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Originally Posted by UNKNOWN_370
Though I agree with you and probably 95% of the forum agrees
NOT EVERYONE in the general public will... camaro's and mustangs sell because they have USELESS back seats. If you can squeeze two kids under the age of 10 in a backseat? A Husband can justify his purchase to his wife.
Now we all know, in a mustang, there's no way in hell you will fit 2 adults comfortably in the backseat. And the camaro may leave a little more headroom but... where are the legs supposed to go??? 2+2 sells because you can do "something" with the area, whether its kids or junk storage.
You are talking from a performance drivers standpoint. The Z doesn't sell well because out of 45000+- units sold over the years. 7500 went to enthusiasts. 15000 went to. Z admirers and 22,500 sold to married men, mild life crisis guys, and retiree's getting there last breath on a nice sports car before they can't drive anymore.
The market has to be expanded. If you sell it as a 2+2, you will have an extra 25,000 units sold to some idiots who wants to throw his claustrophobic kid in the back and call it a split family and performance car all at the same time, while his kid is getting hooked on ativan's so he can survive the ride. I see mustang owners doing it every day.
Suggestive advertising in america outpowers common sense. Give an american consumer half an excuse to justify a sports car purchase to his family (ie backseats & automatic) He's on it like stink on dodoo. And in the end, these cars are built to sell. Nissan figures the enthusiasts can modify what they don't like. As long as the platform is good for the track? They can still sell to enthusiasts.
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I completely agree with you although I don't like the idea of a 2+2 for the Z. From the get go the Z was meant to serve the purpose of being a driver's car and it served well. I never thought the Z was meant to drive people around to meant to be convenient to everyday life chores. Sadly, these are the justifications some need to own a car as such. It is a luxuary to own an impractical like the Z. In the end of all this, as much as i enjoy seeing very few of these around the streets, I like to hope Nissan is able to continue pouring money into R&D for the next Z. As an automanufacturer, they have a lot more fire to put out to make it a likeable company while staying profitable. A lot of times if it means 90% of the market are in for a car that can do more than just taking corners fast and look sexy, more emphasize will have to put towards those cars. In Nissan, the Z is what people would "want" but less than 1/4 of those people actually pull the trigger to buy. Unless it's used or what not. Even the Nissan Maxima commercial tells the story that way....you guys remember that TV commercial where they stretched the 370z into a Maxima? Sad to say, that car pretty much borrowed most of its visual cues and technology from the 370z. Do I hate the fact that Nissan made our cars less unique because of it? Hell yes! But that's how it goes if it's bread and butter.
And you're prolly right about Nissan not spending much money on revising the 370z. It's limited bandwidth. It's not a high priority. So what if Nissan made a 370 hp boost from the last revision and reduced the 0-60s from 5.0 sec to 4.3 sec? Sure I'm super excited about it, because it can compete with the 135i and other V6s. But in terms of sales, it's not a big deal. Plus, Nissan have the GT-R to defend the brandname. (Which is why more development is put towards that car). They say when GT-R first came out in 2009, the sales was over 5000 units sold, and last year it dropped down to 500 something.