Datsun Cherry 100A

The Datsun Cherry was a series of subcompact cars which formed Nissan's first front-wheel drive supermini model line. The Cherry featured the front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout. The Cherry line includes the E10 and F10. Nissan's direct successor was the Nissan March/Micra. Although the third generation of this platform was renamed March/Micra, the "Cherry" name proved popular in Europe, so it was transferred to the larger Nissan Pulsar line for Europe.

In Japan, the Cherry was exclusive to Nissan Cherry store locations.

On the UK market, it debuted just before the company's surge in sales, which saw it sell just over 6,000 cars in 1971 and more than 30,000 the following year. Although its successor was launched in 1974, such was the original model's popularity on the UK market that it was not replaced there until 1976. Originally, before combining with Nissan Motors, the Prince Motor Company plan of development was to mass-produce a front-engine, front-wheel drive car, but after the Prince and Nissan merger of 1966, the Cherry was released in 1970 as Nissan's first front-wheel drive car. In Asian markets there was also a "Cherry Cab" cabover truck model (C20), which was closely related to the Nissan Sunny—it was also marketed as the "Sunny Cab".

Nissan Cherry
In Europe, E10 was called Nissan 100A(the Datsun brand being used in place of Nissan in the other markets at that time) (with A10 engine) or Nissan 120A(A12, but this engine was only available with the coupé body style, also a semi automatic version of the ordinary car available in 1978). Reportedly, market names of Cherry and Nissan 1000 were also used, however the Datsun 1000 name was associated with the early Nissan Sunny and Nissan Bluebird. The Cherry was introduced in Japan at a specially established dealership sales channel called Nissan Cherry Shop, whereas the Sunny was sold at Nissan Satio Shop, and the Bluebird was sold at the Nissan Bluebird Shop. As the Cherry F-II successor flagged in the market, the somewhat smaller E10 Cherry continued to be sold up until 1977 in many places.

With the launch of the Cherry in 1971, Datsun's prominence in the UK market grew. In the early 1970s, as the British auto-industry faltered, Datsun led the charge of Japanese auto-manufacturers rapidly gaining market share in the UK. Britain's Motor magazine polled readers about their cars, including, in February 1973, those who owned E10 Cherrys. The question given greatest prominence was the final one which asked whether or not respondents would buy another car of the same model: 76 percent of Cherry owning respondents answered "yes", which was the top score for this question achieved by any model to date, and beat even the 66 percent "yes" score given by owners of the previous leader, the Volkswagen Beetle, at the time well known in the UK for its owners' brand loyalty.