Little truck launched a revolution - Victoria Times Colonist
Although the Japanese Datsun name, product of the Nissan Motor Co. , dated back to 1932 — it had been Dat before that since 1914 — it didn’t appear in North America until 1958, when Nissan began importing its first small Datsun 1000 cars into... But at the strong urging of Nissan’s American managers and dealers, Yokohama gradually relented and set their engineers and stylists to work Americanizing their modest little cars. In 1959, shortly after Datsun cars came, their small pickup truck also began arriving. Nissan had exhibited them at the 1958 Los Angeles auto show, where a good response was the encouragement needed to try importing trucks, too. Nissan was no stranger to light trucks, having marketed them before and after the Second World War. Light commercial vehicle production began in 1933. Like the Datsun car, the pickup was a modest, sturdy and straightforward design with a high-mounted cargo box and exposed door hinges. But style and flare weren’t as important in trucks because pickup buyers were primarily interested in durability, price and economy. During some years in the 1960s they outsold Datsun cars, and for much of its first decade there, Datsun’s pickup popularity on the West Coast was a major factor in the company establishing Nissan Motor Corp. Source: www.timescolonist.com
