What can we expect from 2012 Z?

Originally Posted by wolf370z

If the 370z and Mustang GT both do the same thing then I guess you cross shopping a Ford Taurus and an E55 AMG make sense because they both basically do the same thing....? In fact any two cars or any two SUV's or any two trucks could be compared since they essentially do the same thing?

My point was people would compare the Mustang with the Camaro and Challenger because they're all "muscle cars." I think that fact alone separates any of the three cars from being cross shopped with a 370z or another similar sports car. That's why I believe that Nissan really offers something special with a true sports car at a pretty affordable price for the market. Like I said before, unless you're trying to compare any performance-oriented vehicle then it would make sense to cross shop all of the above.

I also don't think there's anything wrong with cross shopping a 370z with a Mustang GT. In fact I did cross shop the '09 370z with the '10 Mustang GT. Then I heard rumors of the '11 Mustang GT and thought for a while. To be honest my initial thought was that Ford wasn't really going to bring much to the table, that the Camaro would dominate the Mustang GT again, and the 370z would edge it out due to the weight differences.

Clearly I was wrong, and even after hearing the rumors about the newly designed 5.0L, I was convinced that the other weight rumor (a 4000 lbs Mustang GT) was probably going to be true since all the muscle cars leaned towards the ultra heavy side.

However, I couldn't be happier with the 370z. Once you've driven the two cars back to back they're pretty incomparable, I thought. I love both equally but the 370z was just a much sportier car and certainly much more fun to drive based on test driving the '11 GT. And yes, this was quite literally me driving the 370z and then stepping out into an '11 GT to test. The differences were extremely noticeable. The '11 GT seemed much smoother as a driver and I feel would be even easier to drive in traffic than the 370z. My problem was I felt the 370z had even more room and that I was cramped up against the dash because the clutch felt about a mile away in the '11. I'm average height (~5'10") and it felt like the car was designed for tall people while still managing to remain comfortable for me. It was quite a weird experience.

Of course after testing driving the '11 GT, climbing into the 370z was so hard because the GT really was a far smoother car. But hey, that's the price you pay for a sports car... and I couldn't be happier!