Nissan Is Driven

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."

Nissan explains that it is changing its name because of a corporate identity problem. The company has been borrowing on world money markets to finance its expansion, but President Takashi Ishihara discovered three months ago in London that many potential lenders were not aware that his firm made Datsuns.

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.

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