Nissan News: Rumorpile: Nissan GT-R's Future In Question

[William Maley]

William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

June 30, 2012

From the "Wait, What?!" department comes a report from Inside Line that says the next generation GT-R hasn't been approved.

A source reveals that Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn hasn't given the green light to begin work on the next GT-R. More worryingly, the source says that Ghosn might not give it go ahead at all.

A possible reason as to why Ghosn might not give the green light is in this tidbit from the report,

"Ghosn approved the original GT-R only after being assured that it would make money for the company even at low volumes. Since its introduction, GT-R sales in the United States have added up to just 5,914 units and they have slowed recently to just 583 this year."

Most likely the GT-R isn't making enough profit to meet expectations. Part of that could come from the price increase that has happen since the GT-R was launched in 2008.

• 2008: $69,850 (Base); $71,900 (Premium)
  
• 2009: $76,840 (Base); $79,090 (Premium)
  
• 2010: $80,790 (Base); $83,040 (Premium)
  
• 2011: $84,060 (Premium)
  
• 2012: $90,950 (Premium)
  
• 2013: $96,820 (Premium)
  

*2011 saw the base GT-R dropped*

Yes, Nissan has been improving the GT-R every year or so (2013 model sees a increase of 15 for both HP and torque; 545 HP and 463 lb-ft of torque. 0-60 time of 2.7 seconds.), but in the crowded field of sports cars, having numbers like those isn't enough.

A couple other items to take into consideration: in 2009 Ghosn was a champion of the GT-R project. Now, he is the champion of the Leaf EV, something that is way on the other side of the spectrum. Also, chief engineer of the GT-R Kazutoshi Mizuno, recently retired.

Previously, rumors had the next generation GT-R to appear sometime in 2014. Horsepower was expected to be around 600 HP and possibly use a hybrid powertrain. Now, the GT-R is up in the air.

Source: Inside Line

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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[David]

Does not surprise me, without a performance guy to champion a given car, the sales numbers do not support keeping a halo like this going. Plus the current GTR never really hit home to consumers the way the R34 or R35 did.

[A Horse With No Name]

Exactly...and while the car is hugely fast, it isn't anywhere near as reliable or easy to wrench on as a Corvette C6, it's largest competitor here.

I think a lot of performance cars are going to go away....

[David]

Exactly...and while the car is hugely fast, it isn't anywhere near as reliable or easy to wrench on as a Corvette C6, it's largest competitor here.

I think a lot of performance cars are going to go away....

Yes, with the Green movement and the fact that you can get some pretty quick fun cars to drive with Turbo 4 or turbo 6 engines without having to take it to a racing level, I suspect over the next few years a number of low selling performance auto's will silently go away.

[Drew Dowdell]

A friend of mine's brother owns a company that modifies GTRs into insanely fast machines. I visited the facility a few weeks ago and the sights there were simply awesome. They are getting 1,200 hp out of these engines. (if you read Jalopnik, they did a story on the company a few weeks ago also). they are moving to a new facility soon, and I may go out to do a story on them and their new space.

[David]

A friend of mine's brother owns a company that modifies GTRs into insanely fast machines. I visited the facility a few weeks ago and the sights there were simply awesome. They are getting 1,200 hp out of these engines. (if you read Jalopnik, they did a story on the company a few weeks ago also). they are moving to a new facility soon, and I may go out to do a story on them and their new space.

That would be cool to read and see with pictures of what they are doing.

[A Horse With No Name]

It is cool to see them get that much power....