Rumour Mill: Next Z car to be a crossover

Vette Boss said:
People stopped buying Z-cars as coupes, so they're trying this. People get the car they deserve.
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People stopped buying them because it's far too expensive for this impractical of a car. The 370Z costs $50k when it's all said and done - that's deep into BMW territory - and when people have that much money to spend on a frivolous 2-seater, they don't buy a f'in Nissan. Apparently they've dropped the price way down recently but too little too late. They should have made the 510 successor they said they were going to make - but I'm sure they would have over-priced that as well.

All of these car companies are thinking "How much could we sell this for?" instead of "How much do we NEED to sell this for?" See, if you only sell the car for what you need to sell it for, lots of people buy them, which leads to lots of rolling billboards, which leads to more people buying them. But if you jack the price way up because you got a ton of pre-orders, well, this is what happens.
 
Cavi Mike said:
People stopped buying them because it's far too expensive for this impractical of a car. The 370Z costs $50k when it's all said and done - that's deep into BMW territory - and when people have that much money to spend on a frivolous 2-seater, they don't buy a f'in Nissan. Apparently they've dropped the price way down recently but too little too late. They should have made the 510 successor they said they were going to make - but I'm sure they would have over-priced that as well.

All of these car companies are thinking "How much could we sell this for?" instead of "How much do we NEED to sell this for?" See, if you only sell the car for what you need to sell it for, lots of people buy them, which leads to lots of rolling billboards, which leads to more people buying them. But if you jack the price way up because you got a ton of pre-orders, well, this is what happens.
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This.

Nissan needed the Z to cost V6 Pony car money, instead it cost Corvette/uber-Pony money. If you had that kind of coin lying around, you weren't buying the also-ran meh-sounding VQ-mobile.
 
Vette Boss said:
The VQ35-series has always had a sort of bland just a noise note to me, it's not that pleasant. German 6-cylinders usually sound much nicer, especially I-6 and VR6.
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I always thought the same but when I drove a first-gen FX35, I was very surprised by how good it sounded from inside. Far, far better than from the outside; I wonder if you just hear more of the intake from the inside and exhaust from the outside.


Cavi Mike said:
People stopped buying them because it's far too expensive for this impractical of a car. The 370Z costs $50k when it's all said and done - that's deep into BMW territory - and when people have that much money to spend on a frivolous 2-seater, they don't buy a f'in Nissan. Apparently they've dropped the price way down recently but too little too late. They should have made the 510 successor they said they were going to make - but I'm sure they would have over-priced that as well.

All of these car companies are thinking "How much could we sell this for?" instead of "How much do we NEED to sell this for?" See, if you only sell the car for what you need to sell it for, lots of people buy them, which leads to lots of rolling billboards, which leads to more people buying them. But if you jack the price way up because you got a ton of pre-orders, well, this is what happens.
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HatePersonified said:
This.

Nissan needed the Z to cost V6 Pony car money, instead it cost Corvette/uber-Pony money. If you had that kind of coin lying around, you weren't buying the also-ran meh-sounding VQ-mobile.
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Sorry to break up the BMW circle jerk, but the 370Z starts at $29,990 and the cheapest BMW with similar power, the 235i, starts at $44k.
 
LeVeL said:
Sorry to break up the BMW circle jerk, but the 370Z starts at $29,990 and the cheapest BMW with similar power, the 235i, starts at $44k.
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NOW it does cause Nissan realized they done fucked up. for years you could buy a fully loaded Camaro SS or 5.0 Mustang for the same money, and get more seats, more room and a better interior, which is especially shocking in the Camaro's case.

2012 370Z MSRP: ~40k
2012 Camaro 2SS MSRP: ~41K
2012 Mustang Boss 302 MSRP: ~40k


It was during these years that Nissan needed the 370 to sell, but they decided to price it in the stratosphere against far superior machines.
 
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HatePersonified said:
NOW it does cause Nissan realized they done fucked up. for years you could buy a fully loaded Camaro SS or 5.0 Mustang for the same money, and get more seats, more room and a better interior, which is especially shocking in the Camaro's case the exchange rate between the yen and the dollar is now more favorable.
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FTFY.
 
HatePersonified said:
NOW it does cause Nissan realized they done fucked up. for years you could buy a fully loaded Camaro SS or 5.0 Mustang for the same money, and get more seats, more room and a better interior, which is especially shocking in the Camaro's case.

2012 370Z MSRP: ~40k
2012 Camaro 2SS MSRP: ~41K
2012 Mustang Boss 302 MSRP: ~40k


It was during these years that Nissan needed the 370 to sell, but they decided to price it in the stratosphere against cars that could beat on it like Mike Tyson in his prime versus a cruiserweight.
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Fuck you need all those seats for? That's an argument I never got "but you get more space!" It's frigging toy for having fun in, yes I wish mine was a 2+2 because kids but really it's not a car to go against ponies it's a car for people who want a Miata/FBRZ with more power. If you need space get a sedan with some grunt under the hood.
You are never beating the ponies in the price/powerrrr :clarkson: department, V8 Mustang is around 40K (much less with incentives) and easily matches M3/4 on the track. Maro and Chally are a bit more straight line cars but Ze Germans don't start keeping up with them until you get into way more money territory.

P.S. When new 300zx TT (and Supra TT and 3000GT VR-4 and RX-7) cost around 40k as well but of course at the time they had no real competition from anyone else.
 
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LeVeL said:
Sorry to break up the BMW circle jerk, but the 370Z starts at $29,990 and the cheapest BMW with similar power, the 235i, starts at $44k.
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Like I said, Nissan just dropped the price way down on the Z, but too little too late. And anyone who's driven a Z as well as a comparable BMW will let you know that the Z's power is way over-rated and the BMW's is way UNDER-rated. Even the Nismo version of the 370Z can't touch the M235i's acceleration numbers, and that car starts at $42k. You only need a 228i to hang with the 370Z, and that car starts at $33k, which is about where the 370Z used to start. Sounds like you're jerking the Z here, because I'm just stating real-world facts.
 
Cavi Mike said:
Like I said, Nissan just dropped the price way down on the Z, but too little too late. And anyone who's driven a Z as well as a comparable BMW will let you know that the Z's power is way over-rated and the BMW's is way UNDER-rated. Even the Nismo version of the 370Z can't touch the M235i's acceleration numbers, and that car starts at $42k. You only need a 228i to hang with the 370Z, and that car starts at $33k, which is about where the 370Z used to start. Sounds like you're jerking the Z here, because I'm just stating real-world facts.
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It's not about what car is better bang for your buck, if you really wanna look at it this way Z's running costs are way lower than BMW's even ignoring Japanese vs German reliability. Also you are kind of comparing apples to oranges here, the better comparison would be BMW Z roadster as it's a similar class/type of a sports car.

Either way it's not about the Z's value proposition, cars are a very personal choice, especially sports cars that are generally bought because of a want rather than a need. The problem is that instead of either improving the Z as a proper two seater sports car that it has been since 1970 they are slapping the badge on some stupid crossover. It's as if Porsche called the Cheyenne a 911.
 
The Z was just a blatant rip-off of a Jag - but they weren't denying it and it had the price tag to match. You can't hark back to the days of when you were just a wannabe and claim nostalgia. As far as comparing it to BMW's roadster, the real problem is that Nissan doesn't have a car to put up against the BMW - but they sure didn't mind charging you BMW prices for it.

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2006 350Z MSRP = $34,350

Just came across that nice little tidbit of info in this article I was reading comparing the Z to the E
http://www.hemmings.com/hsx/stories/2006/09/01/hmn_feature22.html
 
I really hope this is a rumor. For a while nissan kept saying they were going to go back to what the 240 was back in the day, a low priced, smaller, basic sports car. Some of the guys at ZCON this year said the new Z was gonna be a 4 cylinder turbo, with some styling from the IDX concept car. Which I think looks more like a celica than a 510.
 
The Z was just a blatant rip-off of a Jag - but they weren't denying it and it had the price tag to match. You can't hark back to the days of when you were just a wannabe and claim nostalgia.
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I'm not really sure where you are going with this, no matter how it started (though looks more like a Ferrari 250GT than an E type to me honestly, even though I know E-type played a big role in the design) the Z badge has a specific history behind it, the Fairlady Z is a 2 seater (sometimes 2+2) fastback sports car.
P.S. Also the Z styling has grown quite unique since the S30Z days so that's not really an argument that makes any sense anymore either.
As far as comparing it to BMW's roadster, the real problem is that Nissan doesn't have a car to put up against the BMW - but they sure didn't mind charging you BMW prices for it.
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That's completely irrelevant, whether you think that the Z is no match for any BMW or that it costs more than it should has nothing to do with this discussion.

The problem is taking a well known sports car and making it into something else for no real reason. What if BMW made an M3 a cross over? I don't mean the X3M (does that exist?) or something like that, but if they completely dropped the M3 sedan and made a crossover called M3, it would make no sense at all.
2006 350Z MSRP = $34,350
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I'm sure it's true but what does it matter?

The 1996 (last year it was made) 300ZX Twin Turbo had a base MSRP of $45,422 in todays money it's $69,084.86, hell the cheapest model (N/A 2 seater) was $37,439 or $56,943.07 it looks like prices went down quite a bit ;)

Also Nissan has a car BMW can't even hope to touch ;)

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socorob said:
I really hope this is a rumor. For a while nissan kept saying they were going to go back to what the 240 was back in the day, a low priced, smaller, basic sports car. Some of the guys at ZCON this year said the new Z was gonna be a 4 cylinder turbo, with some styling from the IDX concept car. Which I think looks more like a celica than a 510.
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Agree on the IDX did not look like a dime to me at all.

EDIT: Decided to research the Z4 roadster for the hell of it.
Since you claim the power is underrated on BMW and overrated on the Z I am going to only post 0-60 times and MSRP:
Z4 (base model):
0-60: 5.6sec
MSRP: 49,250

370Z (base model):
0-60: 5.1sec
MSRP: 29,990 (current), $40ish (claimed by you)

So you would need to be pay 9 grand more to get a slightly slower car from Ze Germans, I really don't see how it's "too expensive"
P.S. The NISMO model does 0-60 in 4.6, so for about a price of a base Z4 you can get a much faster car.
 
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There was a 370 nismo (I think) at the drag event at zcon and he was running about 14 seconds in the quarter give or take on a really slippery track that everyone was having trouble getting traction on.
https://youtu.be/2-puMpWAImQ
 
Price depends in what part of the world ya live in.

Brand new BMW M235i in Norway: $89 613 USD
Brand new 370Z base model in Norway: $98 304 USD
Brand new BMW z4 sDrive35is in Norway: $116 386 USD
 
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prizrak said:
too much rambling
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Have fun with your over-priced, under-powered Z cars, I couldn't care less how much you sweat them.

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Oh and I'm not some BMW fanatic either, I only buy a car based on 4 criteria:

Cheap
Lightweight
RWD
Manual transmission

Which is why I owned 2 old corollas, an S12 200SX, and a handful of BMW's. If the Z ever comes down to realistic prices, I'll probably own one of those as well, but considering how many fanboy's there are claiming "heritage" on a car that was a blatant copy that also try to claim it wasn't, yeah, I doubt that will happen any time soon.
 
Cavi Mike said:
Have fun with your over-priced, under-powered Z cars, I couldn't care less how much you sweat them.

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Oh and I'm not some BMW fanatic either, I only buy a car based on 4 criteria:

Cheap
Lightweight
RWD
Manual transmission

Which is why I owned 2 old corollas, an S12 200SX, and a handful of BMW's. If the Z ever comes down to realistic prices, I'll probably own one of those as well, but considering how many fanboy's there are claiming "heritage" on a car that was a blatant copy that also try to claim it wasn't, yeah, I doubt that will happen any time soon.
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tumblr_n7pfe72PRR1s2jb5co1_500.gif
 
Albrecht Goertz designed a sports car for Nissan. They said his design had nothing to do with the design of the Z but they have some similarities. He also designed the 503 and 507 for BMW. He had pop up headlights that looked like a Corvette Stingray which I'm glad Nissan ditched.
http://zhome.com/Carl/Shin.htm
 
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