I think this stems from the fact that when the IDX was introduced at the California cars & coffee, the general consensus was, NO CVT SPORT COUPE. 7at was the preferred transmission, which means they would have to reengineer the idx coupe for a traditional slush box. Boosting R&D cost and the Z35 needs to come out. It's already a year behind schedule.

The issue Nissan sees with it is low sales volume on the platform as it currently will not be shared out. So estimated sales of 10-20k per year is not a large enough volume to produce it. The Z makes it by because of the G platform (and I believe another car uses it).

I would imagine the R&D to get a different tranny is already done, they probably tested the 7AT, 6MT, CVT to see how they fit, cost, perform and I bet we will see 6MT and CVT for a low cost car.

another problem is not enough youngsters know how to drive MT.

its them that are forcing the car manufacturers to build AT sports/sporty cars to a degree...:ugh:

who in the right car guy mind would buy a AT brz/frs anyway? :shakes head: gtfo..

The Z, G, M, EX, and FX use the FM platform. And possibly the Titan? Not sure on that one. 20k units doesn't sound too bad imo.