How a customer poll gave Datsun a hatchback for fishermen

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Datsun is gone from the market, but its short history includes a few unusual projects with a Russian flavour. Motor1 Italia has revisited the Datsun mi-DO Outdoor Leisure prototype, unveiled back in 2018. The car was not built as a regular special edition but as an experiment based on a customer survey.

The idea came out of research conducted on Datsun’s social channels. Many owners said they used their car for travel and outdoor trips, while more than a quarter of respondents listed fishing as one of their favourite hobbies. On the back of those answers, the brand decided to show what a car for active leisure and gear hauling might look like.

The donor car was the Datsun mi-DO — a five-door compact hatchback sold in Russia. For the project, the car was modified inside and out, with the focus on practicality during weekend trips out of town. The concept was meant to make it easier to carry fishing tackle, camping kit and other outdoor gear.

Datsun itself called the mi-DO Outdoor Leisure a «laboratory on wheels». Through projects like this, the company wanted to gather customer feedback and figure out which features might be worth putting into future models. The fisherman’s version never reached series production, but it remains a curious example of how a Russian audience could shape an automaker’s thinking.