Opinion BY Armin

A Datsun Logo Datsucks

First sold in 1931 by DAT Motorcar and purchased by Nissan in 1933, Datsun is a brand of cars that was discontinued in 1981 in both Asian and American markets. With some quirky models in its history, Datsun has sort of a cult, hipsterish following. This week Nissan announced that it would be reviving the brand in India, Indonesia, and Russia starting in 2014 and it will be “a green car, affordable car, small displacement, high local content.” After 21 years off the market, it needed a new logo.

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn unveils logo. Proves logo looks better blurry.

The previous Datsun logo is quite iconic and has a vintage charm that is hard to resist. Except for the new people in charge and whoever designed it, because they completely annihilated any semblance to it. Instead, the new logo is the most generic kind of car logo out there. Rendered cheaply and poorly, the only redeeming quality is that underneath all of that chrome is a half-decent wordmark. Too bad it sits in of the strangest holding shapes I’ve seen in a while. Here is to hoping the cars look better.

Thanks to James I. Bowie for the tip.