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". The latest versions of the Sunny were larger than the early models, and may be considered compact cars. Earlier versions (through at least the B11 series) were subcompact cars. All Sunnys through the 1982 model year (except as noted below) used Nissan A engine motors. It was designed to compete with the Toyota Corolla.