As far as alignment goes, Throttle House on YouTube (based in Canada, btw) reported much the same issues with their test car.
As far as alignment goes, Throttle House on YouTube (based in Canada, btw) reported much the same issues with their test car.
Two year old review video of the Q60 Red w/ awd.
The notable comments were:
Though, he speaks much more kindly about the 400z here
JG Pasterjak said:Having just driven a Supra (with a 6MT) on tack yesterday, I can not overstate how different the experience of these two cars is. The Supra is like a GTP car, the Z is like a Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. Sorry I'm not buying all the excuses of "Well that's not what the Z was meant to be." On paper, these cars should be direct competitors and match up well. In the real world, they absolutely do not.
This is a fair cop but what if it's not an excuse.
It's entirely possible Nissan chose to make the car appeal to the Blvd crowd much like the 280ZX (complete supposition on my part).
Over the years there have been several sports/sporting cars that were absolutely frightening to drive in the rain yet sold like hot cakes.
As a Datsun guy I've been of the opinion that Nissan lost the plot long ago but I'm also aware I'm not their market.
In reply to Tom1200 :
Agreed. I can't help but remember the times when a manufacturer produced a true performance-focused car (FD RX7?) and were punished brutally in the sales dept. The sad reality is track performance is not what most buyers are looking for.
Some of the other road tests i have seen aren't thrilled with it either. This is so sad. Its the car so many have asked for, a nicely styled rear drive coupe, but maybe Nissan dropped the ball? A re'skinned 370Z is not what I expected.
I like the way the car looks, its nice inside too, even the screen mounted low and out of the way. The price is way too high. 50k for the "good" stuff!!
Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Tom1200 :
Agreed. I can't help but remember the times when a manufacturer produced a true performance-focused car (FD RX7?) and were punished brutally in the sales dept. The sad reality is track performance is not what most buyers are looking for.
Not sure that's a fair comparison, all the 90s Japanese sports cars left the US in '96 (except the 3000GT) because of the Yen-vs-Dollar connundrum. Supra, RX-7, and 300ZX all left that year.
If you adjust for inflation what those top end cars cost in '96, it is approaching 80k in today's dollars.
It's a Nissan. I'd expect disappointment.
ddavidv said:It's a Nissan. I'd expect disappointment.
I wish that I disagreed. It just seems like the problems are fixable, and if I were Nissan I'd make that hard-core "Nismo edition" or whatever they want to call it available from the get-go. Seems like from a marketing perspective, you don't want to listen to the word "disappointing" for a year till you come out with the good stuff. Only one chance to make a good first impression and all that. The car may be perfect as is for 90 percent of its buyers, but the enthusiasts have an outsized contribution to a car's word of mouth.
I've tried to like Nissans in the past. Always wind up disappointed.
During my blissfully brief employment at a Toyota/Nissan/Mazda dealer, the techs and I shared an opinion: Nissan likes to think they are the next Toyota, but aren't. Mazda is closer to what Nissan wants to be but nobody notices.
Tom1200 said:
It's entirely possible Nissan chose to make the car appeal to the Blvd crowd...
I think it's this, that they designed the car to appeal to the 99.9% who'll never track the car, but who like to think that they own a sports car. The reality is that the vocal minority is just that, and doesn't move the needle enough on Nissan's features vs profit meter for them to bother. If you want to track the car, fine, make the necessary changes, and not to expect GTP performance right out of the box at a pedestrian price.
Tom1200 said:It's entirely possible Nissan chose to make the car appeal to the Blvd crowd much like the 280ZX (complete supposition on my part).
I just watched Tsuchiya's review on Car Prime (subtitled) and this seems to be the case. He didn't take it to a track, just cruised around city streets and remarked how comfortable it was, and supposed that a hard riding Nismo edition would be the one for track drivers.
Hard to believe the Z could only hit max of 100 mph on last straight with same 60 mph min speed as BRZ. Heck, I get to 100 in my stock power ND2. Somethings not right with the power in that car.
For the sake of argument, an early NC Miata didn't leave the factory in optimized format. But a few relatively easy changes and now you got something. So if I can buy a less than perfect car and with not a whole lot of effort make it good, that doesn't bother me. In fact I enjoy that. But I don't know what the Z needs, and for the money maybe it should be better.
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