The car featured a four-cylinder in-line engine, the A10, with a total displacement of 988 cc and a four-speed gearbox. In December 1965, Nissan held a national campaign in Japan to name its newest product in a mail-in ballot, and after receiving over eight million submissions, the name Sunny was chosen after having been suggested 3,105 times and was announced on 19 February 1966 by Yoshisuke Ayukawa, Nissan Motors founder. The Sunny was introduced in the same year as the Toyota Corolla and Subaru 1000.

In Japan the car was sold at a dealership sales channel established just for the Sunny, called Nissan Satio Store. The front end used a single transverse leaf spring. These were available in both a 'Standard' and 'Deluxe' version, featuring drum brakes, conventional leaf springs at the rear and wishbone type independent front end. The Sunny was an all-new product built on a dedicated platform called the 'B' series that benefited from Nissan's production of small cars since before the war and combined engineering efforts from newly acquired Aichi Manufacturing that met the goals set by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry ' national car' program. The first Datsun Sunny, exported as the Datsun 1000, was launched in September 1966 with two body styles, a two-door sedan (B10) and a van/station wagon (VB10). The Sunny was sold in Japan at a dedicated dealership sales channel called Nissan Satio Store, and rebadged versions later appeared at the other Japanese networks. Some configurations appear to be unique based on bodystyle appearances, but sharing a common platform.

The Sunny has been imported and later manufactured worldwide under numerous names, and body styles, in economical, luxury and performance packages. The 'Sunny' name has been used on other Nissan models, notably various export versions of the Nissan Pulsar model line. It was designed to compete with the Toyota Corolla. All Sunnys through the 1982 model year (except as noted below) used Nissan A engine motors.

Earlier versions (through at least the B11 series) were subcompact cars. The latest versions of the Sunny were larger than the early models, and may be considered compact cars. In North America, the later models were known as the Nissan Sentra in Mexico, the Sunny is known as the Nissan Tsuru, which is Japanese for the bird species ' crane'. Although production of the Sunny in Japan ended in 2006, the name remains in use in China and GCC countries for a rebadged version of the Nissan Almera. In the early 1980s, the brand changed from Datsun to Nissan in line with other models by the company. The Nissan Sunny ( Japanese: 日産・サニー, Hepburn: Nissan Sanī) is an automobile built by the Japanese automaker Nissan from 1966 to 2006. Nissan Bluebird Sylphy (G11)/ Nissan Tiida (C11) (Asia)

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