how many people think the Z34 is the last Z for a long while?
 

Just curious to see who is optimistic and pessimistic about the Z's future? Sales are dropping month by month, I just hope sales pick up some. I want to see another generation but am honestly pessimistic about seeing a Z35 in the united states.

it'd be nice to see a Z35,but ehhhhh im more along the lines of our cars having alittle more rarity,and there be less Z's driving around so its a bigger deal when u see one

There's a good chance we won't see another for a while, I think.

^ i think it should stay like that,there's only been 6 generations so why ruin the Z bloodline just for sales and such

I think you will see another. It will have more HP, how Nissan gets it will be the story. If it's a bigger engine the naming scheme should stay the same like 380z. If its a smaller engine then they may drop the numbers and call it the "Z". Nissan has already started weening us toward that by advertising the Z coupe and Z convertible.

:iagree:

It's not. The next-gen Z is already in the design phase, according to the designer of the z34 @ zdays last year.

Nissan is doing VERY well this year financially. The Z (as well as the GTR) is not a car that's designed to bring in tons of profit. That's what the Altima is for. These sports cars function as icons of Nissan's brand on the road. They are marketing tools that keep people talking about the brand.

It would be stupid of them to cut the production of either car at this time.

I sorta agree with cheshirecat. Z's and GTR's are halo cars, like a Corvette or Viper.

I don't know if there will be a next gen Z, but that hybrid concept floating around had some pretty obvious Z design cues.

that would be nice if they stopped for a while maybe a gen's worth. Keep the 370Z rare...then they would have plenty of time to really do some homework and bring back a badass 400Z.....maybe take a note from the 5.0 development crew

If they stop making the 370Z, then it's not really good for us current 370Z owners. It's going to hurt aftermarket product availability. By this I mean that fewer companies will be developing/putting out fewer new aftermarket products for our car, which is definitely not good. I think the Z will stay alive though, but Nissan does need to make some big changes soon.

I think they may take a break and come back.

I really think they did an amazing job on the 370, the fact that the Z has come full circle and taken lots of styling queues form the 240Z...

I wouldn't mind having a rare car...

I think there will definitely be another Z, but its too early for a redesign. In the past the Z's were refreshed after 5/6+ years of release. I think a revised engine is more likely, as seen in the 350. A lot of cars like the Z4. Cayman, and 5.0 Mustang went the direct injection route. Which are all cars that the Z is often compared to. I think this is the most obvious route Nissan will take if they want to stay competitive.

i think there will be another Z but will be a hybrid and AWD, potentially no more MT option.

this is one of the reasons why i bought my 370Z thinking this might be the last combustible engine-only with MT. :)

new Z will probably come out.....however i think it might be later than expected depending on how Japan gets back on their feet after the horrible quake.

2014 at the earliest.

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.

This situation looks pretty bleak now. Nissan has only used the Z in one set of commercials that I have seen; the one where a Z is stretched into a Maxima. When sales slump on a specialty car, the only justification for its existence is the ability to use it to generate excitement about the brand. I haven't seen Nissan do that with the Z.

Certainly with projected sales under 20,000 cars, it is virtually impossible to imagine that the Z would get any special engine or transmission. Expensive-to-produce parts like engines and transmissions would have to be shared with other, better selling cars. I think it was a very good decsion to use the G37 engine and transmissions in the Z.

When I had my 240Z, its value grew every year because the successor cars just didn't have the excitement of the original. I suspect that if Nissan stops selling Z's (though I can't see why they wouldn't simply keep selling 370's since they have the tooling) then those of us with Z's would see our cars jump in value.

Sadly, in a world where for little more than a sport touring Z with nav, you can buy a Porsche, Nissan has to do more than just make Z's and ship a few to each dealer. It has to decide if the Z is a halo car. The GTR is a world class rally car. The Z is a true sports car.

I suspect the exotics and the midrange sports cars are also feeling the pain from the recession and gas price rise. Car sales in general are starting to decline.

I would hate to see the Z line disappear again; or worse, morph into some ugly sedan with the Z imprint. The good news is that we have our Z's and from my point of view, the 370 is the most wonderful Z ever. It is at least as beautiful as the 240, and has more power than I ever imagined a Z would have.

My forecast is that there will be a 2012 370Z with minor body tweaks. The hybrid Z is years and years away.

IIRC there is a new G37 coupe coming out soon and I think it's safe to assume that any engine upgrades the G37 gets will be coming to the Z next. The VQ37 isn't only used for the Z, it's used on several Infiniti models as well. If Nissan makes improvements to the engine for Infiniti, it shouldn't be too hard to start putting those same engines in the Z.

I don't see its competition advertised often, either, such as the Audi TT, the Porsche Cayman, the Hyundai Genesis Coupe, the Ford Mustang, the Chevy Camaro and Corvette. I don't think advertising performance cars is good PR right now.
But you can still get in a Z for 30k.
The GTR is not a rally car. It's much too heavy to fit in that class, and it's used more as a GT race car if anything. It's a super car, competing with Corvette Z06's and high level Porsches.
:iagree:

We went from 1995 when the last 300ZX was sold in the US until 2003 with the introduction of the 350Z which transformed the market at that time.

I think Nissan needs to take some time off and come out with a competitive Z that can go head to head with the current market out there.

A V6 is no going to cut it anymore unless they put a Turbo or SC. :stirthepot:

My $0.02.

It was 1996 when the 300ZX was last sold, and it was sold in Japan until 1999/2000. Not sure about other countries though.

Would a retuned version of the gtr engine be a viable choice for the next z? Mercedes does this all the time with their 6.2 Amg engine.

Actually the older z's were straight 6s. But I agree. If anything I bet they go direct inj and/or turbo 6

A 370Z Touring with Sport+Nav is still considerably cheaper than a Cayman - I was looking at used Cayman's when I was deciding to get rid of the NSX.

I see a used Cayman S PDK is still close to $60k, and I paid $32k for my 2009 370Z, with a $3k drop probably available if I hadn't traded.

Agree. I wish all these pessimists would find something positive?

The new G37 coming out next year should be a good indication of what's coming for the Z (at least engine wise) :tup: