Whether you know this car as the Santana, the Quantum, the Corsar, the Carat or the Passat, you know it was made by the good people at Volkswagen. Sometimes in Brazil, for a very long time in China (made by the SAIC-VW joint-venture) and, of course, in what was then West Germany, the VW badge on this saloon left no doubt as to its manufacturer. Except this one. Like all the Japanese-market Santanas, it was actually made by Nissan.
Sometimes, when researching certain JDM-centric subjects, there is little material to be found online. But not in this case. The strange, convoluted and ultimately unsuccessful Nissan-VW experiment is copiously documented and discussed (at least, on Japanese-language sites), so I’ll focus on that, rather than the Santana/Quantum/etc. we are all presumably somewhat familiar with, thanks at least in part to several in-depth CC posts (like this one) on the matter.
So how did Nissan come to manufacture a large Volkswagen saloon in the mid-to-late ‘80s? It was all in the interest of easing what the Japanese Ministry for International Trade and Industry termed as “trade friction.” Throughout the ‘70s, Japanese automakers’ exports had grown exponentially, while foreign car sales in Japan did not. Some imports did trickle in, but it was nothing compared to the ever-increasing amounts of Japanese cars being sold overseas. This trade imbalance was seen, even from the Japanese perspective, as a potential problem, especially when it came to the European market.
To continue increasing their market share in Europe while minimizing political fallout, Japanese automakers employed several tactics. One was modern products (especially FWD hatchbacks), which were in the pipeline. Another was local assembly lines, the first of which were being set-up by Honda and Nissan in the UK. Tie-ups with European makers (Honda and BL, Nissan and Alfa, Mazda and Ford) were also explored – Japanese investment in Europe quadrupled between 1981 and 1987. The final component, and by far the thorniest, was to figure out a way to give European cars a little more market share in Japan. What was needed, in a way, was a reverse Triumph Acclaim.
In December 1980, Nissan issued a statement that they and Volkswagen were in talks to “establish a general cooperative relationship with the aim of contributing to the resolution of international trade problems.” The first order of business was to ascertain what VW product Nissan could produce and sell on the JDM. The new Passat, to be launched in 1981, was to include notchback variant that seemed to be an ideal candidate: comparable Nissans at the time (Bluebird, Skyline, Laurel, etc.) were RWD, so the Santana would be a decent enough alternative.
At the 1981 Tokyo Motor Show, just after the Santana’s launch in Frankfurt, Nissan issued a statement that they would start production of the new VW saloon by 1983. They were tabling on 60k units per annum, aiming at 120k by 1988, if everything went according to plan. Exports to RHD Southeast Asian markets were also on the cards. Twenty-five years after the last Japanese-built Austins had left their factories, Nissan were back in the licensing game.
A few adaptations would be needed, such as flatter side trim and slightly narrower bumpers to keep the car within the all-important “mid-size” tax band measurements, a right-hand drive dash, a revised hood pressing to fit reversed RHD wipers, wing-mounted turn signal repeaters and a JDM-specific (but very close to EU-spec) headlight and grille combo. Aside from that (and the Nissan-branded chassis identification plate), what was internally known as the M30 was pure VW. The engines – the 1588cc turbo-Diesel, the 1780cc straight-4 and the 1994cc 5-cyl. – were imported straight from the Bundesrepublik, as were transmissions (5-speed manual or 3-speed auto) and the ZF steering assembly, but everything else (about 70% of the car) was made at Nissan’s plant in Zama, just south of Tokyo.
There were a number of issues from the get-go. The German way of assembling a car and the Japanese methods were apparently quite different. The Japanese philosophy was to improve efficiency by adapting the methods and, to an extent, the blueprint. The German mentality was to train the workforce to manufacture the product exactly as specified. The 1983 launch date turned out to be a little optimistic – the Santana’s Japanese launch took place in February 1984.
Initial reviews were positive: the car was deemed very competent and well-equipped (A/C was standard, for instance, unlike any domestic car except the most luxurious models), with excellent passenger space and roadholding. There were a few niggles, of course: the ride and seats were deemed a little on the hard side, the interior felt a bit stark and the options list looked extremely limited, especially for this segment.
Priced between ¥1.9m-2.7m, the Santana was pretty expensive for its size, especially for a car that lacked a 6-cyl. engine. Compared to genuine imports however, it was a bargain, costing less than a Jetta, or even a Golf GTI. Surely the high-quality image of German cars would help this Bluebird-sized but Gloria-priced machine win the hearts, minds and wallets of the Japanese enthusiasts?
Alas, the Santana’s sales only beat expectations in its inital weeks. Before the end of 1984, monthly numbers hovered between 1000 and 2000 units, well below expectations. In January 1987, the Santana was given a mild facelift and the highest-spec 2000 Xi5 Autobahn received an updated engine, now featuring two overhead cams and 140hp, up from 110hp with the SOHC engine. The slow-selling turbo-Diesel was dropped and the 1.8 litre, pared down to just one trim level, became the base model.
Our feature car is one of those top-of-the-line models. We can also see here that the distribution of the Santana was undertaken by the Nissan Sunny stores, one of the carmaker’s four dealer networks at the time. Santanas, being badged as Volkswagens, were also available at the Yanase network, alongside imported VWs. From Yanase’s point of view, this competition from within Japan was causing a significant amount of damage to their imported VW sales, which in turn soured the importer’s relationship with Wolfsburg.
In a further stroke of bad luck, the Santana’s hitherto impeccable technical characteristics came under scrutiny when issues came to light about the car’s idle speed control system, manufactured by German company VDO. There were a number of cases when Santanas fitted with automatic gearboxes suddenly accelerated on their own. VW had replaced the system at least twice, in 1985 and 1987, but had not issued a fleet-wide recall as such. This issue was publicly discussed at the Japanese Diet in September 1987, when a member, with explicit reference to the VW Santana, asked the Ministry of Transport to investigate these uncontrolled acceleration incidents.
After such publicity, Santana sales in Japan cratered. Production carried on until late 1989 at a reduced rate, but the inventory was such that sales lasted until the summer of 1990. All in all, Nissan had built just shy of 50,000 Volkswagens between 1984 and 1989 – an underwhelming result considering the car-buying frenzy that the country was going through at the time. Naturally, resale values was also adversely affected by all this, so survivor cars are now very rare.
VW, who were a little dubious about the whole affair from the beginning, managed to preserve their image thanks to their smaller cars, but they had burned their bridges with their local importer and were forced to set up their own distribution network in Japan. The Nissan tie-up also went nowhere: the partnership was dissolved and, by 1991, VW had worked out a joint-venture with Toyota instead.
For their part, Nissan engineers and production managers claimed that the experience was a useful one for them, as it provided them with a lot of practical knowledge about German automotive know-how. This was apparently used immediately in the Primera, which debuted in 1990. On the whole though, the Santana saga is one that was not remembered fondly by anyone involved. Unlike elsewhere around the globe, in Japan, the Quantum just didn’t compute.
Related posts:
Curbside Classic: Volkswagen Quantum – The Bad Old Days, by Perry Shoar
Curbside Classic: 1985 VW Quantum (Passat B2) – Quantum Mechanics, by PN
Curbside Recycling: 1987 Volkswagen Quantum GL5 Syncro Wagon – Feeling Blue, by Jim Klein
Vintage R&T Review: 1983 VW Quantum GL5 and Turbo-Diesel – VW Goes Upmarket, by PN
Cars Of A Lifetime: 1987 VW Quantum Wagon – An Audi of Solace, by JunkHarvester
I’d utterly forgotten about this, or maybe never knew about it; same difference. Thanks for the refresher or education.
When I was in Japan in 1981 on a business trip, our main host was a successful independent businessman who drove an Audi 100 sedan. I noticed a pretty fair number of Audis, VWs and other German cars. It was obvious that German cars were held in high esteem and had a lot of prestige, due to their engineering rep.
Two things come up for me with this story. First is part of why I refuse to buy anything Japanese when it comes to cars. The short side of things is that I really dislike how the Japanese companies do business. I’ll leave it at that because I could write a short book on that one. The other part of why I won’t buy Japanese is because I visited Japan in late 1986 on a college trip. Being from the US and being used to seeing so many Japanese brand cars here, I was shocked that I saw nearly no US brand cars when there. Part of our trip was staying with a host family and I finally got the courage to ask them why so few American brand cars. They were happy to answer: Because the Japanese government did everything they could to discourage them from buying American! Between the massive regulations and outlandish tax on them, the Japanese people really couldn’t afford them and that’s how the Japanese government wanted it (according to the family). This article really gave me a flash back to all that. They didn’t play fair back then and I don’t think they do yet today.
The second silly thing I noticed from this article that also brought back memories? Look at the pictures of the back of that car. There’s a LOT of stuff stuck to it. It’s not nearly as bad today, but years ago the Japanese brands used to love to stick tons of emblems on the cars. Just a few I recall: Fuel Injection. All Wheel Drive. Automatic. Front Wheel Drive, etc. That was all above the normal brand and model names. I think Subaru used to be the worst for that. Not a bad thing, but just make me laugh.
At least the second problem you mentioned can be solved with a hot air dryer…
Two things in reply, if I may.
1: Let’s remember what American cars were like in 1986. I don’t think many were sold outside of North America. That wasn’t the case 25 years earlier. But even back then, American cars were a bit too large for practical use in many countries. Did you also go to, say, Italy and wonder why they were all driving little Fiats rather than Chevy Caprices? It’s not just because of ill-intent and protectionism. Kei cars exist here (and are not sold abroad, for the most part) for a reason. They fit.
2: If we wanted things to be “fair”, then imagine the US hosting a dozen large Japanese military bases, half the music on the radio and movies at the cinema being in Japanese, Japanese fast food in every city street, Japanese signage pretty much everywhere… American dominance is total, permanent and everywhere you look in this country. So maybe Japan can be allowed to have a competitive advantage in cars, motorbikes, cameras and a few other products without causing offence.
@Tatra87 and Peter: I can agree with some of those points. However, don’t shoot the messenger. I (above) relayed exactly what the Japanese family told me. I can’t dispute what they told me even if it wasn’t the whole story per se.
Some things we can agree to disagree on. Example, from 1988 to 1995 and again from 2007 till 2011 I sold at a dealership with Buick, Cadillac, GMC and Honda. My experience with Honda first hand is what helped form my views yet today. Now since 2016, I’ve been at a dealership with Mazda and Volvo. Again, my experience both years ago and yet today is that the quality of the vehicles is more perception than reality. My ex wife had a 2003 Camry with low miles when we met and that car cost us plenty to keep it in top running order. After the divorce, she drove the car a few more years and finally had to get rid of it due to the massive costs to keep it running. I have a buddy who’s been with a Toyota dealer for over 30 years now and he has shared many stories. My point is that this myth of Japanese cars being better than American brands is just that. A myth. Were there better years or worse years for both? Yes. But I will continue with my views based on personal experience, professional experience and what I was told by those who I stayed with when in Japan.
Interesting, Dan.
Conversely, I always buy Japanese when possible because of the sheer quality and likely longevity of the product. That’s become increasingly difficult these days, with the market being flooded with cheap stuff from China which I avoid as far as possible for the same reason: product quality.
And I second what Tatra says, it applies to Australia too. We’re a big country as well, but not like the US in many ways. Automotively, we have less freeways, much dearer fuel costs, and the expectation that a car will last.
American-market cars just didn’t suit many overseas markets, even without any government interference. Size. Fuel consumption. Suspension tune. That’s just three factors off the top of my head. That’s why your American Big Three sell totally different cars in many overseas markets. The product has to suit the needs of the local people, or they go elsewhere.
I’m reluctant to enter this recurring type of debate, but let me just point out one factual detail: Unlike the US, which has had a 2.5% import tariff on cars for decades, Japan has never, ever had any sort of import tariff or tax on cars, at least in the modern era, well before this time.
Due to the large trade imbalance, there was a genuine effort to sell American cars in Japan, the most notable one being the Toyota Cavalier:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/history/toyota-week-postscript-1995-2000-toyota-cavalier-gm-tries-to-invade-the-japanese-market-with-a-little-help/
It was a bomb, despite Toyota making very serious efforts to make it appealing to Japanese.
American cars were held in quite high esteem in Japan for decades until the 1960s or so. And the real reason why that changed has been well known
and documented for decades: American cars from the late ’60s on simply did not display the obvious level of assembly quality that Japanese (and German) cars did by this time.
It wasn’t so much about reliability, as the Japanese maintain their cars meticulously. It was panel gaps, interior material and assembly quality, and other aspects that were quite visible to the discerning eye in the showroom. As a result American cars were simply seen as not good enough, and shunned accordingly.
The Japanese have a very big thing for engineering and assembly quality, and the German cars were looked up to as having those; American cars didn’t, in their eyes.
American cars were tailored to the specific tastes of American consumers; domestic Japanese cars often had different features and styling and engines and other aspects quite different than the ones that were exported to the US. Just one example: while the Camry became a #1 seller in the US, it never did well at all in Japan.
I could go on, but it was very definitely NOT the government, which actually was very concerned about the trade imbalance. But you can’t force people to buy cars that are not appealing to the consumer.
Super interesting! I had read about this before but not with enough detail or well explained. Sounds like it was purely a political move, hope Nissan got something in exchange for this favour to MITI! Now I’d have to Google about there being DNA from the Santana on the Primera, that id never heard before!
Fascinating, I never heard of this. I wonder how the assembly quality varied between them. The design philosophy difference between VW and Nissan is very interesting too. I’d love to know the kind of details that became sore points
What a strange and intriguing tale, quite unknown to me. Seems outlandish that Nissan would invest in the tools to stamp panels and floorpans and such, not to mention RHD interiors. The research that suggested 100K of these would move along must’ve been quite inscrutable. I wonder if the government, through MITI, helped fund this, to meet the stated aim of addressing that trade imbalance?
I wonder too why such a dull product was chosen? The fundamentals of these aren’t a bad thing – and that 20V five is an absolute cracker – but it’s a very boring exterior.
Now I can be the pub bore who states loudly that Nissan made both Volkswagens and Alfas (the Arna) in its history. Well, if I went to the pub, I could…
“I wonder too why such a dull product was chosen? The fundamentals of these aren’t a bad thing – and that 20V five is an absolute cracker – but it’s a very boring exterior,”
They probably just wanted to play it safe: No experiments, please.
When viewed in light, I think this design is only slightly more boring than that of an Audi 100 Type 43 (C2) or a Volvo 740 (well, maybe not quite as smooth).
I’ve always rather admired this design, especially the tall and airy greenhouse with a rear quarter window large enough to be actually useful, and the tail styling with the unusual (for a sedan) approach of having taillights in a fairly high, narrow, full-width band lending a family resemblance to the sporty Mk2 Scirocco (of all things).
Compared to middle-class and “high owner” Japanese sedans of this time, it’s awash with that distinctive European character people keep insisting that Giugiaro sedan and hatchback designs had. Dull as porridge, not quite dull as dishwater?
Porridge in dishwater, really, and I agree with your Corrado post that the man designed a bunch of stuff that isn’t awfully wondrous, though of course, he designed a bunch that damn well is, and here we are, sat upon a conundrum.
Nuance of good and bad ain’t the zeigeist of now, but you know that.
The Santana! As ex-Japan used imports, these were super-popular in New Zealand all through the 1990s and still reasonably common in the early 2000s. They used to be a daily sight, but it’s a few months since I last saw one. 99% of the ones I’ve seen here were painted the same nondescript grey as the feature car. Just out of school when they started appearing here, I knew Nissan built them, but wondered why they chose that model with its disproportionately-long frontal overhang and general air of old-fashionedness. Even more bizarrely I see they were built in China (albeit heavily facelifted) as late as 2022!
That long front overhang is due to the longitudinal FWD layout with enough room to fit the Audi inline-5 engine, as this model shares its B2 platform with the Audi 80 (4000 in the US), closely related to the similar but larger C1 platform (Audi 100/200/5000).
This layout did turn out to have one significant advantage: having the differential as its own unit sandwiched between the engine and transmission all in a line made it fairly straightforward for Audi to swap in a different diff to create their Quattro AWD system, which did also get adapted to the wagon variant of the B2 Passat/Quantum.
I liked the Quantum though in ’86 I bought a GTi instead. If I’d been a bit older (and more mature no doubt) would have liked to try a Quantum.
The funny thing to me is that I’ve only owned VWs since 1981…and my prior car was a Datsun…didn’t know about the Nissan connection but it’s kind of like I’ve only owned one make my entire time driving (51 years so far). My two youngest sisters took up my lead by buying a total of 4 200 or 240SX’s ….so we tend to lean toward Nissan despite my switch to VW in 1981.