Is America About to Lose One of Its Best Affordable Sports Car Deals?

When the Nissan Z first hit the market, its sales were hampered by ludicrous markups on top of what many (Gear Patrol included) felt was an already ambitious price tag.

As inventory sat on lots, the balance eventually tipped in the favor of buyers, and dealers around the country began slashing prices to move stock.

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Since that time, incentives have made the Z one of the most affordable means of getting 400 horsepower, often bringing MSRP well below $40,000.

However, those kinds of deals could soon be a thing of the past, as Nissan has announced that it will likely be changing the model’s current production strategy altogether.

A calculated decision

According to a recent report by The Drive, Michael Soutter, Nissan USA’s senior vice president of sales and marketing, stated that “probably in the future, we’ll see more of a build-to-order as opposed to a build-to-stock.”

Nissan

In other words, Nissan could be taking a page out of the luxury and performance playbook by creating the Z with direct dealer and customer input rather than providing allocations based on forecasted interest.

Automakers like Porsche favor the strategy due to the emotional nature of sports car purchases. In much the same way, the move makes sense for Nissan “because [the Z] is lower volume.” 

Per Soutter, “When we have a Kicks or Frontier, Pathfinder, Rogue, we have the liberty or flexibility to build what we think the market will sell. On [the Z], if we get the color wrong, or we get the interior wrong, or we get the object package wrong, it’s just gonna sit there.”

Nissan

As such, in lieu of incentivizing sales with price cuts, Nissan will instead be letting demand drive the model’s production, even if it is niche.

Now, this doesn’t mean that the Z’s MSRP is about to get any lower from the factory. Rather, Soutter stated that the company doesn’t “have a lot of pricing flexibility right now” because of the ongoing efforts to mitigate the effects of tariffs.

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Elevating the brand

While there’s no denying it’s a relief that Nissan is to remain committed to the Z, even as a low-volume seller, unfortunately, the move to build-to-order means that an already rare enthusiast car will likely only become more elusive out on the road.

That’s because the Z wasn’t exactly cheap upon debut, and prices start from $44,215 for 2026. With forthcoming model years inevitably bringing further increases and a build-to-order model negating the need for incentives, Nissan is making the Z more exclusive — not less so.

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Of course, as applied to a halo model that’s filled the place of the GT-R with eye-catching special editions and the possibility of future manual NISMO options, the strategy does make sense.

Amidst a Nissan comeback effort, it elevates the brand’s image, especially as the Z has served as the standard-bearer for performance.

However, given that pricing (rather than spec) is largely what has allowed the model to outpace the rivaling Toyota Supra, it’ll be interesting to see how Nissan’s strategy affects sales momentum.

Nissan

After all, as striking as the Z is from an aesthetic perspective, it does borrow heavily from its predecessor in the long-discontinued 370Z. Only time will tell whether a build-to-order model can continue to command buyers.

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