I Just Can't Get Past How Bad Door Handles Look On The New Z

I probably like the new Nissan Z more than most people. Enough that if you gave me a $50,000 budget, it’s probably the new car that I would buy. The design just does it for me in a way that I can admit is irrational, but if I’m buying a new car, I have to connect with how it looks, and neither the Toyota Supra nor the Ford Mustang draw me in in quite the same way. So if you’re a Nissan fanboy, know that I am on your side here.

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But there is one thing I really don’t like about the new Z, and that is the door handles. They do their job just fine, sure. You can use them to open the door to get out of your new Nissan Z. Or you could if Nissan actually built the Z in anything resembling meaningful numbers. I just looked it up on Autotrader, and there are 37 new Nissan Zs for sale within 500 miles of my apartment. But that’s a different rant for a different day.

Ah, yes, the door handles. I should say for the record that I don’t like the exterior door handles, either. They look weird to me, and if I was in charge of things, I would have gone with a different design. The vibes are off, and in my opinion, they just don’t fit with the rest of the side profile of the car. But were I to somehow come into possession of my very own Nissan Z (we’re still clinging to the possibility that I’m going to marry rich here), most of the time, I wouldn’t have to look at them, and I like the rest of the styling enough that it wouldn’t really matter.

Photo: Nissan

But the interior door handles, as the term suggests, are inside the car, which, if you’re not aware, is where you sit while driving. And those little guys are heavily inspired by the ones in the 370Z. If Judy Greer ever wises up and realises how much happier she would be with an out-of-shape car writer, I would have to see those door handles the whole time I’m driving her incredibly thoughtful gift. It wouldn’t be enough to make me stop driving the car, but it would annoy me. If possible, I would prefer to not be annoyed.

Is it because I don’t like the fact that they remind me of the 370Z’s door handles? I don’t think so. It’s a different design, so it’s not like Nissan just reused the old car’s door handles. Maybe I just don’t like all the roundness together, which is odd considering I like other round things. Or that they look a little too cheap to me. I don’t know. I just do not like them. I do, however, like that the Z didn’t get canceled, so I guess I can live with them. But I still reserve my right to be grumpy about it on the internet.