2016 370z...

Magic Bus

I'm sure Nissan is watching sales numbers. And if they are, a much more powerful Z should be in the works. These are US sales only, worldwide could be a different story.

FRS 2013 Year 18,327 Sold
FRS 2014 Year 14,062 Sold
370Z 2013 Year 6,561 Sold
370Z 2014 Year 7,199 Sold
Corvette 2013 Year 17,291 Sold, C7 introduced in last quarter of this year.
Corvette 2014 Year 34,839 Sold

Notice FRS #'s declined noticeably in year 2014 while the Z increased albeit slightly. FRS was introduced in mid 2012 and it was fresh and different. However the most likely trend of the FRS will be to decrease again in 2015, as power is still important to most sports car buyers.

So if you're a savvy business owner, what market would you want to compete in? One that only had 14K in sales or one that had nearly 35K. Keep in mind, if you compete in the 14K FRS market, your price has to be a lot lower. Profits will be minimalized.

A 2015 C7 now starts at $56K for the base 1LT and goes up from there. Imagine a base Z35 model with decent options, 410 hp DI TT, priced at $46K. Do you think this would cut into the C7 sales? The next question is, can Nissan produce a car for this price and make a decent profit? I believe they can as the dollar to yen ratio now should be helpful as well as their factories are already tooled to create great V6 engines.

So lastly, a shout out to Nissan! If you make the new Z a FRS competitor, I'm out and on to a different brand as I'm sure the majority on this forum will do as well. A C7 competitor at $46K, sign me up!