Most of the reasons have already been given:
1. Poor economy
2. Gas prices, etc.
There is one other factor to consider: demand for sports cars is fairly inelastic. The 350 arrived as the new kid. It was really the first true sports car under $40k in years. This opened up a new market. Now young adults (20-35) could afford the payments for the 350. So, more sales...for a while.
It's interesting to note that other car makers did not hop onto this band wagon. The Z still stands pretty much alone in the affordable sports car category. Everyone in the industry, including Nissan, realizes that two-seat sports cars are niche products. The market for these cars isn't going to grow dramatically. The 350 opened up a new demographic segment. That segment began getting saturated by 2008. When the recession hit, one of the most impacted segments was the 20-35 year-old males; exactly the target market for the Z. So it isn't a big surprise that the market slowed.
The Mitsubishi Eclipse is an interesting parallel. I am not saying it is a sports car like the Z, so no flames. But in the 1990's it was an affordable sporty looking car that sold well to young males. However, by 1998 sales had dropped dramatically. Mitsubishi figured it was saturation of their demographic. In 2000 they introduced a new Eclipse. It was wider, had more comfortable seats, lots of ammenities. They were trying to appeal to the older (richer) crowd in order to expand the market.
I am very happy that Nissan is staying true to the Z's tradition of being a hard core sports car. If you look at it in the light of the Eclipse transformation, you can see that the 370 is a more refined version of the 350. I suspect Nissan wanted to broaden the appeal to a larger demographic.
It certainly worked for me. I looked at a 350 when it first came out. It just didn't work for me. I ended up with a Pathfinder. When I sat in the 370 it was a totally different experience, so I bought it. I am older (a lot) than 35 and things like leather seats, sat nav, good comfort are important to me. I am in the Porsche demographic, but the 370 won me over.
Why then are sales poor? I suspect it is that my demographic can afford Porsches and more often than not, that is the choice. Also, since the Z isn't a good choice for your one and only vehicle (my wife has a truck), the recession forced a lot of potential buyers to choose larger, more practical cars.
I don't think that the Z will disappear again. Modern car plants can produce multiple models on the same line. Once the cost of dies, tooling, etc are invested, it isn't particularly difficult to support a low volume model.
From my perspective I like that there are very few 370's out there. Makes my Z exotic. That's cool.
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