Monday, March 26, 2012

Datsun is Back, and Other Stuff


Nissan has announced the relaunching of its Datsun Brand. The name had been discontinued since 1981 after Nissan felt "established" enough in the US to sell cars as well Nissan. Now Datsun was known for two things: the mildly decent and surprisingly fun 240/260/280Z sports car, building a bunch f other crap that fell apart while you watched. Happily for car enthusiasts, (but sadly for satirists like me) Datsun will not be coming back to the US. Rather Nissan is using its old trick of selling Datsuns in areas, that they aren't established yet, namely Russia, Indonesia, and India. Datsun is hopeful of selling nearly 300,000 cars a year in Indonesia alone. Ambious but doable. By 2020 expect the Datsun nameplate to die again. You heard it here first.

However, Nissan now officially has three brands, with Datsun taking the "cheap, good gas mileage entry-level spot" below Nissan proper and Infiniti. Nissan has not ruled out bring Datsuns over to the US if other cheap Japanese brands like Scion and Suzuki continue to sell well actually start to sell. So there's that to look forward to/laugh at.

Both the Viper and Corvette will be launching new models soon and I don't like either of 'em. The Corvette will be powered by a quad-cam, four valve 5.5 litre V8 (which now is going to be both NA and turbo'd apparently). Nice to see the mainstream car media reporting what this blog has known for over a year! The engine doesn't bother me, the split window and horrid front end do. We've posted pictures of the car on here before, and the design hasn't changed so take a look. We have until next year to hope for change, but it seems unlikely.

The new Viper just pisses me off. It will feature traction control, launch control, stability control, and Cruise control. So its another poseur mobile for old guys who can't get it up. Plus rumors of an automatic and entry level V8 persist! Worst yet, the price of real Vipers will now sky-rocket!

That's it for today, I'm depressed now. More later this week.

No comments:

Post a Comment