Jalopnik is a f**king joke.

[RicerX]

Jalopnik has an article about the new "heritage edition 370Z" being about Nissan not giving a s*** about affordable sports cars. I'm not going to link to it - they don't deserve hits, so I won't make it easier on them. If you want to go find it, knock yourself out. Instead, I will talk s*** about them and link them here via their own comments block. Let them come here and b**** with stupid hipster opinions rooted in their own personal reality and we can send them right back when they're done. They're what's wrong with car culture today, and here is my rant about it. If you don't want to read a profanity-laden rant about stupid car hipsters, feel free to roll on out of here now.

My first caveat regarding the article is this: the "heritage edition" 370Z is an absolute joke and it falls in line with Nissan's recent trend of injecting "excitement" into its lineup by exploring the color palette. It doesn't even come with the sports package, so it's an open diff Z with Altima brakes on it. But let's talk about the 370Z itself and its last 9 model years of being a pretty damn good sports car, since the writer and commenters in this article are seizing the opportunity to s*** on the Z once more regardless of this heritage garbage.

The definition of affordable on Jalopnik is so variable it’s laughable when many can justify an ND Miata club at $30k as the second coming of Jesus, then turn around and laud a 370Z at $30k as “Nissan not giving a s*** about affordable sports cars” when a Z runs circles around a Miata or BRZ, stock for stock, any day of the week and twice on Sunday. I don't care if you like a Miata - I happen to like the Miata a lot myself, but let's not be ignorant f*** with double standards here. Why don't we just be true to ourselves, Jalopnik-peeps? You don't buy anything anyway. Why should the car market give a f*** about what you have to say? Did you buy a BRZ new? You clamored and preached and begged for it, and you didn't f*** buy one. No one is buying them now. You didn't buy one because it didn't have another 100hp, right? Even with another 100hp, it's short on what the 370Z offers performance-wise for similar money... so what makes the Z a piss poor sports car offering? (You could probably even say the 370Z is the existing reason why they didn't build a BRZ with 300hp - because even with another 100hp, the BRZ still wouldn't f*** matter. No one is buying those or 370Zs today). The real reason the writers and commenters at Jalopnik (and most of car culture in general) are IRRELEVANT to the car market is because they won't buy anything until it has 150k miles on the clock and sitting on a used car lot anyway. Put up for a new one and help drive the market or shut the f*** up. It's not because the Z is a bad or unaffordable sports car. It's not because the BRZ doesn't have enough power. It's because at the end of the day, you don't f*** matter, because you'll still find some obscure reason like "too heavy" or "not enough power" or "elbows too pointy" to not buy one and stick to your caramel macchiatos and Mitsubishi Eclipses instead. Save your infinite wisdom for strangers at Starbucks that don't know any better.

The 370Z is one of the last true sports car offerings on the market, period. Most that s*** on them have never driven one. Hydraulic power steering (that's not numb like the overdriven steering systems in the Mustangs they seem so fond of in this article), a fantastic power-to-weight ratio and weight balance(because that’s the stat that really matters, so save me the BRZ lightweight and tossable comments), and a fantastic suspension out of the box with a great wheel and tire package on the sport models (not Prius wheels like the BRZ), and for a great price in today’s market. It's loud, it's raucous, it's raw. It's everything Jalops say they love in a sports car, and yet they never hesitate to s*** on it when you get the chance. Even better, adjust for inflation, and the price of this car absolutely eclipses the 90s-era cars they all wish they had every three articles they post on that tired site. (Aside from the Two articles about Miatas and another about Donald Trump. Give me a f*** break.) It's even sillier in the case of the BRZ - adjust for inflation and it's cheaper than the 240SX ever was.

So the final shred of credit I will give Nissan is this - they're still building the 370Z despite having plenty of justification for axing it. Maybe they still give somewhat of a s*** about building sports cars? They seem to be dying in the face of crossovers these days, so let's not take cars like the 370Z for granted. Mark my words - you’ll miss this car when it’s gone and the Mustangs of the world are driving you around the track instead. Sure, it has its flaws like every other car, but it's damn good. It's also damn affordable.

So maybe it's not that Nissan doesn't give a s*** about affordable sports cars. Bring up the iDX all you want - you would have never bought the goddamn thing when it came out anyway. Maybe it's that you millennial douchers need to stop confusing "what I can afford" with "affordability" and spinning it into criticisms against car makers who are offering great s*** regardless of the adversity in the car market. Like typical millennials, it's always someone else's fault. Grow the f*** up and try harder.

And shut the f*** up about politics on a car blog. The reason why we have things like hobbies is to escape the s*** in the world today. Way to ruin it with your whiny s***.

[Desert Rat]

Zing!

And spot on.

And I was in the market for a Toybaru when I found my 370Z....so glad I did. It's the 5th Z I've owned.

[Jesda]

Jalopnik sucks but the Z is way overdue for an overhaul.

It's the last glimmer of hope from Nissan and the neglect shows.

[Bubba1]

I agree with you and Jesda. Jalopnik frequently sucks. Though I find it interesting that so many people hate it yet still insist on reading it daily.

Regarding the 370Z, I like it for what it is/has been: a fun, basic, traditional sports car with some zip. BUT the article is not so far off point. Nissan continues to sell essentially the same exact car as it was almost a decade ago. It's becoming an anachronism. Buying a new 10 yr old car is fine for Z fans like you or me or Morgan fans, but there aren't enough of us to sustain it being sold new, unchanged for so long a period. Unfortunately, the rest of the industry has moved on/evolved over the last decade. (which includes a horsepower war) And Nissan's strategy of slapping on cheapie, gimmicky, paint/body cladding and calling them "special" editions instead of actual development is pathetic. Unless the Nissan mothership opens their dusty wallet, shoo's away the moths that fly out of it, and spends some real money on the Z (and the GT-R for that matter), wey're likely going to continue to see a sad decline/demise of a nice car. As far as missing them when Nissan stops building them. I don't know about that. There are literally thousands of them around that you can buy used for many years to come. Besides, in another 15 years, after they depreciate to the point that they can be purchased for next to nothing, I predict kids will discover them in a big way and proclaim them ideal for drifting, well, except that they'll complain they need more power. Sound familiar? (cough 240sx cough).

[MinisterofDOOM]

Jalopnik loves brown manual RWD wagons. Sometimes I also like brown manual RWD wagons...



But at the end of the day, Jalopnik are like any hipsters: they like s*** for its weirdness, not its actual value. So I quickly find myself annoyed with their narrowmindedness when reading most of their articles.

I love cars that are weird to be weird, but that doesn't always make them GOOD cars. And not being weird doesn't make a car bad. Weird is a completely separate and additional dimension, apart from anything to do with other qualities a car may possess. XR4ti was weird and good. Juke is weird and good. Isuzu Vehicross was weird and bad.

Oh, and as I mentioned in the "Do Japanese cars Suck" thread: yes, the Z is in DIRE need of a redesign. Defend it all you want, I won't disagree with your bullet points. But everything it does well, it could do better. Of course, I have no faith in Nissan that a new Z WOULD do better. But that doesn't change the fact that the current Z is being left behind.

[BusyBadger]

I wrote this before Bubba's comment posted, but I'm not bothering to re-write or removed anything. My apologies for treading over a lot of the same ground.

I love the Z, and perhaps because of exactly that, I'm in complete agreement with Jalopnik on this one.

Nissan has let the Z languish and pass into automotive Limbo. This is nothing more than a colour laden, cash grab meant to play on those obsessed with the history of the Z. It may also have the added benefit of briefly quieting those like myself who want to know when Nissan is going to refresh the Z. I had hopes that with the horsepower wars seemingly in full swing again that the twin turbo V6 from the Infiniti Q50 Red would be powering a new, refreshed Z35. Instead, Nissan has been quieter than Loretta Lynch in front of a House Judiciary Committee.

The Z that Nissan has on display is a base model (based on the low end calipers and no navigation - guess they wanted to keep it like it was 50 years ago, eh?) with no indication that the Heritage Edition is anything other than a tarted up base model instead of being an optional package that can be added to the base, sport(tech) & touring models 370Z.

Full disclosure, I own a 35th Anniversary Edition Z. When it was released it was a combination of the track ( brakes & RevUp engine) and the touring (Bose, nav, heated leather sets) models. Indeed, mine is the slowest 350Z made because it has every option available (except an automatic transmission), so it's heavier than the rest and the RevUp makes for awkward 0-60 shift points (fun powerband on the road though!). This new thing is a paint scheme that's just a variation of the "black editions" unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show. Anyone that bashed on automakers for badge engineering should be livid at Nissan's alternative (i.e., paint engineering) on full display here.

Nissan's pricing on Z is astonishing as well. It's no secret I've been shopping Camaros (1SS with the 1LE package specifically) and, all other things being equal, they routinely come in below the Nismotech Z, anywhere from $2-4k less depending on specific cars I'm comparing. We're talking about a car that beats the Z every day of the week and twice on Sunday. And that factory warranty, it's not voided if you track your 1LE provided it's stock and you do the proper pre-track service. Faster, more grip, more room, lower price...what's not to like? And this is just a singular car. Add the pre-owned market into the mix and suddenly post-2009 (no IMS fears) Boxsters & Caymans enter the mix (pre-2013 if you want to avoid the electric rudder) as well, neither of them are even close to being members of the "not a sports car" club. The Z is a great starting platform for modifications, but in its stock form and with Nissan's pricing scheme it's overpriced and outperformed by a lot of other vehicles.

One last thing, we need to accept that while the definition of a sports car hasn't changed, cars and their capabilites have changed significantly. The traditional sports car definition of two passengers, two doors, light weight, manual transmission, rear wheel drive is all well and good, but the field has been muddied by things like that flat plane V8 going into what is anything but a traditional pony car, Porsche's magnificent PDK transmission, tire manufacturers making rubber with grip that would make Spiderman jealous in a tremendous range of sizes, and suspensions that offer great ride and performance in all situations and not just a smooth as glass well-maintained track surface.

Motor Trend has a web article titled "2018 Nissan 370Z Heritage Edition Keeps Coupe Alive" that I read before all of this or the Jalopnik piece. A patient in a hospital bed with a catheter, lung machine and feeding tube is alive too, but living...well, that's something entirely different.

[DeXteR]

Jalopnik used to be good. Very entertaining once you dug into the comments section.

I'm not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the way, they became more interested in entertainment culture than automobile culture. They were constantly sharing stories via their social medias about celebrity this and political that... I had enough.

[Jesda]

If Nissan went out of business back in the late 90s, I'd be sad and have fond memories of what could have been.
But knowing what transpired, I wouldn't care now if it disappeared.

Nissan is trash.

[SmoothMove]

The auto blog mentioned above sickens me as well.

[Jesda]

I agree with you and Jesda. Jalopnik frequently sucks. Though I find it interesting that so many people hate it yet still insist on reading it daily.

Jalopnik has a lot of fun Youtube content. I'd enjoy it more if it wasn't so political.

Lately I've been enjoying Autotrader's Oversteer blog. Doug Demuro can be irritating but once in a while he puts out something funny and clever.