Datsun relaunch after 30 years

[WestyNottm]

It seems Datsun are re-launching in India after a break of 30 years: http://www.datsun.com/models

 

 

[Rab (bombero) Reid]

Bring back the 120Y!!

[Norman Verona]

We were the 9th Datsun dealer in the UK.

 

This was under Octav Botnor. A truly remarkable man who is accused of evading £200m of UK tax. He left the UK for his Swiss home and died there. He is buried in the old cemetery in Paris and is a French hero from his resistance fighting during the second world war. 

 

He was born in, what was then, Austria, about 9 miles from the birthplace of one of our directors. They, of course, got on very well and I was always welcomed with open arms and given whatever I wanted.

 

As for the UK tax case, one item on the charge sheet was his buying back of all the unsold stock on the eve of their financial year end and re-invoicing it the following day. The purpose was to claim stock relief (no longer available). This wasn't illegal. I never did find out what the other accusations were but I doubt the IR would have won.

 

Great days and he taught me a lot about how not to run a business.

 

 

Ed to add that the reason the most successful Datsuns were called Fairlady (the 240Z, 260Z and 280Z were part of the Fairlady family) was that the then chairman came to London and was taken to see My Fair Lady, He was so smitten he named the next luxury cars Fairlady.

 

Ed part 2. I had a customer with a joint Renault and Nissan franchise in the same premises when Renault effectively took over Nissan. We hoped the Nissan culture of quality would permeate Renault. The opposite happened and now Nissans are as bad as Renaults for reliability.

 

Ed part 3. We used to take 95% of the Cabstar chassis cabs imported and build special bodies on them. Every year we would be visited by a delegation of young executives, all carrying miniature cameras and snapping away, to see our operation. They turned up at 07:30 and after the tour of our dealership, I had to take them to the pub in Spittlefield market which was open at that time of the morning as the market workers finished their shift. They thought this was really good.

 

I'll post more as I think of it.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

I remember hearing lots of tails about the gentleman back in the seventies/eighties, most seemed to be that odd mixture of amazement, disbelief and amusement that you so rarely see until you meet a real character. even if only the tiniest portion were true, he sounded like he could have given Del boy a run for his money!

[Norman Verona]

One of the "features" of the Worthing HQ was there were no clocks - at all. Staff went home when the work was done, not when the clock said so.

 

He ran the business with 36 staff in total. To put this into perspective Renault who had 3% of the UK market which was half of Datsuns 6% had 360 staff.

 

They had their own printing press to produce the sales literature. It had bullet proof glass windows as he was always afraid of terrorist attacks. The cars were always photographed in the driveway of the sales directors manor house.

 

All of the dealer reps had there own dealerships and became very wealthy people. Botnor looked after loyal people.

 

At the weeks before the year end (December) when the import embargo was operating (at 11% total import from Japan) we would get called to stop selling. I would always comply and next years ration was always increased. Those that refused had theirs cut. 

 

When the aftermarket started producing product for the cars he introduced automatic stocking items for the dealers. We were the only ones that had a computer system and I wrote a report that showed we would have 6 years stock of exhaust systems by the end of the year. All the other items were predicted to rise at the same rate. I was invited to Worthing to discuss. I was shown into a room along with my Austrian born co-director. We were left there for half an hour and I was joking that they were getting the shooting party assembled and the wall prepared. 

 

Eventually we were shown into Botnors office who apologised profusely, he had been dealing with an important telephone call. I was asked to promise that I would only buy parts from them. I did and kept it. The auto stocking plan was literally put in the bin. I was also asked not to tell any other dealers. I didn't.

 

I found him a very decent man who appreciated loyalty above all else.  He was always fair with us and we reciprocated. 

 

 

Another add.

 

When he was running the NSU imports he was approached by a casual acquaintance to see if he (Botnor) could store the funny little Japanese cars the chap was importing. (In those days the Cherry was a rear wheel drive version of the Austin A30, even in later years the 1/2 ton pick up was based on the A55 van.) Botnor agreed and charged him storage. After a year the chap asks Botnor if he'll go to Japan to sign up for further imports. Botnor went and came back with a lifetime contract to import Datsun cars into the UK. Only problem was the other chap name wasn't on the contract.

 

Many years later as Botnor and his wife were walking along Bond Street, the other chap saw them as he was driving along. He mounted the pavement in an attempt to run them over. 

 

Botnor employed a chap as warranty clerk. He then promoted him to run the reverse import of UK cars to Japan. Botnor started a company to take back mainly Minis and Jaguars to Japan on the empty boats. He only had to pay the the ships fuel costs. There was a rumour that Chris was skimming off £50 on every car purchased from the dealers. When Botnor heard about it he had him escorted from the premises and dumped in the car park. I ended up employing him to run our Renault sales. When he left us he landed the job as sales director for Lancia. That lasted about 2 years until Lancia imports were stopped.

[WestyNottm]

Norman - an absolutely fascinating insight, ever thought about writing your memoirs?

 

Having spent nearly 35 years in retail dealing with the public I too have similar yarns to tell and have long thought about publishing my memoirs. I'm not sure if it would be widely read but I would certainly find it therapeutic!

 

Names changed to protect the guilty of course....

[Mooch]

It seems Datsun are re-launching in India after a break of 30 years: http://www.datsun.com/models

So in monsoon season, will it be raining Datsun Cogs?  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll get me coat.....

[Norman Verona]

And so you might.

 

Datsun Cogs indeed.

 

Westy Nottm, write away, keep the names in so you get sued (having taken out insurance) the publicity will ensure it's a best seller.

 

HM keeps telling me to sit down and write up my life story. No time at the moment, too busy being retired.

[cast iron]

Norm can you substantiate your comment made in Ed Part 2 please

[Captain Colonial]

Ed part 2. I had a customer with a joint Renault and Nissan franchise in the same premises when Renault effectively took over Nissan. We hoped the Nissan culture of quality would permeate Renault. The opposite happened and now Nissans are as bad as Renaults for reliability.

 

Your opinion through personal experience and you're entitled to it of course, Norman.

 

However, looking here, the evidence would seem to suggest that all the popular Nissans have reliability indices of less than 100, i.e. are regarded as more reliable than average.

 

Each to their own opinions.

[Norman Verona]

I could at the time. The new Nissan something or other was made with bits of Clio. The warranty claims were at the same level as the Clio, that is HIGH.

 

I've no idea what they're like now. I guess I shouldn't have said "now" when I meant "then" but as I was talking about "then" I thought "now" would be correct. Don't worry, keep up and you'll be as mad as I am.

 

One of the initiatives that Renault introduced with their new (then, not now) warranty system was a 7 year warranty on certain components. For example an alternator was given a life of 7 years. So if you needed an new one in the first 3 yaesr it was fitted FOC. It then reduced in warranty terms by the age of the unit. At the end of 7 years the contribution from Renault was zero. They never publicised this and, as far as I know, never put it into practice unless the customer complained. 

 

ed to add that I was typing as Scott posted. The above is not an answer to Scott's post.