Demand, Markups, And (Still) The Chip Shortage Are Why You Probably Haven't See The New Z On The Road Yet

Since the debut of the new Nissan Z, I think I’ve seen a grand total of two on the street. If you’re like me and wondering just when and where you would see one of these things, I may have found an answer. And it’s an unfortunate combination of demand, markups, and the chip shortage.

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2023 Nissan ZImage: Nissan

After what seemed like decades, Nissan finally confirmed that it was working on a new Z sports car. The 370Z was way past its prime, having been on sale for over a decade, essentially a heavily updated version of the 350Z, a car that first went on sale in 2002. After teasing us, a near production-ready concept was shown in late 2020 called the Proto Z. The production version of the Z went on sale in late summer 2022. Still, nearly a year after going on sale, there are hardly any Z’s to be found.

When Nissan reported its first quarter 2023 sales results, most of its models reported positive gains. Only two models posted triple-digit sales numbers. One of them was the GT-R which understandably sold just 143 units. The market for a six-figure Japanese sports car is only so big. The other was the new Z. A quick glance at the sales figures shows just 466 Zs were sold the first three months of 2023; that number is also how many have been sold for the year so far. A check of 2022’s figures shows 177 were sold in 2022. Just 643 have been sold less than a year after its debut. When you look at what’s going on, the problem is threefold.

The first two problems have to do with availability. Nissan told me the Z is in high demand. But the company has been dealing with an ongoing chip shortage issue that has been affecting production and demand. In a statement, Nissan mentioned how the company is trying to get production up for both dealers and customers.

The Nissan Z is a global model and we are experiencing high demand in all regions where it is on sale. The U.S. is a priority market, so we continue to work closely with our production partners to ramp up output and minimize delivery times for our dealers and customers.

This shows at the dealer level. A search using Autotrader, Autotempest, and Cargurus shows between 68-116 Zs for sale in the whole country as of this writing. Nissan says the Z starts at $42,805 (including $1,095 for destination), but good luck finding one at that price. That brings us to the third problem: markups.

Data from Autotempest shows an average markup of $19,271, or 37 percent over MSRP, enough to turn away many buyers. Even adding accessories to a Z Proto Spec, it’s hard to get it to come close to touching $60,000. Using listings from Cargurus (since they had the most listed for sale) shows that over 42 percent of the Zs that are listed for sale are priced above $60,000.

Such is the car market the last few years, though I wonder if things keep going the way they’re going if that could give Nissan enough excuse to kill off the Z, period, which would be a shame. The Z seems, at the moment, to be in the worst of all places, flying under the radar and yet not nearly enough.