So, has anyone noticed the similar look of the Infinity G35 Coupe and the 350z ?! Let's also not forget the similar look of the Audi TT model which came out a few years ago.

Are car manufacturers losing their creative spirit? Do they need to copy each other just to get something interesting on the market? Or, do they all perform the same studies and come up with identical designs? It really makes you wonder.

Originally posted by Royce

240ZX,

I am not so sure that the 350Z is so different to the 240Z when it comes to marketing and price. I was born in the '60s so cannot speak from experience but wasn't the original Z a little expensive for the average college student of the time!? Isn't it pretty comparable to the value/dollar to a Porsche of the time and currently? I think it is the increase in cost of everything, including the cost of a college education, that may have taken the new Z out of the hands of the colledge student! But then, I bet you will find a few bew Z's on the college lots!

You are on the money Royce! For you younger people out there . . . when I was in college in 1973 we had a "rich kid" with a 240Z, man did it look sweet! I had a $400 1966 Dodge with a slant 6 and 3 on the tree most students had about the same. Remember in 1972 the minimum wage was $1.65/hr Also in 1969 my dad purchased a fully loaded Chrysler wagon for $6000, fun to drive (in a strait line) for a hormone pumping teen. It had a 383,4bbl carb, with 1/4 race cam (towing package) dam is was fast ~350hp at the flywheel. There is still nothing like the sound of a big block V8 wide open.

As a college student in 1968-74(an extra year for beach bumming), owning a Z wasn't even a possibility in my dreams. Way out of my financial league. Besides, it was only cool to own a thrashed bug with spray canned flowers for a paint job. Come to think of it, I didn't realize it at the time, but driving a bug with the heater on was a similar driving experience to driving a Z with the window down. That faint tang of eau du exhaust. Maybe not so faint. Not to hurt the feelings of all the Porsche fans, but I always felt they looked like cockroaches and the engines sounded like they were being dragged on the asphalt. But they were definitely one of THE cars to have if you were a college kid of my era. And a trust fund kid. The 350z seems like a really great value (my wife wants one, but then she also wants a Miata), but I'm afraid that "toad" moniker fits fairly well in the looks department. Victor.

Personally I would have preferred Nissan to follow Porche's lead, a la 911, when it comes to design.

Although some year's designs are very different from other year's they are all unmistakeably 911's.

While the 280ZX series shows its Z lineage, the 300ZX series, and on up, are far too dissimilar to be remotely considered part of the Z family (design-wise anyway).

Cheers,

Peter