Loaner

For those of us still waiting for our Z, here is a review from todays paper. Nothing earth shattering but>>>>>>>>



Z may put Nissan in the driver's seat
Popular sports car is poised to take off in its return

08/17/2002

By TERRY BOX / The Dallas Morning News

Mike Quan's 19-month bout with Z fever is about to break.

In January 2001, five days after Nissan announced that it would build a new Z sports car, Mr. Quan ordered one – though he had never even seen a production version of the car, much less driven one.

In about a week, he will become one of the first people in the Dallas area to wrap his hands around the three-spoke steering wheel of a 350Z – a resolutely anti-retro, high-performance symbol of Nissan's impressive resurgence.

"I am doing well now because I can count the days until it arrives," said Mr. Quan, a 53-year-old engineer from Rockwall who is buying Z car No. 159 in chrome silver.

That sort of hot-eyed enthusiasm is not limited to Z-ites like Mr. Quan, a member of the Z Club of Texas who is also the original owner of a silver 1972 240Z. The 350Z is Nissan's first sports car since it discontinued the overweight, overly expensive 300ZX in 1996 – ending a 26-year run of Zs.

For 2003, the Z returns as a moderately priced sportster that can run with the big boys. With the Porsche Boxster as its development target, the two-passenger Z offers a 287-horsepower V6 engine, a six-speed transmission and superb handling – for a base price of about $26,800.

Nissan expects to sell 35,000 Z cars in the next 12 months, which would surpass the Chevrolet Corvette and make it the top-selling sports car in the U.S. Target buyers are men 30 to 35 with a household income of $75,000 a year, though the company also expects a large number of male buyers over 40.

Joel Weeks, a Nissan product planner who's responsible for the Z car and the Sentra, said that 8,000 consumers have already ordered the car.

"Given that kind of enthusiasm, we're confident that we'll go from not being in the marketplace at all to being the top seller," Mr. Weeks said. "I'm not really surprised. When I saw ... [a pre-production version of] the car for the first time a couple of years ago, I knew it was going to be a hit."

Club's input


The Z Club of Texas can probably claim some of the credit for that success. With more than 500 members, the Dallas-based group is the second-largest Z club in the United States, said club president Chuck Stong.
Throughout the development of the car, Nissan sought advice and feedback from Z clubs, inviting Mr. Stong, for example, to the company's North American design studio to view a clay model of the car.

In addition, when Nissan was debating whether to make the 350Z a traditional hatchback or a coupe, Mr. Weeks said he asked longtime Z Club of Texas member "Mad Mike" Taylor to post the question on his Web site. Members and other Z enthusiasts responded with a resounding "hatchback," and that was a major influence in Nissan's decision to go with it.

"I'm very pleased with the car," said Mr. Stong, 30, a network center technician at Southwestern Bell who drives a 1986 300ZX Turbo. "There's a few cosmetic things I'd improve on. But as a base car, it's a good start."

Car and Driver magazine, one of the industry's most influential voices, put the new Z on the cover of its August edition, declaring that the "reborn Z returns to its 1970 roots" with "excellent performance, terrific control feel, exciting styling inside and out."

Edmunds.com said of the Z: "It's pumped. It's buff. It's here to kick Porsche and BMW tail."

At one time, Nissan expected to ride the Z out of a deep financial hole. Over most of the last decade, the company lost billions, finally becoming profitable again about two years ago. But to get back in the black, Nissan had to close three assembly plants, make deep cuts in spending and fire thousands of workers – steps taken after Renault SA of France, Nissan's largest shareholder, sent Carlos Ghosn to Japan to turn the company around.

It also had to focus again on building interesting products, analysts say. The company started a couple of years ago with the Xterra sport utility vehicle and followed that with a redesigned compact Sentra sedan and an all-new midsize Altima sedan.

The Altima, in particular, has been a huge success, with sales up 38 percent this year. And Nissan's luxury division, Infiniti, finally has a hit of its own in the new G35 sedan.

"There was a time before the Altima that the Z car was to be the vehicle that would bring Nissan out of the ruins," Mr. Weeks said. "But the Altima has almost turned the company around on its own."

Nonetheless, he added, the Z is "the embodiment of Nissan."

Industry darling


As a result of its rapid two-year turnaround, Nissan is currently one of the darlings of the auto industry.
"There are lots of manufacturers out there that are envious and jealous as hell and looking at Nissan as a case study," said Wesley R. Brown, an analyst with industry consultant Nextrend in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

New models of cars and trucks are propelling Nissan's resurgence, and Mr. Brown says more are on the way. Mr. Brown, who recently visited a Nissan test facility in Arizona, said he has seen some of the new vehicles that will be arriving in the next 18 months. As nice as the Altima, the Z and the G35s are, he said, "we have not seen anything yet."

In an attempt to distinguish Nissan from its competitors, Mr. Ghosn decreed that all of the company's cars and trucks get large doses of personality and performance. When the new Altima was introduced, it immediately stood out from the staid Toyota Camry and Honda Accord with its combination of speed and style.

"I think the shakeup in their corporate culture made them realize that if they wanted to turn things around, they had to focus on the product," Mr. Brown said.

That focus also has led to some solid business decisions, said Mr. Brown and other industry analysts. When Mr. Ghosn took charge of Nissan, he found an automaker with too many models of vehicles – most with their own platforms and engines.

He cut that number by more than half. All automakers strive to share platforms and engines among several different models, which can significantly reduce the cost of those critical components.

The 350Z shares its new platform with the Infiniti G35 sedan, G35 coupe, the forthcoming FX45 crossover vehicle and the next generation Q45 sedan. Different versions of the Z's 3.5-liter V6 can also be found in the Altima, the Maxima, the G35s, the Pathfinder and Infiniti's QX4 sport utility.

"Volkswagen has done an outstanding job of building a number of cars off the same platform," said Mr. Weeks of Nissan. "It's a fine line. You want the cost savings, but you want each model to feel unique."

As far as Bill Atkins is concerned, Nissan got it right with the Z. Mr. Atkins is executive manager of Trophy Nissan in Mesquite, which as the largest Nissan dealership in the U.S. will be getting 133 Z cars over the next 90 days. All are spoken for.

"I have seen the transformation of Nissan up close, and it's been great to watch," he said.

Zay

Good article. I just hope that the author is correct when he says that the Z's will start showing up next week in Dallas. Next week is just three hours away by my clock.