condition and he had for it 33 years until some asshole nicked it from our home,we never found it.That’s a real bastard i must say.Dad was a firm Continental car loyalist and he owned many Conti’s mostly,but the A510 changed all that.Then he tested his buddy’s then new 1974 Datsun 240z..2 months later there sat a brand new chili red 240z in our large driveway or Zed as it’s known in the States.

      Then i left for the States for almost 20 years(where Datsuns were seriously popular too) and just back got back recently.During my yearly vacations back home,dad loved the Zeds so much that he actually bought a 260z and also the 280z,all brand new and all stickshifts.At one point,we had 4 Datsun’s!!The entire Zed family – 240/260/280z and the A510 SSS(which was his sweetheart).Beautiful cars and the brand had a huge following here,they don’t make them like they used to.

      Those were the days..sure brings back a lot of good memories.
      Hope this brand makes a comeback here,i really have a soft spot for the Datsun brand.

      Cheers

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  • quick! get perotiga up and running and rebadge this new datsun!

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    • kadajawi on Mar 02, 2012 at 4:33 pm

      Yeah. And also make Dacia’s “Malaysian” cars. Dacia Logan MCV… around 8000 Euro for a 7 seater MPV with space for 1,90m men in the 3rd row. After all Dacia belongs to Renault, and Renault and Nissan belong together. Or the Dacia Duster… nice, simple SUV, also quite affordable.

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  • policeman on Mar 02, 2012 at 1:00 pm

    I want a Datsun 120Y replica. ie with manual transmission, without fuel injection or any electronic gimmicks. I would buy it at RM50K. I just want a reliable car that will last 20 years.

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    • zainal abidin on Mar 02, 2012 at 2:45 pm

      I definitely want 1 or 2… And an austere model will most probably cost below RM40,000.00. Make mine the rally champion 160J SSS.

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  • Welcome back Datsun, a good move done by Nissan.might introduce in Malaysia to go head on with the super minis that’s priced below rm 50k. Those old school Datsun are like the budget transport of the early days in Malaysia. What cars will be built?? Maybe locally ckd march??? Bring it on Datsun, give us more choices of cars to buy man….

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  • blue-traveler on Mar 02, 2012 at 1:24 pm

    Man! I have only good words for the old Datsun. IT is THE little car that could. My grandmom had one, dad had one, a sport one? before i was born(mom told me and sees it in a old old pic), another when i was born, also saw it in the old pictures.(At the same time he had a Holden too.) And mom had one when i was schooling in Singapore, it was my “school bus” for a while as no school bus want to pick me up, expect for extra price…. IT went through flood like nothing and kept on going. It totally destroy any hope of skipping school due to heavy rain n flood. hahaha. FYI, I stayed in bukit timah area, then in the early 80s it always flooded heavily, before the canal was built, ask any guys that stayed in Singapore then, they can vocah for me. It is a very good car that is cheap. Hope one day it will find it way back to Malaysia again, and i will buy it just to give it to my parents, and keep it.

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  • akumaZ on Mar 02, 2012 at 1:54 pm

    please bring fairlady 240z…sexy classic

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  • Just re-assamble the legendary Datsun 120Y…it’s anytime better than Saga..

    FYI, Datsun 240Z easily eat Satria GTI for breakfast lah!

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    • gtmaniac on Mar 02, 2012 at 9:30 pm

      Good idea bro..!

      Imagine re-assemble all the classics (Toyota LE, 130Y, etc) from early 80s in 2012! (..though not possible – crash test…safety.. etc..). But if i m not mistaken Nissan USA did assemble a number of old 240z few years ago and sell them as a brand new car).

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  • Datsun eh? You’ll still find many of these cars running around Ipoh. By the way, one can say Nissan’s current sports car like the 370Z and GT-R are modern day Datsun because their roots can be traced back to old Datsun.

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  • Mou Mou Ren on Mar 02, 2012 at 2:03 pm

    Yeah, NEW Datsun 120Y will reborn on 2014…. Welcome back….

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  • demio121 on Mar 02, 2012 at 2:11 pm

    nostalgic…. my dad Datsun 120Y.

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  • carnoisseur on Mar 02, 2012 at 2:18 pm

    Datsun’s were the most reliable cars , even by today’s standards. they were cheap to run (except for the SSS) , no problems and went on forever ………..I always remember this brand because one day i walked pass the Tan Chong Showroom opposite Jaya Supermarket (where McD is now) and heard a sales lady say ” let me show you my interior , it is very nice and comfortable” and I thought it was quite funny because she got carried away and was reffering to the datsun 280c !!

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  • let it roll in saga/i10/picanto price range, sure can sell. but make sure got good design. underpower engine/lack of safety features/sampan handling/old school gearbox also can. many peoples (especially Malaysian) dont care about that

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  • kerdil on Mar 02, 2012 at 2:30 pm

    We want Datsun in Malaysia! Low income people would have alternative other than proton and perodua…

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  • faisal on Mar 02, 2012 at 4:13 pm

    Kereta kebal Datsun Tonggek kembali.Old scholl car. Wah Bagus. Kereta paling tahan lasak. Sampai sekarang masih ada atas jalanraya. Kalau dekat kampung orang bawak pergi memancing or memburu. Ada rezeki nak beli sambar sebiji

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  • tikus on Mar 02, 2012 at 4:59 pm

    Got Protong and Pero2 ,no possible at all Datsun will be in Bolehland.

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  • palehotak on Mar 02, 2012 at 5:00 pm

    please bring back legendary datsun bahulu!!

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  • i want datsun too!!! hopefully the design is not as same as boring nissan..

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  • nighttrain on Mar 02, 2012 at 6:00 pm

    160J triple S, we had it from new 79 till 98. In between, many cars changed but my dad kept his SSS. I used it in campus in early 90s. Dad drove it around until some a-hole crashed into it. Sold the car off as scrap. Loved it to pieces. Is there any mint condition in Malaysia of the former rally champ?

    On another note, bringing Datsun in will effect our ‘Negala pepentapatan tinggi’ status lah.

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  • nebula87 on Mar 02, 2012 at 7:14 pm

    Now i shall proud with my Datsun 120Y….Drive like a boss!!!

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  • along666 on Mar 02, 2012 at 9:24 pm

    ya remember those days go for learn driving car/car license test, all use datsun…

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  • danedz on Mar 02, 2012 at 10:45 pm

    after this driving school will use back datsun car for test drive…so nostalgic….

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  • Dr Mamak on Mar 03, 2012 at 11:18 am

    me first car was a Datsun 130Y with indestructible bumpers.

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  • madara88 on Mar 04, 2012 at 1:53 am

    will they make a cheaper nissan gtr??…say datsun gtr?..hehehe

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  • Gebang on Mar 04, 2012 at 3:21 am

    Skrg semua kata la mcm2….bila dah masuk pastu tgk harga…start la balik komplen pasal harga….hahahahhah….tipikal rakyat Msia…komplen harga…

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  • remind me of my dad previous 130Y which i use to call as BOY instead.

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  • then it will be easier to find sparepart for this olskool car. it make me think to keep my datsun 120y more longer rather than sold it.

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  • izhar on Mar 05, 2012 at 9:57 am

    120Y…mmg best pakai…sumbat enjin vannette…bolehlah jejak 180km/j…tp aku jual dah…cariklah kat area seremban, plate CS 4336

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  • edward on Mar 11, 2012 at 11:01 am

    I am not so fond of Japanese old cars….. Got my Datsun 130Y in 1983 and used it for about 10 years. During that time, quite a lot of problems – the radiator often got too hot – leaking and on one occasion problem was solved when radiator fan was replaced. Also the air-cond often freezed – one air-cond shop put in bigger internal plumbing for me to make the air-flow bigger. I think the problem was only solved when another air-cond shop replaced one of the air cond component (the ‘bomb’) . On another occasion, the car stalled on the road – problem was due to faulty ac pump. After I sold off my Datsun 130Y, I used a Proton Saga also for about 5 years – I can tell you the Proton Saga gave comparatively less problems (e.g. power windows) compared to the 130Y!

    That’s it – Japanese cars such as Datsun 130Y were sold cheap then but to keep it cheap, they compromised by installing with inferior components. (Same with my 70cc Honda cub then which I bought for 1000 ringgit. The chain broke within a year and had to be replaced. )

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  • pelams on Mar 11, 2012 at 3:07 pm

    trafik jam…… duh!

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