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I'm still not sure what the Nissan marketers mean when they are shooting for more "mature" handling than the S-2000. I'm 44 w/ wife and 2 kids and have never been an "immature" racer type. Perhaps Nissan is going after my dad? The S-2000 has, IMO, the best scapel like handling and steering this side of a $100,000+ exotic. This is accomplished, by the way, with an extraordinary chassis and almost ordinary 16" wheels and 55/50 series tires.
I would be really concerned if the S2000 ISN'T one of the Z's targets with respect to handling. It is not "bone jarring" by any means. It is exceptionally tight and, as with any true sports car, there is a lot of feedback. But, I would reserve the term bone jarring to those cars with less capable chassis that need to go to 18+ inch wheels and 35/40 series tires to achieve a comparable level of handling that the S2000 achieves with it's very well balanced approach.
I will be greatly interested in driving the new Z when it comes out. But marketing hype aside, I have not seen much consistency coming out of Nissan as to what their real goals are. A pure sports car ala the original 240Z? A "mature" GT? A something for everybody sports coupe? All this at 400 lbs more than the S2000/Boxter S?
We'll just have to see.
However, while debating whether to pay MSRP or not (something I am generally adverse to), I wondered the following:
What if Nissan enjoys tremendous success with the Z and starts to nudge the base price upwards? Could it be that by the time dealers are dealing below MSRP, the MSRP may have risen a similar amount?
Perhaps such concern is not realistic, I don't know. Admittedly, I had my goal set on getting the new Z, and I was going to justify it any way I could.
It's based on a platform that's out and doing fine in Japan. The VQ engine is rock solid. The only question mark is the new 6 speed. That's it. The rest of the car comes from old designs and materials.
The GT-R is another story. If they can keep up the performance of the last ones and manage to sell them globaly that will be incredible. I look forward to it.
Like it or not, the new Z is designed to be affordable so that means it really targets the Mustang. Although, Nissan want you to believe that it would not stoop to that level and the Z would compete against the Porsche Boxster. It really doesn't matter as long as you like the car!
Speedracer - it didn't help when Infiniti came out with those strange ads way back then either! I am not sure that I like the direction that the Q is going. It was designed to be a BMW 5 series competitor. Now, it seems that it is more of a high-tech toy..... way too heavy, but it is faster than the previous Qs. A sporty image is what the Infinity brand had in mind at the beginning. It should be fun to see how Nissan competes against the BMW this time...
If you have order or about to order, maybe we can get to know our journey better for months to come
I have the R&D that shows their seat of the pants figures but nothing firm.
I would be hesitant to buy a performance car without really knowing what the performance figures are.
If you have owned Z before, you will probably know what I mean.
My guess is that the 350Z will be a little slower 0-60(Nissans have been doing this lately, good for them) but will have higher 50-70 and quarter mile times than expected.
Maybe the word "firm" is open for interpretation. Has their been a final HP figure for the US version? Or is everyone assuming that it will be the same 280 that the Japanese version has.
The figures that I see thrown around are 6.0 secs to sixty and about a 14.5 1/4 mile. I'm wondering if that is correct because for it's weight and power I would have expected better.
Thoughts?
I also assume that you mean Nissan is targeting the performance of the Boxster not the same buyers, right? I can see some crossover but whoever is going to pay $50k for a Boxster will most likely not be looking at a $28k Nissan. Not that there is anything wrong with the Z.
yes, I mean Boxster performance for the price of a Nissa... you should check out nissandriven.com soon....
gee thats a lot of Z's...sounds like BS.
Again, I do appreciate you worrying about the veracity of my statements.
Nissan has verified 280+ HP. I take the "+" as more than 280. Duh. At an auto show in December (which they weren't featuring anything about the 350Z, but I kept bugging them about it), a factory rep told me it would be much closer to 300 (or 300) than 280+ HP. He also said 0-60 would be definitely less than 6 seconds (as Nissan has said),the mid to high 5s. Quarter of a mile in less than 14 secs.
And on a different note, the Z does not and will not compete directly with a Boxster until its top goes down too. I for one am very interested in the 350Z convertible. The design looks nice. The '03 SVT Mustang Convertible from the other thread also looks very desirable. There are some fantastic convertibles coming down the road around the $35k price point.
I wonder what the interior quality is like for $30k. That looks like a lot of performance for the price. Basically it has the potential to do better than my current M Roadster. However, I would like to see the quality first.
One of my friend's brothers (25 years old) owned 2 280Z's.....so it is totaly reasonable that a 50+ year old man could have owned 3 Z cars already.
I felt it wasn't to out of the ordinary for my father to have owned 3 Datsuns in his life time. If someone feels that is BS so be it.
Then again to each his own.
It also wouldn't be crazy to own all three now. I wish I had three classics like that is reasonable condition. Although in High School I inherited the 1984 MkII Supra, that was fun.
If you ever say something intelligent, I'll respond to it rezo00.....but for now I'll let everyone else laugh at you and leave it at that.
It's "You're both full of BS."
(If you're going to insult someone, at least spell it right!)
sheeshh......
As for owning 3 Zs, I see nothing at all unusual about that. My brother-in-law bought his-and hers Zs twice in a row, so that makes 4 in 4 years. I owned 4 Alfas in 6 years, starting with my first one at age 18.
Like a lot of you I am excited about the 350Z. It looks great and it promises great performance at low cost. But...I just got finished reading an article in Automobile by Jamie Kitman on the head of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn. This guy is notorious as a "cost-cutter" wherever he goes. The criticism of the Altima and its Achilles heel seems to be the cheapo interior materials. Kitman raises a concern about quality. If Ghosn cuts too deep quality will suffer. I'm hoping the Z won't be too good to be true. I feel confident about the engine, but I don't want a corner cutting car when it comes to the interior. Would those of you who have seen the car at auto shows comment on what you thought of the quality and build of the car, especially the interior. If you don't know where I'm coming from you ought to read the article for which I'm referencing. It's on the last page of the March 2002 issue.