I haven't had my truck that long, but so far, I am loving it. I bought a '74 F-100 a couple months ago, and find that I like driving it more than I like my '03 Mazda 6. It is a bright *** lime green beast. ( pics in the gallery .)
anyways, the reason I am posting this is my experiences today out driving the beast.
I went to the local Jiffy lube, ( I know i should be doing it myself, but I was pressed for time. ) It seems the truck is a real conversation starter, a couple of people came up and talked to me about it, and their experiences in a similar truck. it drew a lot of attention, mainly the younger guys at Jiffy lube trying to figure out how to drive a 3 on the tree.
Anyways, just wanted to share that, and say I am having a great time with my old ford pickup. I hope to get a few things fixed on the beast so it will really turn heads.

 

Durn right it's more fun to drive than most cars.
In your gallery pics the body looks in good shape, the 300 I6 is a famously stout motor

 

I have a little rust to take care of, the rear quarter panels, and the cab floors. other than that, just some surface rust.

 

Any truck is more fun to drive than a Mazda...Even a Chevy

 

I don't know about a Chevy now! That might be pushin' it!
I do love to drive mine though!

 

Anything with a bed, is much more fun than a car, especially a rice rocket.

 

I wouldn't call the mazda a rice rocket.. they are made by ford afterall.

 

Just like a Toyota plant in TN...That is a marketing ploy to apease the American people. Mitsibishi became Datsun. The name was changed, because Mitsubishi made the motors for the Zeros...The name was not marketable in the US, so Datsun was created...Now you do not see Datsun, but Mitsubishi. I guess the thought is that it was a long time ago and people forgot the facts.

Mazda is still a rice rocket, just like Ford Colts were mostly manufactured in Japan. Cyndi Lauper had a song that applies...Money Changes Everything!

 

Datsun was and is Nissan. They just didn't know how the Nissan line would survive the US market, so they called them Datsuns, then went back to the Nissan name once they saw they could survive.
Mitsu has always been Mitsu.

 

You are right...Had Nissan and Mitsubishi mixed up.

Every Z car enthusiast immediately recognizes the name “Datsun” and many can even come up with the fact that “D.A.T.” of Datsun stood for the initials of the last names of… well, at that point things get a bit fuzzy. But we know where the significance lies and the details are merely a quick review away in the Z.C.C.A.’s Mr. K. book. What may be more interesting is that so many Americans old enough to have been driving a decade or so probably retain enough brand awareness to remember that “Datsun” was once a Japanese car. Probably most remember that Datsuns were what we bought in the good old days and now call Nissans. Thanks to Mr. K., the brand name “Datsun” retains recognition in America right up there with “TWA” and “Coca Cola.”
A few decades back, beginning with an announcement in fall of 1981, Datsun’s parent Nissan Motor Company, Ltd. decided to change the name on cars sold in the United States and Canada from Datsun to Nissan. Actually, getting to either the name “Datsun” or “Nissan” from a standing start is a story filled with history. It begins in the first decades of the 20th century with Japan’s earliest automobile builders, includes the effects of the great Kanto Earthquake of September 1, 1923 and of course WWII. For this article, however, let’s stick to the script and save the full history behind these names for another time.
The name change campaign had a variety of rationales. On the surface, it appears solely business oriented in justification, while other more provocative reasons may exist, especially within the Datsun-centric Z car community. Chapter 3, “Brand Awareness,” of David A. Aaker’s 1991 book: “MANAGING BRAND EQUITY; Capitalizing on the Value of a Brand Name” begins with “The Datsun-Becomes-Nissan Story.” Aaker presents interesting business world facts as to why Nissan made this change. Ultimately, he supports a conclusion that the name change campaign over a 3-year period from 1982 to 1984 cost Nissan in excess of $500 million dollars. Wow! For Z enthusiasts unfamiliar with this little bit of Datsun/Nissan history, here goes.

First up, an examination of why Nissan probably chose to retain the name “Datsun” when they committed to the United States market in 1960. Aaker suggests that the reason involves Japan and WWII. This perspective says the corporate choice favored “Datsun” to distance the parent factory Nissan’s association by Americans with Japanese WWII military manufacture. Even as the first passenger car rolled off the assembly line at their Yokohama plant on April 11, 1935, Nissan had only a few years before all manufacturing shifted to military needs. By 1939 Nissan had moved to Manchuria where its founder and President, Yoshisuke Ayukawa, established the Manchurian Motor Company to manufacture military trucks. Identified by David Halberstam in “The Reckoning” as a well connected, aggressive risk taker, Ayukawa also made himself a principal partner of the Japanese Colonial Government of Manchukuo. Ultimately, Nissan Heavy Industries emerged near the end of WWII as an important player in Japan’s war machinery. When WWII ended, Russia seized and carted off all of Nissan’s Manchuria operations, while the Occupation Forces made use of over 50% of the Yokohama plant. General MacArthur had Ayukawa imprisoned for 21 months as a war criminal. After release he was forbidden from returning to any corporate or public office until 1951. He was never allowed back into Nissan, which returned to passenger car manufacture in 1947 and to its original name of Nissan Motor Company, Ltd. in 1949.

It seems supportable that Americans bought Datsuns instead of Nissans to isolate Datsun from its parent’s WWII history in American memory. American service personnel in their teens or early 20s during WWII would be in prime car-buying age by 1960, if only to find an economical, small second car for their growing family needs. Mr. K would have had his personal WWII history in mind supporting the name Datsun. It is known that Mr. K. was sent to Nissan’s Manchuria truck factory in 1939. Conditions he saw there, briefly described on page 71 of the ZCCA Mr. K. book, were bad enough that he walked away from it. Again in 1945, near the end of WWII, Mr. K. was ordered to return to the Manchurian plant and simply refused. His motto “Love Cars, Love Life, Love People” long predates his work for Datsun in America. For one whose spirit desired to build and sell passenger cars to people using them in peaceful pursuit, it was the name Datsun that survived WWII with its purity intact. So discouraged was Mr. K. about his prospects and goings on at Nissan that he was reportedly on the verge of resigning when Datsun’s 1958 Australian Mobilgas victories vaunted him, as leader of the winning Datsun teams, to national prominence in a Japan intent on regaining status in the world. Then Mr. K came to America. Suffice that as long as Mr. K had any say in matters as West Coast Vice President from 1960 – 1965 and then President of Nissan Motor Company – USA from 1965 to 1975, the cars would be sold as Datsuns.

By the time Nissan began its campaign to change their name, “Datsun” had huge recognition in the American market. Datsun had become solidly entrenched in our automotive vocabulary. Aaker states that in 1981 “the awareness level of Nissan in the U.S. was only 2% as compared to 85% for the Datsun name.”

 

Ah, the wonderful Mr. K. Thanks to him, the 240Z was supposed to be known as the Fairlady Z.
Think a name can make a great car, for lack of a better term, crash and burn? I really don't think Americans would have taken to that name the way the Japanese did.

 

Do you mean the Ford Courier or the Dodge Colt? The Courier was made by Mazda and the Colt by Mitsubishi Motors. In either case they were manufactured in Japan until the US Government made it to expensive to import an assembled car to the US unless a certain percentage were assembled in the US. That is why we have Toyota, Mazda and Honda plants in the US.
Just thought you would like to know.

 

It has become a very global market. I beleive that the Colt was one of the first Fords built in Japan. IMO the only reason that we have labor elsewhere, and other plants are here has to do with the total cost of trade, tariffs and marketing....My F150 was actually assembled in Montreal, CN. Things now have to do with what is correct conceptually, not necessarilly the best or most cost effective way of doing things.

The US response on imports had to do with the trade deficit with Nippan, and was done because of the outcry from the US Automakers and the US people.

 

Colt was Dodge, built by Mitsu- Goofy little car, also the Colt Vista, what i guess would be badged a "crossover SUV" nowadays.
Courier was a Mazda B series pickup with Ford stamped on it's tail. Imported starting in late 60s-early 70s.

 

Yea and don't forget Dodge had the Raider which is the same as the Montero but only did it for a year or 2, they still use the Mitsubishi engines in the Caravans.