I would like to ad a couple of comments in support of Alan's post.

Fact - Nissan was already exporting cars to the United States before Mr. K arrived.

Fact - Mr. K was sent to California to conduct a marketing survey, nothing more.

Mr. K was a marketing and advertising executive. His ideas about promoting the Nissan brand were fairly cutting edge to typical Japanese business models of the time. This is but one of the "inside corporate Nissan" issues Alan mentions. The other issue which is far larger, quite misunderstood by Americans, and hardly mentioned in the Hemmings article is the conflict inside the corporate world between business managers and labor unions. The issue is so large and complex that it is difficult to just label it as a conflict. One must study the business practices of the Japanese industrial complex during post WWII reconstruction to properly identify what is simply described as "friction". It was far more than friction. What Alan is pointing out is that what we understand about Mr. K is the way Americans would understand something so complex and outside of our cultural realm. The Hemmings article is a broad stroke of the brush and not anything close to an educated discussion of the circumstantial environment Mr. K prospered in.

Ok, I'm out of things to say. Good post, Alan.

hey Chris I thought I saw an old thread where you or someone here was putting a book together, did that ever happen? with all of this knowledge it would be sad not to get it on print

With all this astute dissension, it makes me wonder, "what happened to the fact checkers and editors at Hemmings? Doesn't anyone over there know what we know on this board (most of what I know about the history of Zs lies in the archives here, thanks mostly to Mr. T, Mr Will and Mr 26th [but in no particular order]). I, for one, would think that SOMEONE from the general car industry would spend a little time perusing the SPECIFIC auto niche websites such as this (and I can think of all of 3 others that are any good) to find out and write about a SMIDGEON of truth, not just regurgitate pure hear-say.

[edit] for spelling errors and to add that I hope a bigwig at Hemmings stumbles on this thread! [/edit]

With all this astute dissension, it makes me wonder, "what happened to the fact checkers and editors at Hemmings? Doesn't anyone over there know what we know on this board (most of what I know about the history of Zs lies in the archives here, thanks mostly to Mr. T, Mr Will and Mr 26th [but in no particular order]). I, for one, would think that SOMEONE from the general car industry would spend a little time perusing the SPECIFIC auto niche websites such as this (and I can think of all of 3 others that are any good) to find out and write about a SMIDGEON of truth, not just regurgitat pure hear-say.

Agreed....but, sadly this "hear-say" perspective is evident in the History channel's story of the Z-car as well.

hrm.... i think they forgot to add that Goatse designed the space shuttle. Although the first mention of Mr. G is vague enough to be correct, it's obvious that the author of this article simply skimmed through someone else's book.

I don't think they have fact checkers at Hemmings, evidently. IMO any mention of Goertz is absurd. But then, this is my hobby and I should know what I'm talking about. Thank you.

The conversation about Mr. K makes me smile also. Please put into perspective that Mr. K is a very accomplished marketing genious. Marketing himself is his livelyhood and he is more than a pro at it. One can easily see it is his passion. He is also one hell of a nice guy.

Yes, Gus, I did write a book (if you could call it that) on my research into the Vintage Z program in 1996 - 1997.

It is easier to write a "Readers Digest" version of what was written back in the day than to research the truth hindsight has uncovered. If you want the clear view of hindsight-always go see those with passion for the subject. Hemmings has evidently condoned trading automotive passion for Cliffs Notes of previous articles. This is the essence of what sometimes happens when a "professional" does a job a passionate enthusiast should do.

Will

Carl and Will, would you be so kind as to let us know if the editor(s) or better yet, the author of the article, responds to your posts?

The Hemmings site admin said he would pass Will and my comments on to the author. So far haven't heard from him. Will let you know if I do...

FWIW,

Carl B.