We Are Driven: A Remembrance

Fade in: The very late 1980s, and a young man nervously attempts to navigate the highways of Central New Jersey. His father in the passenger seat tries to be supportive and offer sage guidance while, at the same time, holding on for dear life to the "Oh, (expletive)" strap attached to the car's ceiling. The fabric that once comprised that ceiling is now insufficiently held up with an auto parts variant of thumbtack screws, the spray glue that had previously been used now proven pointless in the Northeastern humidity. There is no power steering in this car. I repeat: there is no power steering in this car.

More years than one has fingers has passed. That young man is not as young now. His father survived that and many other bouts of student driver panic, but the old Datsun is long gone. To his memory, it wasn't for lack of will on the car's part. He remembers how thirty dollars per week more than adequately filled the tank, how the old beater survived blazing summer after frozen winter, and how the Department of Motor Vehicles simply wouldn't let that car pass inspection for one more year. We wound up with a brand new car not long after. That one had a terrible habit of dropping all its fluids onto the pavement if the outside temperature went above 82 degrees. We should have called it the Diva Mobile. What we really called it is not suitable for publication here.     

I rhapsodize about the old Datsun for a reason and it is this, a bit of news that emerged mid-March: "Nissan is bringing back Datsun three decades after shelving the brand that helped build its U.S. business. This time, Nissan hopes the name synonymous with affordable and reliable small cars will power its growth in emerging markets.

"Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn made the announcement March 20 while in Indonesia, one of three markets besides India and Russia, where the Datsun will go on sale from 2014. Datsun debuted in Japan in 1932, and hit American showrooms more than fifty years ago. It was discontinued globally starting in 1981 to unify the model lineup under the Nissan brand. Nissan also makes Infiniti luxury models.

"The manufacturer has often toyed with the idea of reviving the Datsun brand because it is associated with value and reliability — selling points that the company and other Japanese automakers built their reputation in the American market. They feel the Datsun name will help its profile in newer markets, where it is counting on solid growth in coming years, expecting its vehicle sales to nearly double in Indonesia by 2017 from last year.

"Nissan plans to sell 60,000 vehicles in Indonesia for fiscal year ending in March 2012. Overall, about 890,000 vehicles are sold in Indonesia a year, making it an important southeast Asian market."

I have to wonder why it took so long, and why this vehicle is not being rolled out to the U.S. Maybe it is assumed that a culture that less than ten years ago was prizing massive gas-guzzlers just wouldn't be interested. Could be, could be. It could also fall into interpretation that there's something deeply uncool and unhip about the Datsun. Don't bother going to YouTube to check out those old "Datsun, We Are Driven!" commercials from the early-eighties. They're as hideous as you think you remember them. Yes, the only way your Datsun was ever going to be mistaken for a chick-magnet was if a pack of rabid wild chickens actually came to roost in the back seat. But make no mistake about it; if they did, the car would still drive, would get you where you wanted to go, and do so for a tiny expenditure of fuel. It would smell like the underside of Frank Perdue's old boots, but we all have our crosses to bear.

The world now is not so different from the world then. Gas prices were and are high, relations with oil-producing Iran were and are still "contentious" (to put it nicely), and there has not been a need to get a handle on fuel expenditures quite as incumbent as we experienced and experience once more. Maybe Nissan needs to rethink their strategy and consider reintroducing the Datsun to America.

Cut to: Three days before the DMV employee demanded the car take that last joyride, my parents allowed me to tool around in the old car on my own. Turning the wheel was like trying to open some ancient bank vault, swollen shut by rust and time. The radio signal kept drifting in and out and that puny single speaker on the dashboard top wasn't putting out much sound. And yet I remember what was playing: Robbie Robertson's "Somewhere Down The Crazy River." I would have to admit the old Datsun made some kind of impression on me. 

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The opinion expressed is solely of the writer's and does not necessarily represent the viewpoint of NAFA Fleet Management Association.