Quote:
Originally Posted by theDreamer
Read it and one of the comments is correct.
The Z is beaten in most of the categories it competes in by any other competitor, and then the price is in a bracket that is not the best value for what you get.
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WRONG. Science: The Z is perfect.
It's an interesting write-up on a discussion we've kicked around in here already.
There's a couple things to consider. First, the early 2000s were dominated by import tuning. American "sports" cars were GARBAGE. Since the retro phase came back ~2005, they've really improved and seen a lot of sales. I see far fewer entry-mid level sports cars on the road today, probably due to the economic pinch of the last decade. However, with things starting to turn around, cars like the FR-S/BRZ have better chances of succeeding.
Also, 03 was the first year of the 350Z, which I think was more of a brand new car to most people than the 370z. It had less in common with the 300ZX than the 370 does with the 350, visually and mechanically.
And, as has been beaten to death in the forums, the 370z is part of a dying breed. (Relatively) Big displacement, naturally aspirated, kinda-heavy cars are vanishing. The VQ can't hang around much longer. At this point it would be a freshman in college. It's reliable, it's just old.
As for a BRZ/FR-S competitor, it's also been droned on and on about that EVERY car company wants a competitor for it. I'm of the opinion that Nissan keeps the Z with 240 option beneath it. I think it'd really suck if Nissan's performance options were either a featherweight introductory sports car or a $100k super car with nothing in between. But, of course I'm biased (toward awesome).
In 2009, the Z was way higher on the food chain than it is now. It had more power than the V6 Mustang of that year, more than the V8 Mustang of the previous generation, and offered a much better driving experience. V8 muscle cars are (kind of) immune to the demand for more advanced/efficient engineering, because their market still wants to go fast in a straight line after shredding some rubber. Cars with smaller engines (V6 and under) have to face this challenge head on, because that market doesn't buy cars to spit Skoal and listen to Van Halen. We want more out of our engineering.
Any way you slice it, Nissan's got their work cut out for them. The Z has, in my perception, always resided in the gray area between GTIs, Civic Sis, etc and V8 muscle. It's a tough role to play.