Wednesday 17th June 2015

Nissan cancels IDx

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

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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...

 

[Source: TheTruthAboutCars]

[bagseye]

What a shame, and just as we were hoping Japan had got it's "mad" back.

[JB!]

Gutted

[LukeR94]

Small, Lightweight, back to basics sportscar is to expensive to make.

How did Mazda manage it with the new MX5 then sounds like an excuse because they jumped the gun and told everyone they were going to make it before they actually did the sums.

Poor show.

[Reavenger]

Loved the shape of this. Such a shame it won't happen.

[bagseye]

And another fast Juke? The car that just keeps on giving, by continually getting worse.

Edited by bagseye on Wednesday 17th June 10:08

[Jam12321]

such a shame, really liked the look of that. Way more than the GT86/brz if im honest.

[Mezzanine]

What a shame, loved the concept, looked very promising.

Probably reviewed the sales of the BRZ and seen, xdespite people asking for this type of thing, this doesn't translate to people buying them.

[Big Fat Fatty]

I'm actually kind of glad about this although I hoped to see another RWD coupe built instead. The current trend for rehashing 70s shapes in a fresh, new thinking and modern way is just boring, manufacturers these days are as bad as Hollywood for coming up with unoriginal ideas and reboots of stuff that didn't need rebooting.

Toyota did it right with the GT86, Ford perfected it with the new GT, this 510 remake is just a mess.

[w0o0dy]

I don't get it....
USE THE ALPINE CHASSIS! Redevelop the look to a midengine layout and off you go. 2 really cool RWD midengine fun-cars to keep/make petrolheads like everyone here enthousiastic about Renault (alpine) and Nissans affordably sportscoupes.
It would be a huge hit in Japan and maybe even the US this time if developed properly.

[Fetchez la vache]

Jam12321 said:

such a shame, really liked the look of that. Way more than the GT86/brz if im honest.

This.

Mezzanine said:

Probably reviewed the sales of the BRZ and seen, xdespite people asking for this type of thing, this doesn't translate to people buying them.

and this.

[Some Gump]

Not suprised. That thing looks minging!

If toyota can't sell the GT86, what hope for a car with far more divisive looks?

[redroadster]

It's got limited appeal unlike mx5 it's got a lid so it's going to compete against hot hatches it's too butch looking to be looked at as a coupe .

[DB9VolanteDriver]

Too expensive to develop?

More like too ugly to develop. Jeezus, how could anyone with any self respect drive anything as remotely ugly as this POS.

[sean ie3]

the rear end on that is cherry!

[wolves_wanderer]

Not powerful enough, too expensive, I'd rather buy a secondhand Boxster/Golf/M135i



Just a small prediction of how the thread would have gone if they'd made it

[is1]

I think what PHs are really after is a coupe weighing in about 11-1200KGs, 200 odd HP, rear wheel drive, good seating position and control weights with sensible power train and running costs.
If a company made one of those, they couldn't sell enough of them and we'd all change our A3 TDIs for one of them ;-)

[TB Rich]

is1 said:

I think what PHs are really after is a coupe weighing in about 11-1200KGs, 200 odd HP, rear wheel drive, good seating position and control weights with sensible power train and running costs.
If a company made one of those, they couldn't sell enough of them and we'd all change our A3 TDIs for one of them ;-)

Yes quite! You say that (flippantly of course) but.... if the "11-1200KGs. 200 odd HP" could have resulted in 200bhp per tonne (or the very best part of), then I think it would have sold much better. I would have bought a white BRZ without doubt.
However I'm in that GT86 / used E92 M3 limbo, with the E92 M3 costing too much to buy and run, and the GT86 simply not offering enough performance
To put the GT86 perfomance/cost in to context it is exactly the same as my (when stock) Clio 200 with 197bhp and 1240KG. Now as much as I really want rwd - it just doesn't move the game on enough and would have really just been a sideways move.

[danp]

TB Rich said:

Yes quite! You say that (flippantly of course) but.... if the "11-1200KGs. 200 odd HP" could have resulted in 200bhp per tonne (or the very best part of), then I think it would have sold much better. I would have bought a white BRZ without doubt.
However I'm in that GT86 / used E92 M3 limbo, with the E92 M3 costing too much to buy and run, and the GT86 simply not offering enough performance
To put the GT86 perfomance/cost in to context it is exactly the same as my (when stock) Clio 200 with 197bhp and 1240KG. Now as much as I really want rwd - it just doesn't move the game on enough and would have really just been a sideways move.

What about a 125i/130i/330i?

I just bought the latter, it's heavier than I'd like but has a lovely NA 258bhp 6 pot, hydraulic steering, 6 speed manual box and of course RWD.

Or a used M135i - must be about new GT86/used E92 M3 money. Or an E46 M3 with plenty in the kitty!

[TB Rich]

danp said:

TB Rich said:

Yes quite! You say that (flippantly of course) but.... if the "11-1200KGs. 200 odd HP" could have resulted in 200bhp per tonne (or the very best part of), then I think it would have sold much better. I would have bought a white BRZ without doubt.
However I'm in that GT86 / used E92 M3 limbo, with the E92 M3 costing too much to buy and run, and the GT86 simply not offering enough performance
To put the GT86 perfomance/cost in to context it is exactly the same as my (when stock) Clio 200 with 197bhp and 1240KG. Now as much as I really want rwd - it just doesn't move the game on enough and would have really just been a sideways move.

What about a 125i/130i/330i?

I just bought the latter, it's heavier than I'd like but has a lovely NA 258bhp 6 pot, hydraulic steering, 6 speed manual box and of course RWD.

Or a used M135i - must be about new GT86/used E92 M3 money. Or an E46 M3 with plenty in the kitty!

Considered a 130i, I've looked at those on and off a bit over the last couple of years. But finding a 3dr I would actually buy just became tiring.

I think I've missed the boat on E46's. I'm sure it's possible to get a nice one still, but it's more work than I can be arsed to put into it with so many leggy thrashed examples out there. Older than I'd want too.

125i, I hadn't realised until very recently the the UK version can be remapped to 130i spec. So I wouldn't have minded one actually, but it's not really focussed enough for track days. I'd spend a lot on tuning with M3 and 1M bits I can tell.

M135i has a turbo so has no place on my drive

This is all largely irrelevant now though as I've sunk many thousdands into a full forged rebuilt engine and next month a couple more k going on a rebuilt diff'd & short ratio box - hindsight shows I had nothing to worry about running costs on an E92 M3!
Somewhat short of the necessary capital now ah well, all part of the fun isn't it (keep telling myself enough times I might believe it)

[Terminator X]

bds! It looked amazing

TX.