Nissan Revives Datsun Brand for Use in Emerging Markets

Nissan is bringing back the Datsun brand name—but don't get any ideas of a reborn B-210 or 510 in your driveway. At an event in Indonesia, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn announced that the Datsun badge will be applied to simple, low-cost cars to be sold in developing countries. In addition to Indonesia, he specifically mentioned Russia and India, and we expect other large markets like Brazil and Turkey to be added, too. (That's the brand's new logo; we think it would look better in BRE colors.) "It's a green car, affordable car, small displacement, high local content," Ghosn told Reuters. Nissan and its partner Renault also own Dacia, a Romanian-based company that builds inexpensive—and supposedly robust—cars. They're sold around the globe under the Dacia brand, as well as Nissan and Renault. We don't see the new Datsun model (or models) being just rebadged versions of the Dacia, but it's sensible to assume that future Dacias and Datsuns could share platforms and other components. Even with the American economy in weak shape, we're not quite "developing" enough for Nissan to offer any Datsuns here. It's probably for the better—who wants to ruin their memories of inexpensive, fun cars with an anodyne box designed for a Jakarta commute? For funsies, here's a picture of one of those inexpensive and fun cars, a 1971 Datsun 510: from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com

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