Nissan's Z May Not Be Dead Yet

Nissan’s 370Z is just shy of its tenth birthday and has really begun to show its age. While it remains a relative bargain if you’re seeking an imported rear-drive sports car, it loses that advantage if you’re willing to consider its domestic rivals. It’s a solid performance package by most metrics. But it’s capable in the same way a retired olympic athlete might be. It’ll still destroy your chubby neighbor in a foot race but not his teenage son, who just happens to be captain of his high school track team.

The company needs a replacement. However, back in October, Nissan’s chief planning officer Philippe Klein was extremely noncommittal when it came to naming the 370Z’s successor. “It’s an interesting question because there is a lot of passion people [have for] this vehicle,” Klein said at the Tokyo Motor Show. “This vehicle is still very alive but at the same time it is in a segment that is gradually declining, so that is making the [business] case more difficult.”

So that’s it. The Z is dead. Case closed… or is it? Apparently, Nissan hasn’t given up on the Z after all.

While the ultra-expensive sports car market seems to be where the real money is, Klein said it hasn’t abandoned the idea of building another Z-badged automobile entirely. “We’re working on it and it’s very present, but I have no indication to give you,” Klein told Automotive News this month at this month’s Detroit auto show.

“The Z is a difficult market,” he continued. “It is rather shrinking worldwide. But we still believe there is a place for the Z and we want to keep it alive, and that’s what we’re working on”

“That’s for the midterm,” he said. “For the long term, there are other considerations. If we do a complete new vehicle, what should it be to keep the passion alive? And we’re working very seriously on this — how we can keep the Z alive and refreshing and what would be the next generation?”

I’m sure our resident Z fanatic, Chris Tonn, has a few ideas. However, Nissan claims that the popularity of crossovers has shifted consumer interest away from things like “speed, acceleration and cornering.” While that probably doesn’t assure subsequent Z-cars will be high-riding hatchbacks, it also doesn’t mean that’s not a terrifyingly real possibility.

Klein has previously discussed how the GT-R still had “potential” and the Nismo could be “another way to offer excitement to our customers leveraging the more conventional side.” That doesn’t make a lot of sense to us. The GT-R is in an entirely different league and slapping a Nismo badge on normal cars isn’t the same as providing a purpose-built sports car.

Perhaps the next Z would tap into the nostalgia of Generation Xers the same way domestic muscle did for Boomers a decade earlier. Nissan could create a lightweight grand tourer inspired by the 300ZX, keep it practical enough not to be a deal breaker for cash-conscious enthusiasts, and ensure it’s at least competitive from a performance standpoint. It won’t outsell the Nissan Rogue but, surely, there has to be enough wistful adults in Japan and North America to make it worth the automaker’s time.

It’s not too late to pitch ideas like this at Nissan either. Based on Klein’s statements, whatever Nissan is working on is probably still in the very earliest stages of development. It hasn’t figured out how to approach this Z-related problem and may be looking to the enthusiast community to help it make the right decisions.

“The passion is there,” Klein said. “The question is how can we refresh it and what will be the breakthrough for the long term?”

[Image: Nissan]