Can someone explain Nissan's mentality to me.

shesha

The 350z seemed like a hot selling car. I owned a g35 at the time. It seemed like everyone and their mother owned a 350. In 2009 I leased a 370. 2 years later I see other 370s every once in a while.

Is it because Nissan doesn't budge on 370 negotiations? Why hasn't the 370 sold as well. I don't mind as it makes me feel like I own a more rare car, but what is Nissan thinking. As far as sales numbers go? Has the 370 been a failure? Why doesnt the dealership offer better deals?

I just don't get it.

In 15 months my lease is up, what should I get?

Crazy4Z

You can get whatever you like...

MRMONROE

Here in NC, the 370's are pretty common. The Nissan dealers here are pretty willing to "wheel and deal." I see the coupes very often, but I only see the roadsters (like mine) every so often. However, I must agree with you that the 350's were much more common. I had 2 of them and always saw them EVERYWHERE.

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Weekends: 2012 370Z Sports
Daily Driver: 2012 Maxima SV

USMCASA

must be that way down in charlotte. up around raleigh i'm lucky if i see maybe 3-4 a month and some months i don't see any at all.

chanchai

have you seen or know of any other z drivers around monroe or matthews ?

SeattleLion

Before getting too carried away about Nissan and the Z's, let's do the math:

Assume annual sales of 12,000 Z's (round number)
That comes to 10,000 per month at an average invoice of about $30,000
That is $300 Million x 12 months = $3.6 Billion.

Z's are not discounted and there are few, if any, dealer specials. Assume a 15% profit margin (on the low side) and the Z contributes $540 Million to the bottom line.

No matter how big the company, that is not chump change.

Now, consider what Nissan has to do to make the Z family:

The engine comes from Infiniti virtually unchanged
Same for transmissions and exhaust. Ratios may change, but not by a lot.

The interior is subcontracted. Most of the electrical system is as well.
Brakes are from vendors. The same is true for most every piece of hardware.

Nissan probably makes the frame and body panels.

The point is that even as an exotic, the Z is a positive contributor to Nissan's bottom line.

In the future Nissan's investment could go up if it decides to do a special-built Z engine. That is unlikely. The Z is like a lot of European sports cars; the main parts are from other cars. Car makers use vendors to provide almost everything except engine and drivetrain.

The main investment in a new car is the engineering costs and tooling for body panels (if a vendor isn't supplying them). Production lines are no longer tied tightly to a vehicle. A single line can produce every model Nissan makes in a single day. In practice this doesn't happen, but it can.

Marketing costs for the Z are very low. Beyond supplying dealers with brouchures, there are few other costs. The Z advertising budget is tiny. Hell, Nissan racing support is limited to a few stickers and a discount on parts. (yeah, they also pay small amounts for winning)

Given all that, wouldn't you think that there is a small team of engineers at Nissan who dedicate their time (or most of it) to the Z, GTR, and GTx?

Things have changed. Big car companies like Nissan aren't against low volume sports cars if the cost of design and production is offset by profits. But they aren't about to spend big bucks to develop anything new that can't be reused in other, better selling cars.

At least, that's how it looks to me.

kielbasa16

12,000 Z's annually X $30,000 = $360 Million not 3.6 billion

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Mag Black Kielbasa

SeattleLion

My math skills are lacking. Still a lot of money.

azn370z

I wouldn't worry too much about the z. Nissan is a smart company with a lot of talented designers, and marketing people. The altima and sentras are their bread and butter, cars like the z and gtr are not.

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2010 k23
H&R sport springs / Spc rear camber arms / SSR SP1 / Berk cbe / Varis cf lip / Nismo S-Tune side skirts

ProfessorDave

Get the Boss Mustang. It would make a lot of us drool. Or a Miata. For the doors, obviously.

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Rain, snow, sleet, hail: 2009 Mazda 3 sGT HB
Everything else: 2009 370z, PW Touring 6MT

reechwuzhere

There's a million reasons why you dont see them everywhere Shesh.. Probably the biggest is that it only has two seats which makes it impractical for anyone with kids. Then there is the fact that it only gets around 21 mpg, the tree huggers dont like that. It's not the cheapest car on the road either.

Then there's the slouches you see out there that think a "car is just a car"...

All I know is that this car does everything I ever wanted a car to do.. and I've had 20 of the damn things.

reechwuzhere

Their mentality is that they had to fill a niche market for people like us so that we would be in a Nissan. They never intended for this to be the next taurus.

What should you get? How much can you spend ?

svmtbman

Keep in mind that the 370 has only been available for a little over 2 years where the 350 has 6 years of sales on the streets. Also, I'm sure the economy over the last 2 years has not helped the sales numbers of many car models (especially 2 seated sport coupes).

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2011 Pearl White, Persimmon, Touring, Sport, Navigation, 6sp - PW JDM shift knob, Invidia Gemini CBE, aFe dry filters, HPS intake tubes, JDM fog light, Redline shift boot, LED interior lights, Z1 hood struts, and 30% tint.

batman_4

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'09 6spd. Touring: Eibach / SPC / Motordyne / Berk / Z1 / Oneighty / Mines / SSR / Stillen / CFE

Crazy4Z

350z in cali are very common. the 370z i see them once in a blue moon. So im happy to DD mine at my neighborhood. Plus sales on the Z are going down because of our economy. Look what happen to the s2000. They didnt sell much in the last few years it had left. But they were beautiful cars imo.