Touring worth the $4.5K premium over Base?

Gas Hed

I guess part of it depends on your vision of the car. Do you see yourself driving hard and / or auto-x a good percentage of the time? Or do you see yourself as a daily driver type who would like the extra features?

I don't think you can go wrong either way. The heart of the car is there in both models.

FairmanZ

This goes to the center of my debate. I view the car both ways, the base w/ sport is a pure sports car. The touring with sport makes it more of GT. I'm on the fence about which one I want.

I have a luxury sports sedan that serves as my daily driver. It's not going anywhere. I'm buying the Z purely as a fun car, but one that can also serve as dd when I desire.

As a dd, I want the touring package. But as a weekend toy, I don't. If I could custom order a Z, it would look like this:

Base
Sport Package (big brakes & synchro rev are musts, plus I love the look of the Rays wheels)
Leather/Suede interior - manual seats (no power, no heating)
Aluminum Pedals
Home Link
Nismo exhaust

I suppose I could just get a base w/ sport and add the pedals and homelink mirror. I could even get custom leather/suede done aftermarket. But I really love the look and feel of the factory touring interior.

Regarding resale value, over a long period of time (say 4-5 years or longer) the value of the touring will be lost IMHO. In my own experience, older cars with stripper interiors don't sell for that much less vs. fully loaded ones. But the loaded cars are easier to sell quicker that's all.

Finally the weight, 46 extra pounds is a big deal to me. If the car was 3000 lbs it wouldn't be. Although Nissan is marketing this car as lighter than the 350Z, the car mag tests have said otherwise.

I appreciate all the feedback from everyone, keep 'em coming. I'm still on the fence but leaning a little more to the touring.