i think i need to pay more attention to the nissan threads, what about the 350z and g35? where are they going to fit in?

I thought that the GT-R was going to be a Nissan but Infiniti would get a more luxurious version at a later date.
Nissan 350z/Infiniti G35

Step up in performance to

Nissan GT-R/Infiniti superar

there a totally different class car - both the g and the 350 are marketed to a different demographic — the 350 is a competitor for a affordable sporty car market ( mustang, rx-8, solstice twins etc….) g competes for the money of the bmw 3 series crowd. these are COMPLETELY different markets than the gtr will be put in —– porsche 911 corvette zo6 and the like.

so dont worry about the g and the 350 they are safe just as all z cars are when gt-rs are around(280z- r32 and 300z-r33)

Who cares how it’s badged, we still get a GT-R that hasn’t been detuned. Can’t say that Mitsubishi, Subaru, and Toyota give their best models to us. Props to Nissan for having the brains to provide North America with the best in japanese performance before everyone else. We missed out on the Chaser, the earlier Lancers, the Legacy spec-B, S-13 through s-15 silvia, and most of Honda’s type-r line up. It’s about time the Japanese actually give us what we actually want.

P.S. I’d assume that the g35 and Z will be marketed to the same markets, The G35 with options looks like it will be 40k and the next Z will probably be like 28-35K. The Skyline should sell for 60k +

i think it would make sense to make it an infiniti at that price point. considering the rest of the asian manufacturers are all making their re-entry into the sport car market — lexus with the LFA acura with the nsx replacement, so exciting i cant wait untill we get to see these on the streets. im with the nissan crowd and am going to go with the gtr over the others.

just wonder how the 350 and g will fair when toyota finally gets a product resembling a new supra- like the ft-hs with close to or over 400 hp

anyone think toyota will go through with the hybrid powertrain for a sports car?

If should be an Infinity. Toyota is coming out with there supercar, and it has a lexus badge on it. The reason is because who’s going to pay $100,000 for a nissan or toyota. At least if there paying that much, they know there buying something a little more upscale and with a better name.

Show of hands. Who actually saw this one coming?

If this was a brand new $100k car with no history whatsoever (i.e. Lexus LFA), Nissan would never hesitate giving it an Infinity badge. But b/c there is so much racing history about this car as Nissan, that is why it’s tough for them to contemplate.

Either way it will be a hit. I’ve never driven a GT-R, but I assume to get the maximum performance, it would be devoid of luxury appointments. Thus, it should be Nissan. If they bring it over totally decked out with every creature comfort, tons of sound deadening material, etc., then it should be an Infinity.

funny that other makers are bringing exciting new cars to life as Chevy retires its bastard stepchild aimless commitee cars…..and reincarnates Cavaliers as a Cobalts.
Maybe im just a thankless consumer…..

Making the GT-R an Infiniti just because of the price would be stupid. That would be like GM bringing back the Camaro, but it becomes so expensive they make it a Cadillac Camaro instead of a Chevrolet. Stupid. Toyota bringing back the Supra, but it gets even more expensive so they make it the Lexus Supra. Stupid. Same thing with the GT-R. It started life as a Nissan, keep it a damn Nissan.

Exactly O6stc… the GT-R is known worldwide as a Nissan and it would even dilute the name to make it an Infiniti. Infiniti is a great brand but they ought to have a heavily restyled GT-R, under a different name, just like the 350z/G35. The GT-R for Nissan is just like the Corvette for Chevrolet.

and id pay $100k for a badass Nissan over a slightly upmarket Infiniti anyday. Keep it a Nissan.

nissan what the hell would even make them think otherwise? remember gran turismo? even the 1967 skyline was a nissan

as long as it goes fast though. is it oging to be called the R35?

ya i just said that 6 minutes ago

GT-R = Nissan and always will.

maybe it’s me, but this story smells fishy…

Can I get one detuned to have a 1.8 liter 102hp engine for $50k so I can look cool?

The Skyline is to Nissan what the Corvette is to Chevy. They definately should not badge it as an Infiniti.

i saw this coming. The only reason that they would badge them as infiniti’s is because infiniti dealerships have more experience, compared to nissan dealers, when it comes to higher-priced cars

Most of the folks in here babbling about “Nissan heritage” probably don’t even have enough money to afford the new GT-R. The guy who tried and failed to use the “the Corvette is a Chevrolet” excuse obviously doesn’t know what he’s talking about. In Europe Corvette’s are sold out of Cadillac-Corvette showrooms if I’m not mistaken. They’re not badged as Caddy’s, but they’re sold out of Caddy-Corvette dealerships so that folks don’t mistake the Corvette for a crappy entry level Chevrolet. I should also note that Chevrolet’s lineup in Europe consists mainly - or possibly entirely - of cheap, small, rebadged Daewoos. So much for heritage. Have we also forgotten that the Viper was formerly sold throughout Europe as the Chrysler Viper or that Honda sold the NSX stateside as an Acura without so much as a hiccup from enthusiasts?

With the GT-R going for a higher price than than the previous R34 Skyline GT-R there’s a real possibility that it will and SHOULD be sold through Infiniti dealerships in the states. Nissan heritage my ass, how many folks here with enough money for a GT-R would be willing to plop down a Corvette sized (or possibly 997 Carrera sized) chunk of change for a “cheap Nissan.” It all comes down to final pricing and where Nissan decides to position the new GT-R in the market. The NSX did fine in the US despite being sold as an Acura. Fine in the sense that it wasn’t the Acura badge that killed it, but a lack of updates and upgrades from Honda.

However at least the NSX was still being sold here up until 2004 unlike the RX-7, 300ZX, Supra, MR2 and 3KGT which were all removed from the US market during the 90s. Yes the collapse of the sports car market contributed to their departures from the US, but it didn’t help that with the FD, Z32, Mark IV and the 3KGT the Japanese tried to sell 35k-40k sports cars to Americans out of “lowly” Mazda, Nissan, Toyota and Mitsubishi dealerships. Most of you kids screaming “heritage” are probably too young or too uninformed to remember when this happened.

The fact of the matter is that if the next GT-R was a 320hp 40k-50k 2 door 4 seater like the R34 GT-R it would be much easier to justify selling it in the US as a Nissan. However with around 400-500hp on tap and a price rumored to be in the 65k-100k range it’s a much tougher sale to pitch. How the heck do you justify selling an 80k Nissan in the states when it’s more expensive than EVERY CAR in your upscale marque’s lineup? Heritage? With the departure of the Q45 from the US market Infiniti dealers could use a new flagship as well as a halo car. Nissan already has the 350Z, I say give Infiniti the GT-R. And if Nissan is still intending to take the Infiniti brand worldwide they could also use the GT-R to spearhead its entry into other markets.

Don’t get me wrong. I understand the whole heritage thing but I also understand Nissan’s worrying about whether or not Americans will plunk down the cash for a “Nissan” ubercar. The main thing for me is that the GT-R comes stateside and hits sales targets so it isn’t pulled from our market. If selling it as an Infiniti means more sales then by all means do it. If selling it as a Nissan means more sales, then do that instead. Hey if they can’t make up their minds, they could always sell it as the Infiniti GT-R by Nissan. LOL.

They should badge them as nissans but sell them in both nissan and infiniti dealerships (maybe even just mainly infiniti dealerships). I think most people are informed enough to understand the connection between the two brands.

You know, Ford was able to sell the GT from its plain old ****ty Ford dealerships. Chevy sells the Vette, not Caddy. Dodge sells the Viper, not Mercedes or even Chrysler. I think whatever happens, they’ll be okay. I just cant wait for this car to come out already. I wanna test drive!!

“is the corvette a cadillac?
The Skyline GT-R has been a Nissan brand for the last 40 years why do you think that it will change?
by the the why Nissan USA website as the car listed as a “upcoming vehicle spring 2008″ if you don’t believe what i am saying.
http://www.nissanusa.com/gt-r/
Comment by oddglat, posted on January10 at 8:51 am ”

Somehow, i tould you so doesn’t quite say it.

Nissan GT-R, enough said.

Plllease Nissan!

While I’m not sure this will happen, it does seem like bad news.

More than anything, I’m just afraid that branding the car as an Infiniti will be an excuse for them to add $10000 or more to the MSRP. I’m especially concerned for the Canadian Market, because we’re already getting raped now that our dollar is only about 15 cents off the American dollar. For example, the 350Z is about $50000 ($42500 USD) here, and that’s about the same price as a G35 Coupe. As long as being an Infiniti doesn’t jack up the price, I could really care less what badge it’s wearing.

The thing is is, I don’t really understand what increasing the price accomplishes in terms of placing the car in a certain segment. I don’t think there’s any possible way they can get away with pricing this car against the other Japanese Supercars. The successor to the NSX certainly isn’t going to be any cheaper than the previous $90000 model, and considering the $65000 price on the Lexus SC 430, I don’t even want to guess what they’re going to be asking for a 200mph V10 Supercar. It’s best bet is probably to remain the only reasonably affordable Japanese Supercar and compete head-to-head-to-head with the Corvette and the M3. That being said, if money was no object for me, I have a feeling I’m going to want this car whatever the price. So I want it to be priced at a point where I don’t have to give up hope of ever owning one.

I can understand the argument that the Infiniti dealers were unhappy, but I’m not sure I accept it as true. Why would Infiniti dealers be enraged? Aren’t the vast majority of Infiniti dealers Nissan/Infiniti? And while I know that the trend as of late (at least where I live) seems to be for Infiniti/Lexus/Acura to move onto self-contained lots, I’d still be willing to bet that the people who actually own those dealerships also own a Nissan/Toyota/Honda dealership, so it might not really matter what brand gets the car.

Finally, in response to pherarey, I suspect this will be the R35, as the R3X designation is something that’s referred to the GT-R Skylines, specifically. The rest of the Skylines were referred to as V3X, and that continues to this day. The Infiniti G35 is the V35 Skyline in Japan.

I don’t think the analogy of the Viper being rebranded for Europe is terribly valid, because the opposite is true for many Japanese cars going to Europe. A lot of the Toyotas and Hondas that were rebranded as Lexuses and Acuras, respectively, for sale in the states were just left as Toyotas and Hondas in Europe. The NSX, for example.

I think what amazes me so much about the whole branding/rebranding argument, with expensive items in particular, is the assumption that people with money are too stupid to know what something is worth. If that’s true then capitalism is truly some sort of anti-Darwinian engine. Or it could be that selling a particular type of image is little more than a license to print money.

Also, just a simple question:

Has anyone heard if the new GT-R will still be a 2+2?

“I think what amazes me so much about the whole branding/rebranding argument, with expensive items in particular, is the assumption that people with money are too stupid to know what something is worth. If that’s true then capitalism is truly some sort of anti-Darwinian engine. Or it could be that selling a particular type of image is little more than a license to print money.”
Comment by nowei, posted on March1 at 5:40 pm

While I agree with that, knowing or not knowing what something is worth isn’t always the issue. Say some rich guy can’t decide between this and an R8? This being badged as a Nissan will be something that might lean his desision towards the Audi–or whatever highend sports car he might be considering. Maybe only 1 out of 10 rich ppl actually care that their coworkers see them in a Nissan, even if it only brings the 1 more sale for every 100, that’s already worth it. While I like the idea of the GTR keeping it’s Nissan heritage, I don’t think it will be something to effect sales because it hardly has any heritage here in NA. And will it being badged a Infinite really deter a true enthusiast?

Dealers using it as an excuse to mark up the price would suck though. It would seem that it’s going to be a Nissan as syrax said though.

Nissan corporate needs to stick to its guns and keep this badged as a NISSAN for the US.. Toyota has just finished revamping its lineup so that Lexus products are marketed only under that brand worldwide, and Honda and Nissan have both stated they plan to do something similar with their future Acura and Infiniti products.. so rebadging the GT-R for the US would make no sense unless Nissan plans to sell it as an Infiniti worldwide in the future.

This is such a dumb argument, Nissan is selling the GT-R, and thats final. They announced that last year for Gods sake.

It better stay a Nissan if they care anything about the car’s history.

While I understand the argument for making the GT-R an Infiniti, I don’t think it’s going to help the car sell to the right market, even if the price stays at $70k.

Anyone remember the 1980’s Merkur XR4Ti? To recap, it was based on the Ford Sierra from Europe which was rear wheel drive, had an independent rear suspension, came with DOHC turbo engines and offered range-topping performance RS and Cosworth versions which had a great deal of racing history.

In the USA they were changed for Lincoln-Mercury dealers with different engines and a more entry-level luxury performance appeal. Lincoln-Mercury buyers panned the car and it died within four years. Enthusiasts loved it, however.

Big lesson in marketing I think Nissan could learn from. If Infiniti gets the GT-R, most buyers with $70k to burn aren’t going to know about OR CARE ABOUT the all-out performance and heritage of the Skyline GT-R. The luxury car market has totally different expectations from their cars than the enthusiast performance market has from their cars.

Chevrolet sells a $70k Corvette. Dodge sells an $80k Viper. Ford briefly sold a $100k GT. Why can’t Nissan sell a halo $70k GT-R and sell to the intended audience with the right marketing?

The GT-R may be competing with Porsches and Porsches are about luxury as much as they are about performance… but ALL of their cars are about performance whereas Infiniti hasn’t convinced me that they care about it all that much.

Give it to Nissan.

car-a-holic you’re a simpleton

Toyota is also coming out with a super-car for Toyota-brand, http://www.leftlanenews.com/toyota-ft-hs-hybrid-sports-concept.html

So is Honda selling Acura in Japan now? Because their Advanced Sports Car Concept was branded as an Acura, but I just assumed that was because they were humouring the American market.

I think Hyperion has made a good point with regard to the difference between luxury and performance. In that respect Nissan probably has the edge.

And I’m gonna re-ask my 2+2 question. Anybody know anything about that? Because if the GT-R was not a 2+2 that could be a huge incentive to move towards a Toyota FT-HS. I know it probably won’t have the same kind of performance, but if it’s considerably cheaper and I’m not sacrificing practicality it’d certainly be an attractive option. And I do think some form of that car or a similar car will see production. Toyota is going hard with the hybrids, and they desperately need a sports car. And I doubt that it’ll appear as a Lexus because by the time it hits the market they’ll have the SC, LF-A, and IS-F.

The GT-R has always been a 2+2. Maybe there were a few rare versions with a rear seat delete but I am not an expert. Not long ago I was given a ride in a 1996 R33 GT-S coupe which is physically identical to a GT-R. It had good front seat room and the back seat wasn’t much bigger than what you’d find in most 2+2 sportscars. Trunk room was very livable also.

You won’t be able to haul too much in this car but you’ll have much more room than in, say, a Corvette or an RX-7, neither or which even have a trunk.

u know lots of people thimk pf this being the r35 skyline that will be coming out, but it is actually the r36 because the g35 was actually a skyline accept for North America.

actually the only skyline that are only 2 seaters are the GT-R’s ant other ones are 2+2’s

I’ll bet it’ll be an Infiniti just so they can price it slightly higher than if it was a Nissan.

Thanks for the comments. I guess I’m just wondering if the GT-R will keep it’s 2+2 configuration because it’s traditionally been a lot of things, but for a while at least it looked as though many of those things weren’t going to be carried over (there were rumours that it was going to be a RWD V8). I just remember looking at the pictures of the PROTO and wondering if the had enough room for back seats.

Also, while dubztar92’s logic is a tad flawed, he makes an interesting point. In theory, this new GT-R should be the R35. While there has been a series of Skylines in production, which is the G35 lineup in North America, these have been V35 Skylines. In previous generations, all models that were not GT-Rs (i.e. GT-S, GT-S 4, GT, etc.) were all designated with a “V” in front of the generation number. So, a 1990 GT-S 4 would be a V32 Skyline. It was ONLY the GT-Rs in a given generation that were referred with the “R” designation. Hence, a 1996 GT-R is an R33 Skyline. When the Skyline went from the “34″ generation to the “35″ generation, the GT-R was dropped. So, a Nissan Skyline in Japan or an Infiniti G35 in North America is referred to as a “V35.” As no GT-R has yet been produced on this architecture there has been, to the best of my knowledge, no car referred to as an “R35.”

However, I do believe that Nissan continued to produce the R34 GT-R for a brief period after all the other R34 models were discontinued. I highly doubt (read: I am 99.99% positive that this is not the case) that these Skyline GT-Rs, although produced in the same model years as other V35 Skylines, were referred to as R35s. I have the same suspicion that the limited edition Nismo Z-Tune GT-Rs from a year or so ago were also never referred to as R35s, because even though they were pretty much completely rebuilt by Nismo, they were still built using the “34″ Skyline as a base.

It should probably be noted that the name “G35″ is neither reference to the fact that it is the “35″ generation Skyline, nor is “G” some bizarre English-to-Japanese-and-then-back-to-English translation of “V.” Infiniti has been selling “G” cars in North America for about 15 years, and “G” is just designates a kind of mid-size sports sedan/coupe, like BMW’s “3.” From 1991 to about 2002 it was a rebadged Nissan Primera, which had a 2.0L, SR20DE engine. The “20″ in the engine designation is the standard Nissan practice of referring to the displacement of the engine in decilitres (100mL x 20 = 2000mL = 2.0L). The same practice is at work in the GT-R, which has an RB26DETT. This reference to engine displacement was taken by Nissan and used in the nomenclature of their Infiniti lineup. It’s worth noting that Lexus does the same thing and it’s probably done because the primary European competitors with Infiniti and Lexus (BMW and Mercedes) have named their cars in a similar fashion since pretty much the dawn of time. Hence the rebadged Primera was called the Infiniti G20. When the G switched from being the Primera to the new Skyline in 2003 it became a whole other car with a whole other engine, specifically the VQ35DE. So the G became the G35. If the engine had been, say 70 litres, it would have been the G700 (absurd, I know, but it demonstrates the idea). Now, this same engine is also in the M and FX vehicles from Infiniti, hence the M35 and the FX35. These particular cars also happen to be available with a V8, the VK45DE, and are known as the M45 and FX45. So the name G35 just means that the car is a sports sedan/coupe with a 3.5L engine.

With the recent update of the G35/Skyline, the generation designation switched from “V35″ to “V36″ (notice how the name of the car did not change to “G36″). So, the “35″ generation came and went without any model being distinct enough to be labeled an “R35.” So, depending on the logic one (read: Nissan) chooses to use, the new GT-R could be either an R35 or an R36. On the one hand, the last GT-R was an R34, so it stands to reason that the next GT-R should be an R35. On the other hand, it was only an R34 to differentiate it from the V34. So, if it needs to be differentiated from anything now, it needs to be differentiated from the V36, which would make it an R36. That might actually be more fitting, as it would acknowledge the fact that for 6 or so years, the duration of the V35 Skyline’s life, there was no GT-R. A parallel to this (that I can think of off the top of my head) could be the Buick Grand National. They made a 1982 model, didn’t produce one in 1983, and then brought it back in 1984, but when they brought it back in 1984 they didn’t call it a 1983 model for the sake of continuity. Although there is a difference between defining a car by years and by production generations. The passage of years is obviously not dependent on the production of automobiles, but production generations of automobiles obviously are dependent on the production of automobiles.

All of this, however, might be a moot point, because it assumes that the GT-R will still be associated with the Skyline. Everything Nissan has said up to this point indicates that the GT-R is becoming its own model. It’s just the Nissan GT-R. So it might be that R35/R36 are dropped altogether in favour of something independent of the Skyline lineup.

* Response to the post above *

GT-R or not, they were all R30, R31, R32, R33 and R34.

The R and V comes from the engine, if I’m not mistaken.
either it’s
R34 = RB-series
V35 = VQ-series
or that the R stands for straight(-6) cylinder engine and that the V stands for a V(-6) engine configuration.

At least for the JDMarket.

I could be wrong with the one above, but I know for a fact that a 1990 GT-S was a R32. What should be noted that only the GT-R’s had the designation BNR.

Good call on that. I messed up.

Although my credibility may have taken a hit on that one, I’m going to say it refers to something other than engine though, because they started referring to R30 Skylines in 1981, which was before the introduction of the RB engines. It’s possible that it just refers to the basic vehicle architecture… like General Motors’ “G-Body” cars… although again, I’m not entirely certain.

It the end of the world as we know it…

It was a well thought out guess, nowei, so don’t worry about it. WEKS is probably right concerning Nissan’s model code corresponding to engine codes, with one exception: R30 Skylines preceded the RB six cylinder engines with only FJ four-cylinders, L-series I-6’s, CA I-4’s and some rare Z-series I-4’s. R31 Skylines were the first to come with RB’s.

I’m not sure if this helps answer the question as to “why” they chose Rxx as a model code…

Bruddah Man Matt;

Corvetttes are sold out of the same dealerships as Caddy’s in Europe because the dealerships were combined anyway since American cars were a niche market in Europe - in fact in most cases they are sold from Opel dealerships. Since we didn’t see Cadillac as a premium brand anyway it didn’t really hurt the brand too much.
Chevy dealerships only arrived in Europe when a marketing genius at GM decided that selling Daewoos as Chevrolets would be a good move for an American brand that was already struggling for credibility in Europe. All of a sudded a bunch of Daewoo dealerships became Chevrolet dealerships and Europeans couldn’t decide whether the irony or the sheer stupidity of the move made them laugh more.

If the Skyline is staying true to its heritage then it will be far to rough of a diamond to be labelled Infiniti. I don’t really care what they call it, but if they are thinking about calling it an Infiniti then I worry that it may be losing focus - I hope its not being “golf clubbed”

who cares, the car is sick, even though i feel they could have made it a little better looking

It SHOULD be a Nissan.

Yes, it should be a Nissan, but I doubt it will be. Americans aren’t going to want to pay that price for a Nissan, as stupid as that sounds.

As long as the original intention of the GT-R isn’t changed, they can sell it under a third division if they want to. I just don’t see Infiniti respecting the GT-R for what it is. I think they are desperate for new models and a new halo vehicle and they think they can just TAKE AND USE the GT-R for their own purposes.

I haven’t heard one quip from the Inifiniti dealer camp about how much they respect this car and what it represents, both in racing history and in raw performance value for the enthusiast buyer.

I sincerely hope the original decision stays. Inifiniti could have any high powered pseudo GT car as a halo car and be just as happy. Will they try to change the USA market GT-R into a luxocruiser? Absolutely.

I wonder if the people considering this argument are aware of what it is about it horrifies the Nissan enthusiasts so. If you take the performance crown jewel of Nissan and rebrand it Infinity, think not of what it means for the GT-R, but what it means for Nissan. It means that anything worth stealing from the Nissan linup gets nicked. It means that the only thing left in the Nissan lineup is the stuff that wasn’t worth taking.

How can Nissan go on having any brand value if the manufacturer shows that even if Nissan DOES have something cool it will immediately get swiped and rebranded?

Should the GT-R be branded an Infinity they will be re-enforcing the effect they are trying to avoid.

it could work as long as nissan is the bare bones racer and as Hyperion said a “luxocruiser” would satisfy the snobby s.o.b.`s that would never drive a commoners car such as a nissan, skyline = scary fast & g36 = kind of fast with all the useless bells and whistles for the guy that just wants to look like he has money.Sorry GM but to poke at you, like the vette and xlr, heck its working now with the z and the g35. besides the more they sell rebadged or not it has an eventual benefit of a larger spare parts base with a cheaper price. the more exotic it is the more expensive it will be. But i guess that doesnt matter, if you can buy either you obviously have lots of cash anyways and a few bucks in parts is no issue.

AdamT has just made the best point of the entire thread: the fact that this is even in question makes me wonder how much Nissan Japan values the image of their USA branch.