Nissan 370Z replacement in limbo

For the last five years there's been an internal arm-wrestle within Nissan over whether the car-maker's iconic 370Z rear-drive sports car should be replaced… or dumped.

Initially it was thought the 245kW V6-powered 370Z coupe and convertible would be killed off in favour of a sporty SUV previewed by the Gripz concept.

The reason? Making a profitable sports car is notoriously challenging, while SUVs on the other hand are a licence to print money.

The language from senior Nissan executives in the past few years has consistently suggested the 370Z is on death row. After all, Nissan already has a flagship sports car, the Porsche 911-bashing GT-R.

In the last few months there have been reports from the US and Japan that an all- new 370Z with a twin-turbo 3.0-litre V6 would debut at the 2017 Tokyo motor show in October.

However, at last week's Geneva motor show Nissan Europe's top product planner was cautious about the chances of a 370Z successor appearing in Tokyo this year.

The vice-president of product planning at Nissan Europe, Ponz Pandikuthira, has intimate knowledge of what vehicles are in the pipeline for the next decade and his tone suggested that debate over the model's future continues.

After introducing a facelifted version of the Nissan QASHQAI, Europe's top-selling compact SUV, at the Swiss auto fair, we quizzed Pandikuthira about the chances of a new rear-drive 'Z' sports car appearing in Tokyo.

"Let's put it this way, at the core of this company are a group of enthusiasts -- I count myself within that list -- that never want the Z to die," he responded.

"So we're trying innovative ways to make sure we can resuscitate that car. So far we've not been successful. So far.

"But believe me there's a lot of very intelligent and powerful people within the company trying to make that [car] happen."

That would suggest there's nothing concrete in the company's future product strategy and Pandikuthira's use of the word resuscitate implies the Z-car line has already been axed internally.

Nevertheless, the Nissan product planning VP says the internal struggle to save the 370Z is not over and told motoring.com.au he has personally owned six Z-cars and is "a big fan".

"There's a lot of good will for the Z cars," insisted Pandikuthira.

Nissan's Z-car legacy started in the late 1960s with Japan's Fairlady Z, which was dubbed the Datsun 240Z for export markets. The 260Z followed in 1974 and the cars became soon became a global hit.

The two-door Z-car went through several generations, including the 300ZX of the late '80s and 1990s. Then in 2002 the 350Z was unveiled, followed by the sixth-generation (Z34) 370Z that's been around since 2009.

Now seven years old, the current 370Z employs a 3.7-litre version of Nissan's famed VQ-series engine and rides on a modified version of Nissan's front-engine, rear-drive FM platform that debuted under the 2001 V35 Skyline.

Despite dating back as far as the current Z (2009), the 260kW 370Z NISMO is expected to be the second NISMO model to be released in Australia by Nissan, following last year's long-awaited GT-R NISMO.

Can good will save Nissan's famed Z sports car line? Watch this space.