Suddenly The New Nissan Z Has Become Popular

And just like that, in the first quarter of 2025 the Nissan Z became a hot car. After struggling to catch on with the public, the little sports car is suddenly getting noticed by shoppers, although we won’t say it’s a runaway hit, yet.

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Still, we might be seeing a renaissance of Japanese performance coupes if this keeps up. For all of Q1 2025, 2,154 Nissan Zs were delivered to customers. That’s nothing compared to how many Rogues or Altimas were handed over to their new owners, but it’s more than Nissan sold in all of 2023 and over three times what it did in Q1 2024.

In other words, Nissan Z sales are on an upswing. Exactly how much longer this trend will continue and how high the total sales volume will go remains to be seen.

The new Z has been praised by reviewers and the (sadly) few owners as a joy to drive. It’s been called severely underrated, with many saying Nissan hasn’t been doing enough to push the sports car. Considering the automaker’s many dysfunctions at the moment, that’s not surprising.

What exactly changed? Why is the switch flipping now? After all, Ford Mustang, C8 Corvette, and a lot of other performance cars’ sales are down.

When it comes to its closest Japanese sports car rival, the Toyota Supra, the Nissan Z is winning big, quintupling the other coupe’s Q1 2025 figures. Of course, the Supra is going the way of the dodo after this year, and it’s technically not a Japanese car, too.

But also consider the starting MSRP for a 2024 Nissan Z: $42,970. While that price would’ve sounded insane just five years ago, now that’s a relative deal. The four-cylinder version of the Supra starts at $46,440, while a straight-six has a base MSRP of $55,400. In part, that could explain the Nissan’s success.

Image via Nissan