CarBrandLogos archive · Nissan · 1957

NissanBluebird

Datsun's bread-and-butter saloon, and the car that taught America the badge.

Photo: Toyotacoronaexsaloon · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Nissan history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Nissan Bluebird, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The lineage starts in 1955 and the name arrives with the 310 of 1959, but the important thing about the Bluebird is its role: for decades it was the car Nissan actually lived on, the mid-market family saloon that funded everything else. Its rivalry with the Toyota Corona was so persistent that the Japanese motoring press gave it a name, and the two models effectively set the terms of the domestic market through the 1960s.

Nissan Bluebird · Mytho88 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

Abroad it was sold as a Datsun, and one generation did more for Nissan's reputation than any other. The 510 of 1968 gave a cheap saloon an overhead-cam engine and independent rear suspension when its American rivals had neither, and it handled well enough that owners started calling it a poor man's BMW. Brock Racing Enterprises took it Trans-Am racing and won the under-2.5-litre title, and the car developed a following in the United States that outlived it by decades.

1953 Datsun DB-4 · Kzaral,cropped and altered by uploader Mr.choppers · CC BY 2.0

In production

Later generations grew softer and, from 1983, switched to front-wheel drive. The name eventually fragmented across markets, replaced by the Altima in America, the Primera in Europe, the Pintara in Australia and the Teana in Asia, though production continued in China until 2007.

Nissan Bluebird · TTTNIS · Public domain

Legacy

It is a nameplate that mattered less for any single car than for the four and a half decades of steady, competent saloons that built the company.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1955–2001

Body

4-door Sedan

Technical specification

The Bluebird, in detail.

Production: 1955–2001 (until 2007 in China)
Class: Compact car
Body style: 4-door Sedan (automobile); sedan ; 4-door hardtop sedan ; 2-door coupé ; 5-door station wagon
Layout: Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout; Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive (1955–1983) ; Front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout; Front-engine, front-wheel-drive (1983–2007) ; Front-engine, four-wheel-drive layout; Front-engin
Manufacturer: Nissan

Explore Nissan Read the full reference ↗

Badge at launch