Crazy idea: swap Nismo Recaro seats for Sport?

twyrick

When I bought a slightly used '16 Nismo Tech earlier this year, I did so after doing lots of research online. I thought if I was going to buy one of these cars before they stop production, I wanted all the bells and whistles and the "top of the line" model with the best performance. I didn't want to pay the "Nissan tax" of what a brand new one cost though, so I went with a slightly used, low mileage, Nissan certified one instead.

I'm pretty happy with the car too... but as I've owned it for a while now, it's honestly becoming more clear to me why so many people don't keep these cars for the long haul.

I've owned a lot of sports cars over the years (currently in my mid 40's), and some were just more of a joy to drive than others. I think the Nismo is someplace in the middle of the pack for me, vs. other cars I owned. Especially on longer trips, I honestly get a little bored of driving it, if that makes any sense? It's fun for a short, spirited drive someplace. But on real road trips or those drives between cities, I really start feeling like I took the wrong vehicle for the job. I'm 5'9" and around 200lbs. and I fit in the Recaro seats ok - but it's a tight fit. That's not a bad thing as that's how these seats should feel, really. But I get the idea if I was much bigger, the side bolsters would be a little too narrow for me.

Performance-wise, I find the acceleration to be "adequate" for a sports car, but not anything exceptional. It's no wonder so many people opt for a custom tune, custom exhaust, custom intake, and often a turbo or supercharger upgrade on these. It always feels like just as many sports cars on the road are faster than you as there are slower than you.

All things considered? I think if I knew then what I know now as an owner? If I was doing this over again, I'd save a little money and go with a "Sport Tech" edition. (I do like the gadgets like the built in GPS and reverse camera and Bluetooth.) No matter what edition of these cars you get, you can easily dump another $10-15K into it to get your twin turbo or supercharged setup properly installed and tuned. Otherwise, they're all pretty close in horsepower and you can do some appearance mods to get that "edginess" of a Nismo in the looks department, should you want it. And yeah, once the "coolness factor" of having Recaros wears off -- they're probably less practical seats for most of your driving needs than the regular ones.