I agree. The roll out for the next generation tends to happen every 5 years.

I dont think their will be one, it going to be 1997 all over again around 2014. The Z is not a "halo' car, it is/ was suppose to be a mass produced affordable sports car with 30K units sold anually expected unlike the GTR. Well we are far off from the 25-30k anticipated.....its all about PROFITS. If its not bringing in any profits as in in 1996 its going to be dropped, sad but true.

The question is how many cars they need to sell to make a profit

How many Altimas, Jukes, Maximas, Sentras, Versas... If the Z and GTR get people in those markets to drive onto a dealer's lot, :D

Lots of Max guys drive Z's or switch out if need be for various reasons (30-40k cas etc), the Max is small market for Nissan as well.............The Altima is Nissans bread and butter here, without it I dont that they would be in business here. It sells close to 300k units a yr!

Somehow in peoples minds a good sports car translates into all the cars from that company are good. So until the sports car market drops across all manufactures Nissan will still make it. Notice that Toyota only started to talk about bringing back a sports car after their lead in the market dropped.

As Montez said the target was 25-30k units. Then every 4 weeks as the gas crisis had gotten worse they began scaling numbers back from 30 to 20 then 15k units. At 15k I got a strong impression that they are pretty much breaking even at this price point..

Year one they sold around 500 units more than they hoped.
Year two they sold 4500 less than they wanted which was a settlement target to begin with.
And year 3 isn't over but sales have further reduced.

Nissan had hoped by this time the economy would have stabilized and the Z would hopefully be selling at minimum. 20k units. Instead we temporarily stabilized for 2 summers... now we are in the same boat and it may get worse. Gas may rise to new record levels. Food prices are going up again. Pretty soon energy prices will probably skyrocket all over again.
That said, I really don't see more than 8-10k units being sold this year. Nissan is the only company who hasn't even made the smallest peep about a refresh. All I ever hear about is the Leaf, Juke and the NissaMitsu merger that will bring more hybrids and eco cars.
We haven't even seen a teaser drawing that's up to date and OFFICIAL of a refreshed body or something???. The hybrid Z is as mysterious as a black hole and no mention has been made of it in over a year. If nissans silence is just to surprise us then I gotta give them there props for extreme confidence because in a market like this, teasers and marketing moves cars.
Nissan is the only company right now that has no buzz on its affordable sports car. I know nissan never devulges its final product till the very end but, they normally like to create buzz. Nissan corp has done nothing to incite excitement in the Z product. All I heard is the 370 might appear in the movie "FAST 5". That may or may not help? Who knows???
I think we are all very fortunate to own our 370's to be honest. The future of our fairlady looks bleek.

I'm really going to have to agree with you on all points. The GTR is thier flagship, not the $35k Z, so if it's not selling anywhere near what they want it to be productions going to be stopped on it. At some pont Nissan will lose money on the car, if sales keep going down. You still have to material, and pay your manpower ect.

i don't think it will be 1997 all over again. if i recall the car towards the end was
way over priced for the market then...

but the big shots at nissan have a tough call to make..........
just when they get it right do they just walk away.........
i can't say for sure but i'm guessing the 2 seater is hurting for everyone..
how many vettes is gm selling. i know not the same market...
but thats my point imho the 370 owns it's market 32-40k sports car...

i would hate to see it go.. but if there is another generation it's got to keep
up with the Jones. TT or V8.

Maybe Nissan could do what the rest of the manufactures are doing to sell more cars. Offer a choice of 2 engines. Offer a turbo 4 for 20k to 25k and the v6 for 30k to 35k (40k fully loaded).

That would prevent the need for a separate 240sx platform. And would increase MPGs among the Z models. Let's face it the v6 20k mustangs and camaros are what make the v8s profitable.

That could work, but they would need to add some serious improvements to the V6 to compete with the V8 pony cars.

i dont believe there will ever be a v4 z. part of the heritage is that it's always been a v6 since the 240z. i have to assume that the next model z will be a bored out 4.0L or higher. or maybe ~3.8L with turbo

Well when I say 97 I mean its gone from production......maybe under different circumstances but it sales dropped year after year. As Full Monty stated it has to make a profit to pay for materials, manpower etc to produce it. If its not profitable to them no matter how much we like it etc. its a goner, thats just they way business works.

Wasnt much heritage for a 2+2, turbo, or even the t-tops when Nissan did those things to the Z. Nissan already has a turbo 4 in the juke and could easily bring it to the Z with little test and R&R. Profit comes before heritage.

Exactly, in 97 cost of car, was the main factor, in 11 its cost of living and gas prices.