My wife and I took that red base for a test drive. I was wowed by the overall performance. Acceleration is neck-snapping fantastic and so is handling. I don't need any more than what this 370Z already has.
I can shift fast, but not as fast as the auto. I'm a little rusty getting smooth acceleration when shifting, but by the end of the ride I was quite smooth. If I were alone, I wouldn't even think about it.
My wife an I were both very comfortable in the base's manual cloth seats. When I place my feet under/behind the pedals, my long legs are almost flat. We could drive across the country and be very comfortable.
Speaking of seats, there was a Nismo in the showroom, so while waiting for the salesperson to get the base ready, I sat in the Nismo's driver's seat. In short, I found its seats very restricting and uncomfortable. So did my small wife. We prefer the basic seat.
If it's of any value to anyone, I noticed that the cruise control works in 4th, 5th and 6th gears. I wouldn't be surprised if it worked in 3rd, too. I like using cruise in the city to avoid tickets, which have become one of the greatest revenue streams for our great, safety-loving (money grubbing) city council members, so being able to set cruise at say 40 km/hr in a lower gear is a nice feature, IMO.
As long as the vehicle was just barely moving, the vehicle's engine and I found it acceptable to use 2nd gear instead of 1st to start a gentle acceleration.
I found the shift mechanism to be very good. I didn't miss any gears and had no trouble finding the correct one for any given speed.
For a base vehicle, I found the features to be quite good.
-Powerful headlights
-Decent radio/CD player
-Covered, illuminated mirror on the passenger visor, along with extendable light-blocks on both visors
-AC
-Auto-up-down power windows
-Power vehicle door lock-unlock
-Outside keyless door lock/unlock buttons
-Push-button ignition
-Blue tooth phone on steering wheel
-Radio volume controls on steering wheel
-Cruise control on steering wheel
-Power side mirrors
-Probably more that I've missed. Our old base '92 Accord had none of this stuff. Times have definitely changed for the better in 24 years. (OTOH, our base Accord was $18K.)
The one and only negative I found was that when I pressed the cruise control, I honked the horn. At first I did not know what was happening. You've really got to press lightly on those steering wheel controls.
Because my wife would be happier with an auto, today I did an online "build your vehicle" on Nissan.ca. In order to get a vehicle with an auto trans, you have to jump two steps up from the base. Below is a screen-capture of the minimum build/price sheet for a vehicle that has an auto. In short, to get a new 370Z with an auto trans, you've got to spend at least another $15K above the base price, which is ridiculous. And that's a cash purchase. If you finance, it's over $17K. Obviously, what Nissan needs to do is offer an auto-trans-and-nothing-else option for the base for say another $1500-$2000. I can't believe that the auto transmission is that much more expensive than the manual transmission and what the heck does Nissan care, as long as they're selling more vehicles?
I asked the Sales Manager when the '17s were due to arrive. He did not know. I asked him if he knew what the "incentive" would be to sell the remaining '16s. He did not know. I asked him if an auto would be optional on the '17 base. He did not know. So that was an informative conversation.
We'll see what the future holds. In the meantime, I'm watching the used-vehicle ads very closely because we're not paying 47 grand for a summer toy.
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