Z you later: The Nissan 370Z Roadster put out of its misery

Jeff Glucker

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The Nissan 370Z Roadster makes me upset. I’m mad that it still exists in its current form. I’m equally angry that Nissan thinks it’s totally okay to charge about 12,000 more actual American dollars over the price of a base 370Z coupe. The starting MSRP of a 2019 370Z drop top is $42,815, which gets you a car with packed with exciting technology from the year 2009. The last example I drove was a few years ago, was not fully spec’d, and stickered for $54k. Thankfully, Nissan has realized maybe this is a car that needs to go away and, according to MotorAuthority,  there will be no 2020 370Z Roadster.

I’m upset because I’m a big fan of the Z car. Not specifically the 370Z, but nearly the entire Z car family. The second car I ever owned was a 1985 300ZX. I can still feel the smile on my face as I unlatched the t-tops, stowed them in their bags in the rear hatch area, and set off through New England b-roads for a fun time behind the wheel. Years later, I drove a 1972 Datsun 240Z from California to Boston as part of a fantastic road trip with my brother. I’ve oogled, lusted after, and appreciated all manner of Z machinery for decades now.

And I’m ready for Nissan to blow the current car up so that something new may take its place. Not just the Roadster, mind you. It’s time for the coupe to disappear into Z car history as well.

Does this give us hope?

At least this is a start though. This is the beginning of the end. There is no more 370Z Roadster and the Coupe now stands alone. Hopefully it doesn’t stand for too long. Nissan, please tell me you’re cooking up something wonderful for us. The recent 50th Anniversary celebrations at the NY Auto Show would’ve been quite the time to unveil such a thing. You still have the remainder of the year to give Z car fans a glimmer of hope. Be it a tiny piece of a render, a peek at a never-before-seen new logo, or just any word at all that something is being drawn up.

Until that happens, I’m at least happy to see you shuffle off a car that’s hung around unchanged for far too long. Adios, 370Z Roadster. Don’t let the garage door hit you on the way out…

About

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Hooniverse.com. He’s often seen getting passed as he hustles a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero up the 405 Freeway. IG: @HooniverseJeff

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15 responses to “Z you later: The Nissan 370Z Roadster put out of its misery”

  1. Zentropy Avatar
    Zentropy

    Nissan no longer has the soul for a new Z. The IDx concept was almost universally well-received over 5 years ago, and Nissan responded to the enthusiasm by doing nothing with it. The GTR, while admittedly impressive on paper, is basically an Xbox controller on wheels, completely devoid of the passion that one expects in a Z car. If anyone revives the spirit of the Z, it sadly won’t be its home brand.

    Reply
    1. crank_case Avatar
      crank_case

      I agree with everything except your analysis of the GT-R, that car and every previous GT-R has way more passion than the equivalent Z Car, the GT-R has always been the hardcore model since the C10, and Z is the softer sports car primarily for export (the starkest contrast is probably R32 vs Z32). Don’t be fooled by the cleverness, these cars are way more mechanically characterful in nature than people give them credit.

      Reply
      1. Zentropy Avatar
        Zentropy

        I completely respect your take on it, and I agree with you from the R34 back. In fact, the R32 was a high-school poster car for me (and I still admire them). And while I agree with you that the R35 fits the GT-R hardcore ethos, I don’t equate “hardcore” with passion. The cleverness that defines the current GT-R’s performance capabilities is exactly what saps it of emotion, in my opinion. It achieves performances through calculations and permutations that insulate rather than involve. It is an amazing car and a technological tour-de-force (well, it was 10 years ago), but the “point-and-shoot” nature of it makes it very digital, whereas my driving soul craves analog.

        For me, “passion” in a car isn’t about fantastic 0-60 times or skidpad Gs, but how well the machine communicates the road to the driver. I want that translation to be as transparent, undiluted, and unmolested as possible. I want to be involved. Of modern car companies, I think Mazda and Porsche probably do this the best (perhaps Ferrari, but I’ve never driven one to say). But if you gave me the choice of a C10 or a brand-new R35, I’d take the old Skyline in a heartbeat. I want my weenie warmed by the campfire, not the microwave oven.

        Reply
        1. crank_case Avatar
          crank_case

          I’ve not had the firsthand pleasure of actually driving a R35, but by all accounts it’s still more mechanical and analog than perceived. It’s not like those cars that “torque vector” using brakes, there’s electronics going on but there’s also big ass mechanical differential that Brunel would be proud of. It’s not a purist RWD car, but it does have a brutalist mechanical character. Like many performance cars, even the old Evo 5/6 or early 90s Subaru Impreza turbos, yes people short on talent could go fast, but real talent is still required to extract the most out of them without endings up in the ditch/Armco at very high speeds. You have to understand and work with those systems and as theres more going on mechanically, that arguably takes more mechanical sympathy/talent tha mastering the easier to understand nature of a simple RWD car.

          The entire design ethos of the GT-R hasn’t changed since the R32, just the capability. Now you can say it’s too quick for the road, but you could say that about hot hatchbacks these day (the R32s ring record was already exceeded by a FWD Renaultsport Mégane 10 years ago and stuffs only gotten faster since)

          Reply
          1. Zentropy Avatar
            Zentropy

            I certainly don’t want to diminish the skill that is required to drive an R35 fast. It is a brute of a car, and I don’t mean to imply that its performance is unimpressive or its drivers talentless. I haven’t driven one, either, but two of my neighbors are engineers that worked on the NSX project, and one would regularly bring home competitive cars for study (McLarens, Porsches, Audi R8s, etc.). I got to experience some really cool vehicles. Later in development, he would occasionally bring home the NSX. It’s a fantastic car, but gives a much more insulated driving experience than the original NSX. It vastly outperforms its predecessor, but again, I prefer the original, which provided a more analog, tactile, and rewarding overall experience.

            Once the NSX was finalized, my neighbor announced his intention to retire and treated himself to a sports car. What did he buy? A Porsche 911.

          2. crank_case Avatar
            crank_case

            Well I can understand 911 over a lot of things, but it’s not like the Z itself was ever the most scalpel sharp thing relative to a Booster, Elise, S2000 or hell even a Toyota 86. If we were talking GT-R Vs Elise or something, I’d be with you, but lardy 350/370z? Those things seem like good natured likeable machines that straddle GT and sports car, but not the first thing I’d think of in terms of a really tactile sports car. They just seem like GT-Rs without the clever bits.

          3. Zentropy Avatar
            Zentropy

            True. When introduced, I compared the 350Z to the Mustang… like you said, not quite a GT, not quite a sports car, and a pretty humble one at that. But the original Z, the 240, I felt was a significantly sharper machine than the competition. It was lighter, had independent rear suspension, better steering, etc. It was the more tactile car to drive. I’ve never given the 350/370Z much consideration, but the 240Z is a brand icon. It’s what I feel represents the spirit of the Z.

          4. crank_case Avatar
            crank_case

            Well most people would agree that it should go back to that in theory, but inevitably drift toward the Z31 300 ZX end of the spectrum in practice. If we were to use that yardstick, we’d be going back to C30 skyline GT-R too, a car which managed to beat a Porsche 904 in the all Japan grand Prix, which would be sort of like beating an LMP2 car in a 5 series in modern terms. Not that speed is the main aim here as you say, but it feels to me that the GT-R in all generations has been the true passion project and the Z more the export money-spinner. The modern Skyline GT-R line starts with the R32 of course, but I don’t think the design ethos has changed much, there still seems to be a similar spirit in the R35. It’s not purist, but it’s not clinically detached either. Even in the R32s heyday, if purity was what you wanted, it was Mazda or Honda that you went to for that. Nissan was never the go to for that sort of car from the 80s on, no matter if your poison was GT-R, Z or S-Chassis. Among bubble era Japanese cars there was always a sharper alternative (e.g. RX7 or NSX vs GT-R or 300ZX, or if you go downmarket, the Silvia/180SX/200SX was always the more “GT” mature option in smaller RWD cars, vs what similar or less money got you, Eunos Roadster (Miata), MR2, the ABC Kei Trilogy of Cappuccino/AZ-1/Beat, a fact that was lost over time, believe it or not, the target market was not young men who vape) Nissan’s character was different, but you can’t say they lacked character. The same applies to the R35 GT-R

  2. neight428 Avatar
    neight428

    Nissan, please tell me you’re cooking up something wonderful for us.

    That would be out of character. Even the GTR, as Zen notes, has turned into a half-assed exception to Nissan’s half-assed product strategy. I say, just keep cutting the price of the coupes until I can trade my Trans Am even for a new one.

    Reply
  3. outback_ute Avatar
    outback_ute

    Sports coupes are a hard thing to make a business case for, it probably comes down to how much loss are they prepared to wear for an image builder.

    Is it better to still have the Z in production, or would be better if they dropped it a few years ago. Maybe this 50th anniversary year will be it for the coupe?

    Reply
  4. Rust-MyEnemy Avatar
    Rust-MyEnemy

    I find it interesting how the latest Supra ostensibly follows the same recipe as the 370Z, which is, in my opinion, the wrong recipe. If you follow the lineage back to the original Fairlady, the Z has always tried to be fast but civillsed. It went awry with the 260 and 280, but the Z32 300ZX was its zenith – superfast and great on the twisties but a pleasure when you want to take things easy. The Z got progressively shouty from then on, and today’s car is basically a mullet and 12 cans of Miller on wheels. The Supra is the same.

    Make the next Z more like the 300ZX and I’ll…… er, probably watch them build up in stock inventories and go unsold. Sorry, ignore me.

    Reply
    1. crank_case Avatar
      crank_case

      The Z32 was great if you didn’t have a better alternative in the showroom. Ignore F&F drift wannabes, a stock-ish R32 wasn’t just fast and nuts if the mood took you, but pretty civilized the rest of the time. Not luxurious, but nice.

      https://hips.hearstapps.com/roa.h-cdn.co/assets/16/18/980×490/landscape-1462289981-gt-r.jpg?resize=5760:*

      Arguably Infiniti makes coupes that sort of do the job of the old Z32 pretty well? Which is ironic as they’re essentially Skylines, but now divorced from the GT-R, which was a pretty dumb decision long term I reckon, but everyone thought Carlos Ghosn was the business back then.

      Reply
      1. Zentropy Avatar
        Zentropy

        Solid comparison between the Q60 and the Z32. They really do fit a similar description, though I’d never before considered them in the same sentence.

        Reply
      2. Rust-MyEnemy Avatar
        Rust-MyEnemy

        You’re dead right. The Skyline / Infiniti was rendered a little ‘everyman’ by being sedan-based, but that’s nothing a talented bunch of marketing professionals shouldn’t be able to work around…

        Reply
  5. Peter Tanshanomi Avatar
    Peter Tanshanomi

    I like big butts, I cannot lie.

    https://www.automotiveaddicts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/2019-nissan-370z-roadster-rear-1.jpg

    Reply