Quote:
Originally Posted by Nithmo
What's wrong with the GTR? Low production number cars have long lives in the car selling world. You can't compare it to the Corvette either. That is anything but a low volume selling car. You can't really expect Nissan to put out a new halo car every 5 years. There was a reason Nissan was in deep financial woes prior to the arrival of Ghosn. At least they kept it competitive and gave it tweaks over the years, culminating in one hella expensive and fast Nismo GTR.
Sure, Porsche can do it. But they're largely an SUV brand these days and sports cars were their thing since day 1. They were never really setup to be a high volume selling company. Plus, have you seen the exorbitant prices they charge for anything related to their cars? Nissan was always a DD car brand with sprinklings of sports cars.
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SMH.... First off, it's not every 5 years that we get a new Halo. It's on the 7th year. I believe that it is possible considering the CNC process to build a GT-R shouldn't be excessively expensive. It's blocky, not many angular lines and the structure is basic. It doesn't have a swooping R8 like design neither is it light performance like a base 911. It's design is more intelligence than money. And that's a great thing. But it doesn't carry that type of build structure.
Secondly, outside of the engine. It's a production vehicle. There's not a whole lot inside a GTR you can't find in a $48k Lexus. Though the new car is beautiful inside and the leather looks amazing. Lexus found a way to have that quality in lesser cars.
The money case is in the hand-built engine so that's where I can understand the GT-R running into the $70,000k range. The other $40k. I don't see it in the car. IMHO, looking at all the cars around if and looking at the GT-R. The price reflects more it's legendary name and it's track record than what they threw into it. The GT-R, appears to be what it is, based on a teams intelligence doing a lot with a little vs a big budget
The GT-R is a great car. I'm not saying that. In my opinion the GT-R needed to evolve more. First off it strayed too far away from the R34 in size and weight. It grew weigh too big. Which to me in itself is a sign of cost cutting. The engine power increasing are minor parts replacements and mostly ECU tunes. That's the beauty of an FI car. You can keep giving it more power with little to no effort.
All that said. YES I think 7 years is reasonable to come out with a new Halo. Or if not. Give it an aggressive refresh. In the case of the GT-R. Nissan has never needed or wanted the American market for the GT-R. We received it after years of begging based on the cult following. It was doing fine NOT SELLING in the U.S. That said... I really don't think Nissan's financial woes are based on engineering two halo cars. They're a lot of factors in why car companies end up struggling. In most cases, it's more about expanding into other parts of a global market and not being prepared for the repercussions of a really slow start. Not how much money you dumped into a GTR. Cutting sports car money is a side effect of messing up in other aspects in business.
I'm sure keeping up with the GTR is not draining their pockets. They just choose to move slow to focus on other things.