Honda/Nissan/(Mitsubishi) merger

[GS1150Pilot]

Interesting times in the automotive industry as Korea has risen and absorbed market share.

What a merger between Nissan and Honda means for the automakers and the industry

[Nessism]

BYD is putting the smack down in China, the world's largest auto market. China sales were 26M in 2023. The US market, in 2nd place, is 1/2 of that.

Electric cars are coming fast. Sadly, electric cars in the US, other than Tesla, are losing money for the automakers.

Some are bashing Honda for taking on Nissan, and their debt. Nissan is a company with deep engineering skills and resources, though, and Honda knows that. Hopefully, they can work together and create something great.

Hybrid sales are good in the US. I think they will be the stopgap for a number of years here. Full EV's are the future, though.

[GS1150Pilot]

I am waiting to see what comes of Toyota's investment here. Toyota has been far less committed to complete EVs than some other manufacturers.

Toyota's Upcoming Hydrogen-Powered 5.0 V-8 Engine Has The Potential To Bury EVs

[rphillips]

What happened to Nissan? Back in the 80's and 90's Nissan and Toyota were pretty well thought of as equal. It seems for the past 20 yrs. Toyota has been moving up and getting more and more popular and sought after while Nissan has been kind'f declining and backing up.... Has this happened everywhere, or is it just in my area?

[Rob S.]

I'm so old, I still call it Datsun!

[rphillips]

Datsun, Probably few here remember them. I bought a new "Nissan" 720 pick-up 40 yrs. ago back in 1984, less power than anything I ever drove, later heard they changed to fuel inj. in 1985 and that helped the power a lot. No clue how much earlier they changed from Datsun but I do remember them. Very strange this comes up now. As, I don't remember how but this came up this morning down at the store. We were talking about a neighbor that we all remember bought either the last yr. of the Datsun or the first yr. of the Nissan truck. No clue which he had nor what yr. it was. We never figured it out. What's the odds this odd ball subject came up twice in the same day

[dgates1]

I had a Maxima with a badge on the back that said "Datsun by Nissan" on it. Must have been 1982 or 1983 model. Rear wheel drive with the inline 6 cylinder.

[Brendan W]

My '80 KZ650 had the exact same toolkit as the '81 Nissan Bluebird.
My 1981 TA40 Celica had a Yamaha stamp on the head casting.

[Grimly]

I'm so old, I still call it Datsun!

I remember the ferocious rate at which they rusted away. Hardly surprising, the earlier shipments were carried as exposed cargo and badly waterproofed. That, combined with the thinner steel than all the Euro manufacurers used, meant that wings and tailgates were literally falling off in three years.

[Big Block]

All the Japanese stuff rusted like crazy. I remember the first Civics were so highly regarded but they rusted completely within a couple of years. Good running gear on them though, I bought my son a 260Z as his first car so he could learn how to keep a car running but really other than chasing electrical demons the mechanicals of them were really solid.

[Nessism]

I am waiting to see what comes of Toyota's investment here. Toyota has been far less committed to complete EVs than some other manufacturers.

Toyota's Upcoming Hydrogen-Powered 5.0 V-8 Engine Has The Potential To Bury EVs

Toyota has been hesitant on the full EV front. And I don't blame them. Internal combustion engines are their history, so trashing that must be very difficult for them. And Honda, maybe even more so. They make some of the best lawn equipment, generators, boat engines, and of course, motorcycles.