Praise Z! Nissan is coming back!

People have been predicting doom and gloom for Nissan since well before COVID arrived and plunged the global economy into a downturn worse than M. Night Shyamalan's output after Signs. Years of gunning for market share as an end goal at the expense of keeping its lineup fresh and innovative were taking their toll on the company's bottom line even before the embarrassing scandal of big boss Carlos Ghosn being arrested for financial mismanagement happened. After Ghosn snuck away from Japan by pretending to be a rather fleshy tuba he started predicting the company he led for years would be bankrupt by 2022 (yeah, stealing from the company's coffers and instituting an unsustainable business strategy kinda gives you a certain perspective on their financial outlook you would think).

Even I've written about Nissan's extended funk and expressed my disappointment with the lack of new product but although the skeptics kept shouting louder and louder that Nissan was dancing with the grim reaper I still held out hope for my favorite car company. I wrote a couple of articles (here and here) that discussed the signs of life that were still there. 

And now Nissan just released that video above which you should definitely watch if you're a fan of the company and its products. Sure, most of what's teased are crossovers and trucks but the payoff is at the very end - like one of the good M. Night Shyamalan movies.

Yup, that's Nissan showing off that a new Z is imminent. And if the rumors are to be believed it'll pack 400 horsepower in that slinky, retro-modern body AND it'll retain a manual transmission option for less than 400 Benjamins! Hear that? That disturbing sound you hear is the handful of poor Mark V Supra owners crying out in terror and being suddenly silenced.

Okay, it's no R36 GT-R but I think we can cut Nissan some slack for now. Let's just imagine that that empty spot in the middle of the lineup is where Nissan desperately wants to put one.

But even if it takes another decade before an R36 debuts let's be thankful that Nissan seems determined to prove the naysayers wrong and stick around long enough to make more GT-Rs.

Hallelujah! Praise Z!

P.S. The tease for the new Frontier/Navara midsize pickups and the electric Ariya crossover are pretty cool too IMHO.