Nissan Laurel

The Nissan Laurel was introduced by Nissan in 1968 as a new model designed to slot above the 1968 Datsun Bluebird 510, with the same sense of luxury found in the Nissan Cedric 130 but with slightly reduced dimensions.

The first Laurel was developed by the Nissan Tsurumi R&D Division and assembled at the Musashimurayama Plant of the former Prince. There were both 2-door and 4-door variants. It was released as a Nissan after Prince merged with Nissan. Laurels for years shared many components and architectures with the Skyline range. The Laurel was not sold new in Japan at dealerships that sold the Skyline and Gloria, former Prince products. Instead the Laurel was sold at Nissan Motor Shop as the top model.

Since 1968, eight generations of Laurel have been produced in Japan. Nissan intermittently listed the Laurel for sale in various Asian and European markets (it was also sold in Chile, as the Datsun Laurel, starting in the late seventies), and then discontinued the export of this model from 1989.