all comments are well said. It would be sad to see the Z dropped
From the Nissan line up. as one poster said the Z takes a back
Seat to no one when it comes to styling. But for better or worse
The flavor of the month right now is HP. And the Z is
Losing that battle and IMO has got to catch up or the car will
go away

Sonic, I have a couple of counter points, though.

• Keeping up with the Joneses mean you'll never be satisfied. I'm satisfied with what I've got, and even if the next Z was much faster, I couldn't afford to buy it, so I have to enjoy my Z for what it is.
• The Mazda Miata has survived for a long time as a sports car with low hp. HP sells cars, but there has to be a limit somewhere.
• If the Z dies, it may come back later, as we saw before.

It would be sad, but the Z has dissappeared before only to return again later. These things never truly die... Z, Camaro, Challenger, etc.

Great points. :tup:

The Z against the GT or SS is a proper comparison, but the ZL1 is going against the GT500 (or maybe the Boss depending on the final numbers for the ZL1). Nissan actually has no competitive car in the 50-70k range currently, which can deter some from looking.
In the 30k range or the 80k+ range Nissan competes very well though I would say, it just does not have anything in between.

Well said on all points. But have to disagree on the Mita statement. The Z is a
much better car. And staying in the Miata's playground is going backward.
To me it seems like the Z is caught in a no mans land. Somewhere between all the new products GM,Ford and even Dodge are bringing out.Like it or not imho nissan is in competition with those cars for the customers dollar.


No to get off point but most buyers don't want to buy a car to put mods on it
they want to leave the dealer with the HP ready to go.. But like i said that is imo.........

I wasn't putting the Z in the Miata's class, just raising the Miata as the counter-example to raising hp to survive. I agree that the Z's niche seems to be between a rock and a hard place right now. But you don't have to scale hp with the competition to survive. Sooner or later, car companies are going to figure this out again. Probably after the consumer tells them with their dollars, but that could be a while.

I heard the next revision for the G37 is 2012

Better car? No.

Different car, yes. The Miata is a cool little roadster.

And those doors... :yum:

I read somewhere that the Mercedes-Nissan partnership was to help Mercedes in rolling out some FWD cars. The article I read didn't say anything about the Z.

The new Charger and the SC Camero that is coming out is going to be alot more money then the Z as most guys have mentioned. Also when I think of "sports cars" I dont think of cars weighing close to or more then 2 tons!!. If I wanted to be the fastest car around I would have purchased the GT, but I dont like american cars and the GT as good as it looks is a little blend. Oh and the new SRT 8 will have 470HP and 470LB of torque according to CarandDriver and will do 0-60 in 4.5 and the quarter in 12.9, thats fast, but not that much faster then a stock Z.

Im going to go against popular belief that excessive power is good. I'd rather see Nissan focus on improved chassis, better suspension, lighter car, etc. Would much rather have a 375 HP V6 powered 3000 lb sports car than an overweight V8 truck like a Camaro or a Mustang.

Maybe offer a turbo edition for those fixated on HP.

:iagree:

I doubt they would every go anywhere over 400 HP, it would be too close to GT-R territory.

And I doubt they would get it down to 3,000 lbs with a big V6. 3,000 in a highly trimmed out car like the Z would be very expensive.

Even the $100+k 911s are still a bit over 3k.

But I still stand by my belief that there's a greater chance of the Z going away altogether (or being reinvented as a wimpier, eco-friendly sports car) than it getting a significant power bump (or weight reduction).

I agree, I dont know if any of you guys remember but when the 370 was in the concept stages Nissan was shooting for a target weight of around 2900, I remember reading it in a CarandDriver article and saying to myself that would be real impressive. LOL not that it mattered anyway cause I still bought one.