1973 Datsun 1200 Saves over a Gallon of Gas per Day

Nissan began selling Datsun cars in the United States when the 210 (ancestor of the Bluebird/510) appeared here in 1958. American Datsun sales really took off with the introduction of the 1971 Nissan Sunny, known here as the Datsun 1200. The New York Yankees even used a 1200 as their first bullpen car!

According to the EPA, the 1973 1200 had the best fuel economy of any new car sold in the United States, and that ended up being perfect timing for Datsun's marketers when OPEC turned off the oil spigot in October of that year. Here's a magazine advertisement for the 1200, making a strong case with a striking gas-can design. The next-generation Sunny, which debuted here for the 1974 model year, was an even bigger sales hit: the Datsun B210.

The "From Nissan with Pride" message is interesting, given that American car shoppers saw very little mention of the Nissan name in Datsun marketing between the early 1970s and the "Name Is Nissan" campaign that began in the early 1980s.