User:Donnie Park/Z-Store

Z-Store was a marketing project by Nissan in 1997 to

flagship Z-Car brand going by buying back 27-year old 240Z for restoration and resell them through dealer

It's main goal was to regenerate excitement to the brand after losing the 300ZX and a number of it's sport coupes due to poor sales

Despite being one of the most desirable Japanese classic cars of all time, the project aims to increase desirability to the car

Background

with cult following and a dedicated owners' club following

The 300ZX, the forth incarnation of the Z-car series, was successful upon it' launch in 1989, appearing in Car and Driver's 10 Best list throughout it's production life but with low sales (3000 cars in 1995 and 1996) and buyers turning towards SUVs; two-seater sports cars fell out of favor with consumers. Many of Nissan's equally complex and expensive competitors faced the axe caused by the rising yen such as the Toyota Supra and Mazda RX-7.

Nissan executives had no choice but to discontinue it's flagship model from the US market, leaving the car to sell only in Japan until 2000.

Because of it's availability in it's home market, executives struggled to accept it's loss and felt it's presence with many of it's cars remained unsold languishing in dealers' lots and in Nissan's ports. Despite the decision, Nissan executives refused to accept it's demise, featuring the Z in it's series of Mr. K commercials (including) which faced criticism by the media for "featuring discontinued vehicles bundled into a serious investment in advertising".

Project

The idea was conceived by Bob Thomas in 1996, then president of Nissan USA, a fan of the 240Z who regretted the decision to cease importation of the 300ZX the same year, reducing it's sales to the domestic market despite a number of them left languishing unsold at dealers and Nissan's ports.

Whilst a replacement model was yet to be announced, Thomas looked for ways to leverage the Z-Car brand to appease American buyers. He recruited volunteers, selected Nissan employees who were Z enthusiasts to work on the project in their own time, balancing this with their principal job roles. Their tasks was to oversee production and deliveries of the cars at a faster pace. Some of which collaborated with owner clubs for ideas. The Z-Store became a low-volume producer of reconditioned 240Z sold at select Nissan dealers

The project, annouunced on May 1997 at HQ Gardena, California, aims to bridge the gap between the 300ZX and the forthcoming Z-car, if any was to be announced.

goal was to preserve the Z-car heritage and enable customers a piece of "rolling history" Each 240Z was sourced in Southern California that had a fairly decent all-year round weather, thus the cars was in better shape

striped to the shell, rebuilt with as many new old stock or replica parts as they could including engine and transmissions with new interiors and then repainted

resold as new models, offered with a one-year, 12,000 mile limited warranty

at the time, no other manufacturers embarked on such experiment

it enabled Nissan

employee's parking lot soon contained a number of 240Zs which alarmed security staffs at first

many of the cars brought turned out to be unsalvageable and was scrapped or became parts cars

learning of the project, number owners thought they car had some value, as a result prices of the 240Z shot up which was part of Nissan's plan

Nissan saw it's optimistic goal of restoring ten 240Zs per month as realistic but they realized this became impossible, especially with a budget of $3500-$5000 to restore and repaint the bodywork

bodyshops were not or were slow to respond, therefore more bodyshops was recruited, therefore they increased their rate which in some case led to the cars being put aside or being ordered to be removed from their premises.

At one point, there were 18 bodyshops enlisted all over LA and OC to work on the cars

Outcome

During the Monterey Car Week in which Nissan was a principal sponsor, the first car rebuilt was sold via a Rick Cole Auction for $35,000 that was donated to a number of local charities.

the goal was to

the project aimed to regain back it's performance image, lost after a number of performance models became discontinued or taken off the market over the years due to poor sales.

As Nissan believed the project would generate publicty, they received coverage in a number of magazines including Road & Track

despite this, Nissan learned the hard way that it was becoming clear that they were making heavy losses for each car restored and became uninterested in losing money on the project

costs exceeded it's selling price to the dealers who passed the price hike on to the customers who as they felt abandoned and betrayed in the same way the 300ZX was discontinued. As a result a number of them withdrew their orders and forced a refund of their deposits. Regardless, they saw that Nissan were taking their marque away from them, not that they made heavy losses on the project

losing interest in the project.

enthusiast

As Nissan was facing financial crisis all over the world,

Thomas was relieved of his position in the summer in favor of Minoru Nakamura

Mike Seergy, the new general manager of Nissan, was disinterested in the project therefore there the axe fell on the project despite producing two or three cars per month and generating a profit on each car with strong media interests, although all necessary stories had being covered with very little interests on follow-up stories.

The ones who drove the restored cars felt it was a true representation of the original.

Like the originals, the cars had no air conditioning, basic AM radio (with a tiny handful having AM/FM versions) and no aftermarket components fitted though upgrades consists of safety belts and disc brakes for safety reasons.

By the end of October 1998, Nissan brought the project to a close with the last car rolled out, though some Z-Store dealers lost interest in the project, some intended to retain the cars for themselves for display and three final cars sent to NNA Service Center to tie in with it's proposed Z-car replacement (Concept Z)

Overall, Nissan spent $27,000 on each 38 cars produced over the course of 18 months.

External links

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