About Datsun
Datsun was an automobile marque. There never was an actual "Datsun" company, as the brand name was used in production only by DAT Motors and Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.. The name was created in 1931 by the DAT Motorcar Co. for a new car model, spelling it as "Datson" to indicate its smaller size when compared to the existing, larger DAT car. Later, in 1933 after Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. took control of DAT Motorcar Co., the last syllable of Datson was changed to "sun", because "son" also means "loss" (損) in Japanese, hence the name "Datsun" : Dattosan (ダットサン Dattosan).. The Datsun brand was discontinued in March 1986. The Datsun name is most famous for the sports cars referred to as the Fairlady roadsters and later the Fairlady (240Z) coupes.
History
The origins of Datsun
Before the Datsun brand name came into being, an automobile named the DAT car was built in 1914, by the Kwaishinsha Motorcar Works (快進自動車工場 Kaishin Jidōsha Kōjō), in the Azabu-Hiroo District in Tokyo. The new car's name was an acronym of the company's partners' surnames:
- Kenjiro Den (田 健次郎 Den Kenjirō)
- Rokuro Aoyama (青山 禄朗 Aoyama Rokurō)
- Meitaro Takeuchi (竹内 明太郎 Takeuchi Meitarō).
The firm was renamed Kwaishinsha Motorcar Co. in 1918, seven years after their establishment and again, in 1925, to DAT Motorcar Co. DAT Motors constructed trucks in addition to the DAT passenger cars. In fact, their output focused on trucks since there was almost no consumer market for passenger cars at the time. Beginning in 1918, the first DAT trucks were assembled for the military market. The low demand from the military market during the 1920s forced DAT to consider merging with other automotive industries. In 1926 the Tokyo-based DAT Motors merged with the Osaka-based Jitsuyo Jidosha Co., Ltd. (実用自動車製造株式会社 Jitsuyō Jidōsha Seikoku Kabushiki-Gaisha) also known as Jitsuyo Motors (established 1919, as a Kubota subsidiary) to become DAT Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (ダット自動車製造株式会社 Datto Jidōsha Seizō Kabushiki-Gaisha) in Osaka until 1932.
It was in 1931 when DAT came out with a new smaller car, that the first "Datson", meaning "Son of DAT", was finally built. This was the actual beginning on the Datsun brand name. Later, in 1933, after Nissan took control of DAT Motors, the last syllable of Datson was changed to "sun".
