Well, there is really no comparison to this and the Z. At least the GT-R is moving unlike the Z06 even with employee pricing.

 

I disagree, the customer base for a Z06 is much bigger than the GTRs. If I remeber correctly, they are building 1500 GTRs this year, Chevy will sell several times that many Z06s this year. They probobly built about 10,000 Z in 08 and most of them are gone. There are over 200 gtrs on autotrader already, that is big chunk of this years total production. They will still be building 09 untill August. If the dealers would sell them as MSRP im sure a lot of them would move, but most dont like and cant afford to give the dealer an extra 10-30 grand for the right to buy a car.

What makes me mad was all the BS Nissan said about trying to prevent dealers from chargin excessive markups, but then go ahead and mark the car up 8 grand themselves.

 

I thought that mark-up was part of the whole free market system? Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay.

Some dealers falsified pre-orders so they could get pre-orders to work the system and end up selling the car to the highest bidder and there is nothing NNA can do. I would say that the weak dollar also had a hand in the MSRP increase.

BTW there were 7731 total Z06s made for the 2008 models and Nissan has 2400 GT-Rs coming to the US alone.

 

I do agree that markups curtail sales. Markups alienate a group of buyers that could barely afford the car in the first place, that are now simply shut out of the idea of buying it.

However, I think the fact that that the GT-R is still an unknown cult car is a big part of the reason why it's sales in the USDM are slow. The GT-R was never available here, and even among enthusiasts aware of what it is there is still the very shallow stigma of it being a Nissan (even though it outperforms most exotic cars).

When something is invisible, relatively little known, or known but stigmatized, that is a lot of resistance against an idea gaining wider acceptance. So far, the R35 isn't widely accept yet in the USDM and may never be.

This is almost nearly proven by looking at how many pre-orders have been taken for the European market: the car sold out more pre-orders before it was ever officially launched there. Not true of the American market.

 

The problem is, most the people who want the car, know of it through grand turismo. There arent many people aged 16-30, who can afford the car. For the few who can, there any many choices in that price range. Z06, Viper, Porsche. Even though I like the looks of the GTR I assume that most americans would prefer the styling of the vetter, viper and porsche. Then you get to the point of the brand. The name Nissan doesnt carry much weight, they almost went out of business about 10 years ago. Although I would prefer to keep the name Nissan Gtr, it probobly would have sold better in the US as an Infinity. But then Nissan would have risked alienating the hard core fans.

Anyway, If they wanted to make more money, they should just offer a different version. throw some carbon fiber in, pull some weight out, keep the motor the same and charge 10k more. After tax title and license, i just cant image many people spending ~90,000 for a nissan.

I think the cars would move at high 60s, compete directly with the Z06. There are enough people who would want something different that they would sell out. But the majority of the people in the US are not going to willingly pay these excessive markups, especially in an economy like this. People know as soon as you buy it the car depreciates.

If I was nissan, I would just ride out the excessive dealer markup, keep the price the same, and keep the new orders coming. I think this will just slow down the sales and make people think nissan is just as greedy as the dealers.

 

Nissan's GT-R was always a cult car anyway. It wasn't made in large volumes in the past. I don't have a problem with it remaining Nissan GT-R. That is what it should remain.

I just don't like the idea of an already little-known car being exploited by North American dealers' opportunism of greed. It bodes very badly for the GT-R's possible future here.

 

Yea, it kinda sux. in these hard times it rough to eveen afford one. i was hoping it would be around 60k. i was going to make a run for one, but with a house payment and family needs, dealers over pricing them also it's hard to get one, might have to wait 3-5 years for a used one just to own a GTR.

well i guess i waited this long.... lol

 

V-Spec is on the way so there is your higher priced GT-R.

I feel that the Vette design has become the cliché of the mid-life crisis group and that the GT-R is more of an enthusiast's car because it is not as well known by the general public, just the enthusiasts.

I don't care that it is a Nissan, I see Infiniti as more of a luxury brand than a performance brand. I paid for the car not the badge on it.

 

Well im sure a lot of these cars are mid life crisis cars. The vette and prosche seem to be the most known for mid life crisis mobile. But as far as enthusiast goes I disagree. I bet a much large % of z06s are tracked compared to the GTR. Personally i would be afraid to track the GTR after all the maintainence and warranty voiding info, the good thing about the vette is that parts are cheap to replace.
All the porsche guys i know take off their carbon ceramic brakes because the rotors are so expensive to replace.
I agree, i would keep the gtr as a nissan, I was just saying in general.

 

The GT-R can be tracked and it has been done with no backlash from dealers. It just can't be raced in a competitive manner other than hot laps. I have heard rumors that Bondurant driving school may have a GT-R only driving class for owners using their cars to learn out to get the most out of them.