The Nissan Laurel is a front-engine, rear-drive two- and four-door sedan manufactured and marketed by Nissan from 1969 to 2002. Introduced in 1968 as a new model positioned above the 1968 Datsun Bluebird 510, the Laurel offered the luxury of the Nissan Cedric 130 in a smaller size. In Japan, the Laurel was marketed solely as a Nissan model, rather than a Datsun model. The first Laurel was developed by the Nissan Tsurumi R&D Division and assembled at the Musashimurayama Plant of the former Prince Motor Company in 2-door and 4-door variants. Released as a Nissan after Prince merged with Nissan, Laurels shared many components and architectures with the Skyline range. The Laurel was not marketed new in Japan at Nissan Prince Shop locations that sold the Skyline and Gloria, former Prince products. Instead the Laurel was sold at Nissan Motor Shop as the junior model to the larger V8-powered Nissan President. Since 1968, eight generations of Laurel have been manufactured in Japan. Nissan intermittently listed the Laurel for sale in various Asian and European markets (it was also sold in Chile, Panama and other South American markets as the Datsun Laurel or Datsun 200l included Argentina, starting in the late seventies), and then mostly discontinued the export of this model from 1989. The Laurel was cancelled subsequent to Nissan's alliance with Renault. First generation (C30; 1968–1972) In April 1968 Nissan presented its new Laurel in four-door deLuxe and Super deLuxe versions, both equipped with a 1.8 L inline-four engine and independent rear suspension. In June 1970 a two-door hardtop coupé joined the lineup, as a junior version of the all-new Nissan Cedric/Gloria coupe, and one year later a 2000 cc engine became available in the four-door sedan as well. Its competitors at introduction were the Toyota Corona Mark II sedan, the Isuzu Bellel, and the Mazda Luce which was introduced in 1966. The Laurel did not sell as well as expected, largely because the design was too similar to that of the smaller, cheaper Bluebird (510) which was developed as a competitor before Nissan bought Prince. This car was developed by the Nissan Tsurumi vehicle development team, but the C30 Laurel was fitted with the Prince four-cylinder SOHC engine, the G18 of 1,815 cc capacity. Conversely, the GC10 Skyline 2000GT was developed by the former Prince Ogikubo vehicle development team but was fitted with Nissan's L20 six-cylinder SOHC engine.