Nissan Design Boss: No Chance of Toyobaru Fighter
 

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/nissan/...ta-gt-86-rival

"Nissan has gone cold on the idea of introducing a small Toyota GT 86 rival to its range for the foreseeable future.
Speaking to Auto Express at the New York Motor Show, executives said the GT-R supercar and Z sports car will always remain in the range due to customer loyalty, but plans to add a smaller third sports car to rival the Mazda MX-5 and Toyota GT 86 have been shelved for now."

A few years back there were rumors swirling of a Silvia successor. A few Japanese magazine even did mockups. At the same time we got the iDX concept which was totes hawt... They even let Jay Leno drive the thing!

https://youtu.be/rV2Rg3zH5EY

It sounded like a sure thing! Then Nissan got cold feet, probably after seeing that the Toyobaru weren't 't selling like hotcakes and Nissan profits at the time weren't in-line with expectation. So the idea of several low-cost sports cars for the brand just petered out. Hell, the 370z is still needs replaced.

Too bad because Nissan has a great range of engines. The 1.6 turbo from the Juke would be pretty awesome in a 2700 pound car. If somehow they could shoehorn in their new twin-turbo V6 from the Infiniit G60, well, that would be bonkers! But I guess it makes sense as the market moves towards crossovers and there is already a glut of great muscle cars that have proven popularity. The 370 is already in that market, though now a bit old. Though rumor has it Nissan has considered making the 370 successor a kind-of crossover vehicle. :iono:

NISMO Juke RS...if they made a RWD one it would be game over for the miata in terms of handling. As it is now, the NISMO Juke RS already feels more like driving the FR-S than the ND miata does.

It's odd that they won't produce a Toyobaru fighter, but are willing to make the 370z given sales for the Twins are much greater than the 370z. :iono:

If they actually did something.... they would mess it up with a Vform grille and a CVT transmission.


I'm not surprised, nor do I care. Nissans are commuter cars. Cheap, throw away tools. They used to have cool products...but not anymore. (Save the GTR obviously.)

The 370z is kind of precarious in the market today. Very few people care about buying a $30K 2-seater with little to no practically.

A Ecoboost Mustang Premium and Camaro 2LT starts in the $29-31K range. Those 2 cars have semi-usable backseats and trunks. Better or worse still their performance metrics aren't all that far off the 370z - we are talking around the street where at most you go maybe 8/10ths.

I think to make a 370 successor work it either drops in price and size closer to the Miata/ Fiat 124 and adopts a 4-cylindar only engine range, or gets bigger with a backseat and trunk so it can steal muscle car sales while using the current 3.7, and optional TT 3.0. I think the latter would work better in Nissan's favor.

Nissan doesn't want to (or isn't in the financial position to) build an affordable dedicated RWD sports car chassis for a low volume model like Toyota has with the 86. Nissan's sporty cars despite being a kind of fun are either overweight (Z, Maxima), expensive (GTR) or dynamically compromised by FWD configuration (Juke NISMO RS). It costs money and is a huge risk to bring a car like the 86 to market.

More importantly, Nissan doesn't have another manufacturer it can simply build the car at, considering Toyota has zero production capacity committed to the 86.

All things considered, Nissan most likely is finding a more profitable car to build with their existing capacity.

-alex

Agreed

What drugs were you on when you posted that? And can I have some???


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Sports/sporty cars have always been and will always be, sales volume wise, a niche market. Probably more so from here on out, sad to say. Car makers are in the business of making money first and foremost, but if they don't have an existing platform that allows it to be profitable, then the project will never get off the ground. That said, we're damn lucky to have the twins, and this is more proof that it's true.

Agreed. I'd love to see Nissan go all-in with the next gen. Since the 370z is essentially Nissan's version of the Camaro/Mustang, add small rear seats and a decent trunk. Take their existing VK50/56 engine and offer it as the V8 option.

The Mustang/Camaro market is large, but if they want to steal a piece from it, they're going to have to compete in performance and usability.

They already had the G37 coupe....

Much like Toyotas.

True but that was more of an upscale 3-series competitor with the analog clock, leather interior, MSRP, etc. Also no V8 option.