Nissan cancels IDx

That quirky RWD coupe is too expensive to develop, says Nissan. What might have been, eh?

Even as part of a motor show that contained the phenomenal GT-R NISMO, the brilliant little Honda S660 and a GT86 cabriolet, the Nissan IDx concepts stood out as something special. Small, light, rear-wheel drive sports cars with an interesting personalisation aspect too, they were exactly the kind of concepts PH gets excited by.

Small, funky, RWD turbo - promised so much!

The standard IDx was cool but the NISMO was the car we really wanted. It previewed an affordable, interesting Jap performance car, the kind of which we hadn't seen for a while. Of course the Toyobaru pair are around but the retro nature of the IDx and the compact dimensions really appealed as something different.

So it's rather disappointing to see widespread reports covering the car's demise. As Toyota and Subaru discovered, creating a bespoke rear-wheel drive platform is very expensive and the numbers couldn't be made to work. Shame.

There aren't a great deal of positives to take from this decision either. There may be a retro-inspired front-wheel drive sports car but that will of course be something very different. The GT-R and 370Z remain great cars but it would have been great to see Nissan's performance line up receive some rejuvenation. More's the pity. But hang on, there's another fast Juke coming at Goodwood...