Nissan 370Z Roadster set for the chop

Anyone who craves a Nissan 370Z Roadster needs to get their skates on.

The open-air sports car is headed into the history books, with the final shipment to Australia likely to land before the end of this year.

The Nissan 370Z Roadster has been condemned by slow sales in its biggest market, the USA, and dwindling support in other countries.

The demise of the iconic Japanese drop-top, introduced a decade ago alongside the sixth-generation 370Z Coupe in 2009, was first reported in the US in May when Nissan said it would not continue into model year 2020 370Z line-up, which was launched in Australia this week.

North America has now officially pulled the plug on the Nissan 370Z Roadster and it’s the same story in Japan, so Australia has been forced to follow.

“Production is almost finished,” the man responsible for 370Z, Hiroshi Tamura, told carsales at the Australian press launch of this week’s press launch of the MY20 370Z and GT-R, including 50th anniversary models.

The managing director of Nissan Australia, Stephen Lester, is less black-and-white on the Roadster’s future but he also needs to protect values for the handful of cars currently in stock and the run-out arrivals.

“We haven't announced anything regarding discontinuation of Roadster. As soon as we have visibility on that, we will have something to declare,” Lester told carsales.

“With the other markets, the likelihood of a change is strong.”

Sales of the 370Z have been in sharp decline this year, with only 128 cars sold through the first seven months of 2019, compared with 185 at the same time last year. That’s a 30.8 per cent slide, according to official VFACTS figures.

Lester would not go into details or give a sales total, but admits the Roadster only accounts for about eight per cent of Z-car sales.

“Less than 10 per cent of our model mix is in Roadster,” he said.

“We’re not particularly worried about the Roadster aspect of it because, quite honestly, the heart of that segment has been declining more significantly than the rest of the sports-coupe segment.”

Officially, the convertible continues as part of Nissan Australia’s MY20 370Z range, for which there are no changes, but – tellingly -- the 2020 Nissan 370Z 50th Anniversary Edition is a coupe-only model.

With an unknown number of 370Z Roadsters still in stock in Australia, and Nissan finalising the production run-down in Japan, Lester was unwilling to give much help.

“There is a protocol we have to go through. There is an inevitability to it,” he says.

He concedes the car will be sold into the first half of 2020, but only with cars from Australia’s final production slot.

“I believe there is at least one left. It’s going to be here,” he said. “You can draw your own conclusions.”

But, even without a model-renewal plan from Tamura for the long-running Zed, Lester says the 370Z Coupe is solid in Australia.

“I still think there is a future for a coupe. The sporting ethos of the Nissan brand is highly desirable,” he said.

“We’ve been very successful with every iteration of the Z in Australia. I see a world where, with Nissan engineering, we have a way forward.”

Stand by for our first review of the 50th Anniversary Nissan GT-R and 370Z Coupe this Friday.