You guys drink inside your Z? ;) Wait, there are cup holders? :bowrofl:

I'm not sure the current status update for the 370Z but the next Z seems to be outsourcing the engine to Mercedes I think?

I don't expect this AT ALL, but if there's one feature I love on the more high-end sports cars, that I also wish the Z will have at one point... retractable spoilers.

I love how Porsche's spoilers retract and come up depending on your speed, I think its uber cool.

That would increase the price by a lot, I would think.

oh you mean the 'i'm speeding' sign? most of those spoilers only come up above 65 mph. so pretty much any time a cop sees it up, they know your are speeding. they are a cool idea, but i actually like seeing the wing when i'm not driving too.

well, in that case we can all look forward to eating/sleeping/reading etc while driving because we'll hopefully get that safety system that allows you to not pay any attention and still not crash.

jeff, I really doubt cops use spoilers as a way of telling if you're speeding or not haha.

I think automated stuff always looks cool, hardtop convertibles, reverse sideview mirrors, all the stuff... they're cheap gimmicks that impress imo.

oh i agree, but i don't underestimate the amount of ball busting that cops like to do.

oh god I am a belgian and I still want to eat those quadruple bypass burgers at the Heart attack grill. :roflpuke2:

nissan better comes up with something good for the z because 2012 is about the time when chevrolet will roll out the re-designed corvette c7, camaro z28, and mazda the rx-9, and toyota/subaru the ft-86. much more competitions than right now.

The only car from that line up you gave that's a direct competitor for the Z is the Mazda. Corvette(out of league), (Camaro=not direct competitor), and the Toyota/Subaru are more like competitors for something like the Genesis coupe 2.0T, Civic Si, Cobalt SS, etc.

you are probably right.
my choices in car vary a lot. those choices apply to me but probably not for the majority of potential z buyers.

if gm makes the c7 anything like the stingray concept, i am going to jump ship.

lol you and me both. I've been so curious about owning a Corvette. I've never had American cars before or a V8 powered car for that matter.

me three, I just hate that every other vette owner is like 50, anyone younger than 40 is looked down upon haha.

i think its more like envy... which if thats the case then you must be doing something right.

Hope that they come up with better colors !!!

Not true. I have had a lot of friends that owned them (well, 2, but I keep a small circle of about 8 real friends, so that's a large amount to me, considering over 20% of my friens owned late-model vettes), and they were all early/mid 20's. I plan on buying soon and am mid 20's. Not all 'vette owners are old.

I love this feature too. My 3000GT had it in 1993! The spoiler didnt completely retract, but it did tilt close to a 45 degree angle and a front chin spoiler lowered itself as well. It did this at speeds above 45mph I believe, so not necessarily 65 and speeding.
2 bad things about it though is that over time its very easy for something like this to malfunction (though maybe thats just cuz it was a Mitsu). And 2nd, I saw that the Crossfire got something like this too and it completely turned me off.

haha. i even would consider a corvette powered cadillac cts-v coupe due to its awesome performance/luxury. i wonder what is the average age of the typical cadillac owner :)

If you take out the escalade owners it's probably 60-70. Both my grandparents drive Cadillacs.

thanks. you know, the cts-v exterior is not as nice as the corvette but the interior is a lot better. if they could make the interior of the corvette looking like the cts-v, that would be perfect.

Completely agree. I'm actually a huge corvette fan but the interior is a major weakness. Hopefully the C7 will be better.

:icon18:

Nissan won't do anything but it's fun to speculate. Like others have already commented, there's practically 0 direct competition for the 370z. I might even go far enough to say it's the fastest, nicest, most option-able sports car (not to mention about the ONLY SPORTS CAR) in it's price range.

I actually had someone try to compare a newer Z4 (i6 twin turbo model) with the 370z saying that they're pretty similar... all I did was laugh and point out the fact that even the Nismo 370z is about $6k cheaper than the Z4 and people looking at the Nismo probably didn't even think twice about the Z4.

Maybe we should take a poll for all the people who cross-shopped the 370z and z4. Alright, I counted 0. What'd you guys get? :bowrofl::roflpuke2:

Count 1 here. I looked at both, decided neither offered what I wanted.

The mustang GT is direct competition for the Z except that some of them have back-seats. Other than that, they both pull near 1G on the skidpad, the mustang GT is a lot faster, and the 370Z has a more stylish interior. Kindof a wash and depends on what you look for in a car, but they are in the same price-range and do the same things.

So you're not looking to get a 370z at all? In all seriousness, I'm curious why you're on here? I mean it's fine and nice to have more knowledgeable people on the forum (based on your pasts posts) but what brings ya here? :hello:

I am going to contest your claim that the '11 GT is a direct competitor. First, of all the '11 Mustang GT is NOT a sports car, the 370z is. In fact, there is no reason why these two cars would even be cross-shopped unless you're looking at a particular price range for cars that boast performance. If you're looking for a sports car you're not looking at a Mustang. If you're looking at a muscle car you're not looking at a 370z. Just saying.

However, you're correct. If you're looking for a pure performance vehicle the Mustang GT is significantly faster in just about everything, even for a *gasp* muscle car is still edges the 370z on a track (on a tighter, more technical course the gap is significantly shorter) due to it's power advantage. Also, despite it being a SRA setup, the Mustang GT actually handles impeccably well and it's a pretty good driver car.

Now, looks wise, you cannot really compare although I will say I've gotten quite a few stares and compliments on how it looks. The problem that you'll find with the Mustang is, unless you've got an exhaust that deafens everyone in a three or four block radius, the car doesn't stand out like the 370z does.

All in all though, performance stats aside, the Mustang GT and 370z, when looked at rationally, a logical deduction concludes that cross-shopping them makes little sense unless you're simply looking for the fastest car under $40k.

Which again, makes me believe, that Nissan won't do anything performance changing for quite a few years to come. :ughdance:

I prefer the looks of the Z over the GT myself, personally. I don't think there is anything wrong about cross-shopping the GT and the Z. They do the same things, only the looks and way they go about getting them done differ. That is stylistic.

If the 370z and Mustang GT both do the same thing then I guess you cross shopping a Ford Taurus and an E55 AMG make sense because they both basically do the same thing....? In fact any two cars or any two SUV's or any two trucks could be compared since they essentially do the same thing?

My point was people would compare the Mustang with the Camaro and Challenger because they're all "muscle cars." I think that fact alone separates any of the three cars from being cross shopped with a 370z or another similar sports car. That's why I believe that Nissan really offers something special with a true sports car at a pretty affordable price for the market. Like I said before, unless you're trying to compare any performance-oriented vehicle then it would make sense to cross shop all of the above.

I also don't think there's anything wrong with cross shopping a 370z with a Mustang GT. In fact I did cross shop the '09 370z with the '10 Mustang GT. Then I heard rumors of the '11 Mustang GT and thought for a while. To be honest my initial thought was that Ford wasn't really going to bring much to the table, that the Camaro would dominate the Mustang GT again, and the 370z would edge it out due to the weight differences.

Clearly I was wrong, and even after hearing the rumors about the newly designed 5.0L, I was convinced that the other weight rumor (a 4000 lbs Mustang GT) was probably going to be true since all the muscle cars leaned towards the ultra heavy side.

However, I couldn't be happier with the 370z. Once you've driven the two cars back to back they're pretty incomparable, I thought. I love both equally but the 370z was just a much sportier car and certainly much more fun to drive based on test driving the '11 GT. And yes, this was quite literally me driving the 370z and then stepping out into an '11 GT to test. The differences were extremely noticeable. The '11 GT seemed much smoother as a driver and I feel would be even easier to drive in traffic than the 370z. My problem was I felt the 370z had even more room and that I was cramped up against the dash because the clutch felt about a mile away in the '11. I'm average height (~5'10") and it felt like the car was designed for tall people while still managing to remain comfortable for me. It was quite a weird experience.

Of course after testing driving the '11 GT, climbing into the 370z was so hard because the GT really was a far smoother car. But hey, that's the price you pay for a sports car... and I couldn't be happier!

Two tone paint scheme. :happydance:

I concur with you. Same could be said for cars like the Subaru STi and the Mitsubishi Evolution. They pull the same numbers as the Z but they are not considered sports cars. Even the Corvette can be thrown into this. It has a huge engine but it's considered a sports car and not a muscle car. It is hard to even classify the GT-R.

lower green house, more torque, and better interior i guess? ohoh! more cute rims ^_^

I would definitely cross-shop between the Mustang and the Z if I were looking to buy a car TODAY (and I didn't own a Mustang as I currently do). I think your previous point that some people are just looking for "performance" for around 30K is key.

If the 370 had been around back in 2006 when I bought my current Mustang, I'm sure I would've cross-shopped between the two.

Now that I've owned my Mustang for 5 years, I'm almost ready for a change and the Z is really the only car I'm considering. The other "muscle" cars don't interest me. I'm looking for superior handling most of all and good looks... and the current Z has those in spades! :tup:

Thats was the most hilarious piece of literature ive read in a long time. Thanks for that!:rofl2:
But seriously we should go back to the future and leave that Ponitic Fiero body style and grab the TT set up from a 93 with slight tweaks and be done with it.. curb weight then was 3287 lbs which still is lighter the G37 and only 32lbs heavier then the 370? They brought back the older body style (which is all that) why not dig further, and give us tt dammit. lol Also i wouldnt mind hearing my car talk to me. "left doors ajar..fuel level is low" in a soft voice woman voice. That feature in my old 280 was the ****! The juke is just a tease for us. Its still good to know Nissans moving forward on manufacturing turbo vehicles. I think its just to boost marketing sales actually. Remember the super HICAS (High Capacity Actively Controlled Steering) 4-wheel steering? Maybe leave that behind as well huh?

The current Z may not be redone for 6 years of production; just like the 350 (03-08). Probably 2015.

Slight change in engine makeup i would think...

Quad Turbo V12 is my guess....

In the short term the changes will likely be cosmetic. But long-term, assuming the Z series has one, the big V6 is going to have to come to an end at some point due to emissions and the physical limits of engine displacement. I'd love to see a small displacement, turbocharged inline 6, but they had their reasons for moving away from them in the first place... Tradition has somewhat painted Nissan into a corner I think, unless they are willing to break away from that.

It's because of emissions.

My guess would be they will make the motor much smaller and give it a Turbo. Every other company is doing it.

Nissan HAD that line up. It's called Nissan Silvias.

Gawd, I still think a Nissan S15 is still one sexy car.

Got a pic of the 2012 model































































































http://www.roadandtrack.com/var/ezfl...3-nissan-z.jpg

:bowrofl:

Hey that's jamiaca's car:icon18: