Nissan Sunny - "fun" but boring
Maybe 15-16 months. Red curls fall again and again on her pretty face and close her wonderful bluish-greenish eyes. Almost from morning to evening, with short breaks for sleep, she can run around the apartment, pester a lazy cat and organoleptically check every object that falls into the hands of her little hands. Sunny, friends have chosen this name for their baby. "Excellent!" I thought when I first saw her. “With such a name, dark clouds will not hide over you,” I thought every time her eyes of worldly interest looked at this bored cat.
The Japanese marketing people at Nissan certainly made the same assumption. When in 1966 they presented the world with a new model of their subcompact, giving her this nickname, they automatically created an aura of happiness around the car and its owner. After all, how can you feel unhappy in such a car?
Too bad Sunny is no longer in Nissan showrooms. It's a pity that such a cheerful automotive name was abandoned in favor of the dull-sounding Almery. It’s a pity, because there are fewer and fewer cars whose name carries positive energy.
Sunny first appeared in 1966. In fact, then it was not even a Nissan, but a Datsun. And so sequentially, through the generations B10 (1966 - 1969), B110 (1970 - 1973), B210 (1974 - 1978), B310 (1979 - 1982), Nissan got stuck in a tangle of independently created “Nissan / Datsun / Nissan”. Finally, in 1983, with the introduction of the next generation car, the B11 version, the Datsun name was dropped completely, and the Nissan Sunny definitely became… the Nissan Sunny.
One way or another, with the B11 generation, produced in 1983-1986, the era of compact rear-wheel drive Nissan came to an end. The new model not only changed its name and set a new technological direction, but also became a breakthrough in the field of quality. Better interior materials, a driver-friendly cabin, multiple body styles, modern powertrains – Nissan was getting more and more ready to enter the European market with pressure.
And so it happened - in 1986, the first / next generation Sunny was introduced in Europe, which in the European market received the designation N13, and outside Europe was signed with the symbol B12. Both versions, the European N13 and the Asian B12, were technical and technological unity, but the body of the European version was designed almost from scratch to satisfy the tastes of a demanding customer.
In 1989, the Japanese version of the Nissan Sunny B13 was introduced, which Europe had to wait until 1991 (Sunny N14). The cars differed only slightly from each other and were driven by the same power units with slightly different power. It was this generation that made the Sunny synonymous with reliable Japanese engineering. In reliability statistics, as well as according to the reviews of the owners, the Sunny N14 is considered one of the best and most durable cars of the Japanese concern. Unfortunately, the ascetic character and even ascetic equipment made the car perform its main task, which was to transport from point A to point B, but it did not offer anything else. Such an indestructible "workhorse" ...
In 1995, the time has come for a successor named ... Almera. At least in Europe, the model is still produced in Japan under the same name. And now, unfortunately, in the European market, the life of one of the most "fun" cars on the market is over. At least by name...
