Funny you should say that - was at Grand Designs yesterday and Nissan had a (dull grey) GTR on the stand (Nissan were showing off the Leaf, given the eco-credentials of the show, but unsurprisingly (given the 'net worth' of many punters) want to push their halo car too).
So, having not had a proper sit- and poke-around in one before, I did. And got chatting to the salesman (Becs, top girl, dropped the letters "NSX" into conversation twice, but they went straight over his head), who despite trying his best to avoid awkward questions let these nuggets slide:-
- £500 a tyre! So about 4x the cost of NSX rubber.
- £500 option from new is the "servicing pack" which "Saves you £2k over 3 years". So £2,500 for the first 3 years servicing then?!? :ouch:
- Nissan "like to see the car every 3,000 miles to make sure everything's OK...but of course it's a Nissan so that should just be routine"
- The clutch will only withstand about 5 "launch control" launches...so why FIT the damn thing then...oh, I forgot, you've got statistics to hit to claim your car is as good as a 911 Turbo!
Oh, corker of the day though has to be his attempt to evade questioning about the (very stiff) suspension - "Yes it's stiff, but then it's designed to go on-track as well as on-road. But it rides better than an R8." Really, how? "I was in an R8 around a track and it made me queasy" Ah, too much body roll in the R8 then? "Yes, that's right" So the Nissan rides better because it's stiffer???
I was genuinely surprised at the running costs...I know I shouldn't have been, but come on!!! Assuming nothing goes wrong on either car, the GTR will cost easily 3-4x as much to service as the NSX, will return maybe 2/3 of the fuel economy, and will depreciate like a white elephant. Granted it's substantially quicker than our old girl, but is it that much 'better'?!?
Geraint "multi-dimensional view of the same problem" - very true. I'm sort of with James in that I wish Honda had evolved the S2000...but my primary wish is that the DC2 had been RWD not FWD - I can't pick another real fault with that car*. Combine the best bits of both cars and I genuinely think Honda would have had the perfect 'affordable sports car'...
* Well, nothing a C30 (C25?) shoehorned into it wouldn't have cured!