Nissan Holding Its Own For Almost 100 Years

The Nissan Motor Company Ltd of Japan is normally shorted to just Nissan. The company was founded in 1933 so history is something Nissan knows something about. They also know about manufacturing well-made engines as they have been featured among the World's 10 Best Engines for 14 straight years. A pretty impressive feat.

Nissan formally marketed cars under the "Datsun" brand name and is one of the largest manufactures of vehicles in the world. Its corporation headquarters are located in Nishi-ku, Yokohama as of 2011. In its Asian home base, Nissan is the third largest car manufactures with Honda being second and Toyota being a dominant first. The margin between Honda and Nissan is much smaller. Not only does Nissan manufacture a normal range of cars, it also produces luxury cars branded as Infiniti.

From humble beginnings to world dominance, the company began in 1914 with the first letter of each partners family name making up the name DAT, Kenjiro Den, Rokuro Aoyama, and Meitaro Takeuchi. The company changed names in 1918 from DAT to Kwaishinsha Motorcar Co but was changed back to DAT motorcar Co in 1925. A vast majority of its output were trucks. The time was too early for passenger cars. Not until 1931 were small cars part of its production with the "Datson" meaning "son of DAT". They changed the company name to "Datsun", instead of Son, as son also meant loss hence the Japanese name Datsun.

The Nissan name appeared on the scene as an abbreviation used on the Tokyo stock market for Nippon Sangyo. Nissan would later grow to include over 74 firms. Originally Nissan built trucks, airplanes, and engines for Japanese military. The main plant was move to China after part of the land was captured by Japan. The plant machined Japanese war parts until American and Russian forces captured it.

Nissan has a long and interesting history. From 1992 to 2002, Nissan partnered with the American based Ford Company to market the Mercury Villager and the Nissan Quest. Two minivans were also manufactured, the Freestar and Monterey.

Nissan relaunched its Terrano four-wheel drive vehicle in 1992 which was mechanically and cosmetically identical to the Ford Maverick. Both cars were built in Spain. The Terrano did great in the American market but for some reason, the Maverick failed miserably.

Time has marched on and so has the Nissan Company. With sales of Nissans in NJ high, it still holds records as being one of the top cars manufactures sold in America and around the world.