# Why did Datsun change to Nissan? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 2, 2004, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-datsun-change-to-nissan/248331 "2004-06-02T21:38:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-datsun-change-to-nissan/248331/1 "2004-06-02T21:38:29Z")
**Why did Datsun change to Nissan?** I understand that the company has used both names in different ways since its inception (if anybody wants to clear up that aspect of the question, please do so). My question is, why did they start marketing the cars in the U.S. as Nissan instead of Datsun? What marketing forces helped them decide to do this? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-datsun-change-to-nissan/248331/2 "2004-06-02T22:31:20Z")
Sorry if this isn’t what you had in mind (no cites, hard evidence, etc), but when the first cars were introduced, the name “Nissan” still carried some significant negitive conotations/associations with the American public. “Datsun” seemed a little more friendly and less “foreign”, specificly, Japanese. Wanting to move product, they used a different name. As time went on, attitudes changed and I imagine it was simply more conienient to use one name, globally, for the product line. Mitsubishi and Kawasaki had a rough time in this respect as well. Old-timers would yell, “Hell! I used to shoot those down in '44!” Kinda like John Cougar. Record execs said no one would buy an album from a schmo named “Mellencamp”, so they packaged him as “Cougar” and off he went. As his popularity grew, he slowly integrated his real last name, and finally, dropped Cougar all together, hoping no one would notice. Well, I noticed. And I think he’s a schmuck. Isn’t Nissan owned by the French now anyway? (I’m too lazy to even check Yahoo! 😃 ) ---
**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-datsun-change-to-nissan/248331/3 "2004-06-02T23:05:21Z")
Nissan is not owned by a French company, but they do have an alliance with Renault. [http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/HOME/0,1305,SI9-LO3-MC92-IFN-CH120,00.html](http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/HOME/0,1305,SI9-LO3-MC92-IFN-CH120,00.html) > [@](#): > > Signed on March 27, 1999, the Renault-Nissan Alliance is the first of its kind involving a Japanese and a French company, each with its own distinct corporate culture and brand identity. Both companies share a single joint strategy of profitable growth and a community of interests. To promote this shared objective, the Renault-Nissan Alliance set up joint project structures as early as June 1999 covering most of both companies’ activities. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-datsun-change-to-nissan/248331/4 "2004-06-02T23:42:22Z")
Interestingly enough, years before the change to “Nissan”, one of their ad campaigns showed a fictitious couple who had won a trip to where the car had come from, and it was Muncie, Indiana. Presumably Datsun had some sort of office or plant there, and they came close to purporting that they were American cars. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-datsun-change-to-nissan/248331/5 "2004-06-03T00:10:24Z")
Well, they’d be built in America wouldn’t they? I know that australian Toyotas, Mitsubishi etc are built in Australia. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-datsun-change-to-nissan/248331/6 "2004-06-03T01:42:49Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > Interestingly enough, years before the change to “Nissan”, one of their ad campaigns showed a fictitious couple who had won a trip to where the car had come from, and it was Muncie, Indiana. Presumably Datsun had some sort of office or plant there, and they came close to purporting that they were American cars. The early 510’s used a Borg-Warner automatic transmission. They also advertised that the 510 was the car with a transmission from Muncie Indiana. The car itself was built in Japan. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-datsun-change-to-nissan/248331/7 "2004-06-03T02:36:55Z")
**gatopescado** has it basically right: concern over lingering anti-Japanese sentiment (both because of the war and because most products imported from Japan in the two decades after the war were perceived as cheap and flimsy) kept them from using the Nissan name when they introduced cars to the U.S. market in the early 1960s. [This page](http://www.classiczregister.org/html/history_-_nissan.html) says: > [@](#): > > In 1960 they made [Yutaka Katayama] the Datsun Marketing Manager for North America. Not wanting to bet the NISSAN name on a very risky venture… (who in North America shortly after WW-II would want to buy a car from Japan after all?) …they decided to use the name DATSUN on all cars and trucks sold in North America. The same site also explains where the Datsun name came from in the first place: > [@](#): > > In 1912 a young man by the name of Masujiro Hashimoto founded the Kwaishinsha Motor Car Company, and produced an automobile called the DAT. Each letter of DAT was the first initial of a man’s family name; i.e., “D” was for Kenjoro Den, “A” was for Rokuro Aoyama, and the “T” was for Meitaro Takeuchi. These three men financed Masujiro Hashimoto when he started his automobile manufacturing company, and the DAT name was given to the cars produced there in honor these financiers. > > A merger between Kwaishinsha Motors and Jidosha Seizo took place in 1926. The new company was named "DAT Jidosha Seizo Company Limited; and it continued to produce the DAT line of cars. > > In 1930 a reorganization took place and the Directors decided a new name was needed for their cars; the name DATSON was chosen, being “the son of DAT”. The spelling of the name was later changed to DATSUN. In the 1930s the company was acquired, then became independent again, and reformed under the name Nissan Motor Company Ltd. The change back to Nissan for all products came in 1980. ---
**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-datsun-change-to-nissan/248331/8 "2004-06-03T03:23:29Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > The change back to Nissan for all products came in 1980. True. But they used BOTH names on their cars (Datsun by Nissan) until 1984, until they dropped the Datsun and became Nissan totally and completely. My Dad owned a Datsun/Nissan dealership. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-datsun-change-to-nissan/248331/9 "2004-06-03T04:00:31Z")
> [@gatopescado](#): > > Kinda like John Cougar. Record execs said no one would buy an album from a schmo named “Mellencamp”, so they packaged him as “Cougar” and off he went. As his popularity grew, he slowly integrated his real last name, and finally, dropped Cougar all together, hoping no one would notice. > > Well, I noticed. And I think he’s a schmuck. Don’t blame him for this! He was probably more bothered by being told to “change your name to something easier to sell” than you were. It was done entirely by the record companies & promoters, against his wishes. But they said they knew best, and he could either do it our way or we don’t produce your records. He did indeed change back to using his real name as soon as he had sold enough records to have some pull with them. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-datsun-change-to-nissan/248331/10 "2004-06-03T06:26:45Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > The same site also explains where the Datsun name came from in the first place: \ No no. You have it all wrong. What happened was that when the company decided to sell their cars in the U.S., the president called up the marketing director and told him that he’d have to come up with a name for the line of cars. The marketing director asked when they needed the name by. The president, having waited until the last minute to address this issue, told the marketing director that they needed the name by the next morning. The marketing director, surprised, exclaimed “That soon!?” (Or, since he said it in a bad fake Japanese accent, “Datsoon!?”) The president loved it, and that’s how the cars came to be known as Datsuns. Well, that was the story floating around the schoolyard, circa 1979. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ColonelDax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@ColonelDax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColonelDax)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-datsun-change-to-nissan/248331/11 "2004-06-03T07:58:03Z")
> [@robcaro](#): > > Nissan is not owned by a French company, but they do have an alliance with Renault. Renault owns 44% of Nissan, according to a Bloomberg story from yesterday, so it’s not far from having a majority stake in the company. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-datsun-change-to-nissan/248331/12 "2004-06-03T14:47:11Z")
> [@ColonelDax](#): > > Renault owns 44% of Nissan, according to a Bloomberg story from yesterday, so it’s not far from having a majority stake in the company. Also, Nissan super-hero CEO Carlos Ghosn is a former Renault exec who is scheduled to become CEO of Renault in 2005 while keeping its post with Nissan. Also, while Renault does own 44% of Nissan, Nissan also owns 15% of Renault, though those aren’t voting shares. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-datsun-change-to-nissan/248331/13 "2004-06-03T15:33:07Z")
I thought Renault was a nationalized company…100% of shares owned by the government of France. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-datsun-change-to-nissan/248331/14 "2004-06-04T14:41:45Z")
> [@Enola Straight](#): > > I thought Renault was a nationalized company…100% of shares owned by the government of France. Nope. Until July 28 2003, the French government owned 25.91% of Renault. However, they sold a bunch of shares and now own 15.7%. [Cite.](http://www.renault.com/gb/finance/tout_titre_p3.htm) ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2004, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-datsun-change-to-nissan/248331/15 "2004-06-04T16:05:02Z")
> [@jovan](#): > > Also, Nissan super-hero CEO Carlos Ghosn is a former Renault exec who is scheduled to become CEO of Renault in 2005 while keeping its post with Nissan. Also, while Renault does own 44% of Nissan, Nissan also owns 15% of Renault, though those aren’t voting shares. Carlos actually takes over the CEO post of both Renault and Nissan on April 1, 2004. Oddly enough, at the time of the first crossholding and Renault management takeover of Nissan, Nissan was on the verge of bankruptcy. Nowadays, Nissan is debt free and in a seriously much stronger position than Renault. Carlso is a super-hero, although that didn’t prevent him from getting into a well publicized accident with a motor cycle a few months back. one of my colleagues is a good buddy of Carlos and was out drinking with him the night before. claimed that they sucked down quite an impressive amount of red wine. :eek: