Because the debut of the brand new Nissan Z, I believe I’ve seen a grand whole of two on the road. Should you’re like me and questioning simply when and the place you’ll see considered one of these items, I could have discovered a solution. And it’s an unlucky mixture of demand, markups, and the chip scarcity.
After what appeared like a long time, Nissan lastly confirmed that it was engaged on a brand new Z sports activities automobile. The 370Z was well beyond its prime, having been on sale for over a decade, basically a closely up to date model of the 350Z, a automobile that first went on sale in 2002. After teasing us, a close to production-ready idea was proven in late 2020 known as the Proto Z. The manufacturing model of the Z went on sale in late summer time 2022. Nonetheless, nearly a yr after occurring sale, there are hardly any Z’s to be discovered.
When Nissan reported its first quarter 2023 gross sales outcomes, most of its fashions reported optimistic positive factors. Solely two fashions posted triple-digit gross sales numbers. Considered one of them was the GT-R which understandably offered simply 143 items. The marketplace for a six-figure Japanese sports activities automobile is barely so massive. The opposite was the brand new Z. A fast look at the gross sales figures exhibits simply 466 Zs had been offered the primary three months of 2023; that quantity can be what number of have been offered for the yr up to now. A examine of 2022’s figures exhibits 177 had been offered in 2022. Simply 643 have been offered lower than a yr after its debut. Once you take a look at what’s occurring, the issue is threefold.
The primary two issues should do with availability. Nissan instructed me the Z is in excessive demand. However the firm has been coping with an ongoing chip scarcity subject that has been affecting manufacturing and demand. In a press release, Nissan talked about how the corporate is attempting to get manufacturing up for each sellers and clients.
The Nissan Z is a worldwide mannequin and we’re experiencing excessive demand in all areas the place it’s on sale. The U.S. is a precedence market, so we proceed to work intently with our manufacturing companions to ramp up output and decrease supply instances for our sellers and clients.
This exhibits on the vendor degree. A search utilizing Autotrader, Autotempest, and Cargurus exhibits between 68-116 Zs on the market in the entire nation as of this writing. Nissan says the Z begins at $42,805 (together with $1,095 for vacation spot), however good luck discovering one at that worth. That brings us to the third drawback: markups.
Information from Autotempest exhibits a mean markup of $19,271, or 37 % over MSRP, sufficient to flip away many patrons. Even including equipment to a Z Proto Spec, it’s onerous to get it to come back near touching $60,000. Utilizing listings from Cargurus (since that they had essentially the most listed on the market) exhibits that over 42 % of the Zs which can be listed on the market are priced above $60,000.
Such is the automobile market the previous few years, although I ponder if issues preserve going the way in which they’re going if that may give Nissan sufficient excuse to kill off the Z, interval, which might be a disgrace. The Z appears, in the intervening time, to be within the worst of all locations, flying underneath the radar and but not practically sufficient.