Photo: jlord8 / Instagram
During the first quarter of the year, Nissan finally overcame Toyota in one sales department on the US market – their legacy two-door RWD sports cars, with the Z selling better than the GR Supra.
Well, it's not all roses and daffodils because although Nissan's Z soared 44% compared to the same period of 2023, the deliveries after the first three months of the year are still nothing to write home about – 671 units. They compare favorably to the Toyota GR Supra sales of just 484 examples, a 46% decline year-over-year. However, they don't hold a candle against the S650 seventh generation 2024 Ford Mustang, which moved 13,707 coupe and convertible units.
Obviously, while the Nissan Z – known as the Fairlady Z in Japan – is a great little sports car, there are reasons why people don't buy it. For example, the carmaker's seventh-generation Z-car is actually a carryover of the 370Z platform featuring the same architecture and manual transmission plus a marginally more powerful engine. Alternatives exist, and the 2024 Ford Mustang GT is one of the strongest across the lot.
But it turns out that the Japanese automaker could do something to boost its reach. According to the imaginative realm of digital car content creators, they could lend it for a quick Mitsubishi rebadge. As part of their Alliance duties, the latter have already stolen the Renault Captur and Clio to make them pose as the Mitsubishi ASX and Colt in Europe. As such, it wouldn't be surprising if they started doing the same in America with Nissan models. After all, it can't hurt them much – they only sold a bit over 28k units in America during Q1 of 2024!
Thus, they couldn't possibly dip any lower than that without bowing out completely out of the US market. Obviously, a Nissan Z rebadge may bring back some of the lost fans, especially if they heed the advice of Jim, a virtual artist known as jlord8 on social media, who loves messing around with all things CGI from the automotive world. His latest digital idea is simple: "realizing that every fascia is looking the same these days," he just morphed the Nissan Z (possibly the Nismo) into a revived Mitsubishi Eclipse.
This time around, a proper two-door coupe, it bears the Eclipse Ralliart moniker to set itself apart from the boring Eclipse Cross and could easily attract crowds to the Mitsubishi dealerships because using the Nissan Z as its donor would make it RWD instead of front-wheel drive like in the past. Plus, if they also take the Nismo credentials, that means the 3.0-liter VR30DDTT V6 engine now churns out 420 hp and 384 lb-ft (521 Nm) of torque. So, do you like it?
Obviously, while the Nissan Z – known as the Fairlady Z in Japan – is a great little sports car, there are reasons why people don't buy it. For example, the carmaker's seventh-generation Z-car is actually a carryover of the 370Z platform featuring the same architecture and manual transmission plus a marginally more powerful engine. Alternatives exist, and the 2024 Ford Mustang GT is one of the strongest across the lot.
But it turns out that the Japanese automaker could do something to boost its reach. According to the imaginative realm of digital car content creators, they could lend it for a quick Mitsubishi rebadge. As part of their Alliance duties, the latter have already stolen the Renault Captur and Clio to make them pose as the Mitsubishi ASX and Colt in Europe. As such, it wouldn't be surprising if they started doing the same in America with Nissan models. After all, it can't hurt them much – they only sold a bit over 28k units in America during Q1 of 2024!
Thus, they couldn't possibly dip any lower than that without bowing out completely out of the US market. Obviously, a Nissan Z rebadge may bring back some of the lost fans, especially if they heed the advice of Jim, a virtual artist known as jlord8 on social media, who loves messing around with all things CGI from the automotive world. His latest digital idea is simple: "realizing that every fascia is looking the same these days," he just morphed the Nissan Z (possibly the Nismo) into a revived Mitsubishi Eclipse.
This time around, a proper two-door coupe, it bears the Eclipse Ralliart moniker to set itself apart from the boring Eclipse Cross and could easily attract crowds to the Mitsubishi dealerships because using the Nissan Z as its donor would make it RWD instead of front-wheel drive like in the past. Plus, if they also take the Nismo credentials, that means the 3.0-liter VR30DDTT V6 engine now churns out 420 hp and 384 lb-ft (521 Nm) of torque. So, do you like it?
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