However, a UK factory seemed wholly logical. The Thatcher government actively encouraged Nissan to invest in the North East and the Japanese concern, initially using its Datsun brand, had been established in the UK for 16 years. In 1970 it held 0.2 per cent of the market, rising to more than 5 per cent by 1975, when it was the UK’s leading car importer.
In response, trade body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) negotiated an 11 per cent quota for all Japanese car sales that year to protect domestic production.
Nissan decided to build only the front-wheel-drive 1985 T12-series Bluebird in the UK. In the tradition of incredibly complicated Japanese model line-ups, the T12 was known as the Auster in Japan and the Stanza in the US.
This newspaper reported that, unlike the Japanese Nissan operations, the UK factory would have “no company song, and morning exercises would be optional”.
On July 8 1986, the first T12 Bluebird left the UK production line near Washington, Tyne and Wear; it now resides in the Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens.
Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister at the time, officially opened the plant on September 8 1986. The T12’s body panels and all major components, shipped in from Japan, were still classed as part of the 11 per cent import quota. Nissan announced it sought to achieve at least 60 per cent local content, which would class the T12 as a domestic product.
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