Filed under: Nissan, Earnings/Financials
Nissan raises GT-R MSRP by nearly $7,000
Click above for high-res gallery of the Nissan GT-R
Nissan announced today a price increase for the 2009 GT-R, raising the MSRP nearly $7,000 from $69,850 to $76,840. The price for the Premium model has been increased even more, going from $71,900 to $79,090 in one fell swoop. Fortunately, the adjusted prices do not affect customers who placed their orders with dealers before September 5. Nissan cited increased material costs as the reason for the adjustment.
Since the GT-R is already one of the best performance bargains on the market today and customers are paying a premium to own one, we doubt that the price increase will have any effect on sales. Still, $7,000 is a serious chunk of change that could go towards aftermarket toys from Cobb Tuning or HKS.
Gallery: Review: 2009 Nissan GT-R
[Source: Nissan]
PRESS RELEASE
Nissan today announced an interim price adjustment on the 2009 Nissan GT-R due to increased raw materials costs. The Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Prices (MSRP)* of $76,840 for the GT-R and $79,090 for the GT-R Premium model are effective immediately. Destination & Handling (D&H) is $1,000. The adjusted prices do not apply to customer orders already in dealer hands prior to September 5. The initial GT-R pricing was established nearly a year ago.
To date, approximately 70 percent of the first year allocation of GT-Rs for the United States market have been sold as part of a pre-sale program that has been underway since February 2008. The first customer deliveries of the limited production Nissan GT-R supercar began on July 7, 2008. The GT-R is available only through officially certified Nissan dealers that have met a number of strict sales, service and facilities commitments, including dedicating a master technician to GT-R service. A searchable listing of the 663 GT-R Certified Nissan dealers is available to consumers on nissanusa.com.
All 2009 Nissan GT-Rs are equipped with a standard 3.8-liter twin turbo V6 producing 480 horsepower and 434 lb-ft of torque, backed by an all-new, paddle-shifted, dual clutch rear transmission and a world's first independent rear transaxle ATTESA E-TS all-wheel drive system.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Rob 5:51PM (9/05/2008)
Materials cost?? I haven't seen any other cars increase by $7,000...
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PiCASSO 5:58PM (9/05/2008)
Agreed. Justify the same (or similar increase) on their bread and butter cars like the Altima and the Sentra. Don't think that their sales will go favorably with a $2,000 increase on a Sentra, due to materials increase.
I do sympathize with any manufacturer that uses steel or plastic materials in their products, but it really needs to be a gradual transition of price increases. But for a unique car like this GT-R, I'm sure that it won't make much of a dent in sales.
Although I credit Nissan for putting out an excellent machine, I'm still amazed that there is SO much variation from one GT-R to the other. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the early press samples were rigged to perform as well as they do, because durability of those powertrain components would decrease with the amount of stress incurred with the horsepower/torque increases.
garland823 6:16PM (9/05/2008)
Maybe they're covering the cost of materials in all the lower-priced models with this price increase on the GT-R.
Franz 6:29PM (9/05/2008)
Not many other cars use a lot of carbon fiber and titanium in their construction. It could be bs, but it could be quite feasible that rising material costs is the culprit. Remember that the manufacturing costs of CF just went up:
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/08/05/manufacturers-raise-the-price-of-carbon-fiber/
Beastage 6:55PM (9/05/2008)
Didn't BMW increase prices by 2% over their entire range?!
The GT-R is not your typical Japanese assembly line car , so 7k makes sense.
Carlos 7:39PM (9/05/2008)
GTR is mostly steel and very little CF.
Russell 9:18PM (9/05/2008)
Introduction price was a smoke screen to undercut Z06.
Now that it no longer needs to, they raise the price.
This might not be the last price hike ether, so anyone planning to buy one should scramble asap.
Franz 9:20PM (9/05/2008)
Saying it's mostly steel is as blatantly obvious as saying it's got 4 wheels. But compared to most other production cars, there's a fair amount of CF in the GT-R's construction, which was why I commented in response to Rob's initial post about other cars not increasing in msrp due to material costs. For example, how many other production cars use two carbon fiber driveshafts? Not to mention the diffusers front and rear which extend quite a ways underneath body of the car, plus the huge carbon fiber wing out back.
Mark Ryan 5:52PM (9/05/2008)
Most notable point: It's leapfrogged the price of the Z06.
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Valentino Amoro 6:02PM (9/05/2008)
Leapfrogged is a joke.
The 08 Z06 can be had for a base of 62K brand new with GM Employee Discount Program thats available to everyone for another month.
This price increase makes me certain that the z06 is the best performance bargain.
It accelerates faster, has a higher trap speed and I prefer it more over the heavy gizmo ridden (and rather ugly GTR).
That said, the GTR is still one of the most coveted cars you can have period. And even with the price increase, its a MUCH MUCH better deal that a 911. It's cheaper than the base 911 and outperforms the Turbo!
tankd0g 11:37PM (9/05/2008)
Blah blah blah. I can buy an army surplus rocket and strap it to an old Malibu and it'll trounce your vette for $5000. If you don't know that a good car is more than the sum of it's parts you're probably reading the wrong blog.
Carlos 5:57PM (9/05/2008)
7k in materials? Yeah right.
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Nude Love 10:22AM (9/06/2008)
Maybe a 10 year old died on the assembly line.
Kumail891 6:01PM (9/05/2008)
still worth it, IMO
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Sam 6:03PM (9/05/2008)
That's still a hell of a lot of car for the money (quick, name another car faster for under $80k...I've got nothing either), but $80k is a f***load of money.
And I think Rob's right...by "material costs," Nissan means, we (the corporation) would like a little bigger piece of the GT-R profit pie and we're willing to take that away from the dealers if need be.
Either way, I would surmise that the market will hold the increased prices and the GT-R will still have waiting lists to buy.
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Lennya1000 7:22PM (9/05/2008)
Name a faster car? Well if you actually want a car that is "faster" by definition then the Z06 in top speed.
P B 9:30PM (9/05/2008)
There's always the Z06 and a GM performance parts catalog.
tankd0g 11:16PM (9/05/2008)
It's still not known if there is -any- profit in the same of a GT-R for Nissan, so any increase in production costs wouldn't be buffered at all by profit margins the way it is in other cars. I suspect this car was really an $80,000 car all along.
Aki 6:09PM (9/05/2008)
Oof, $7k?
I think they said somewhere that they were losing with every GT-R sold, which would explain the price increase.
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Berto 6:16PM (9/05/2008)
I suppose this can be justified if you look at how much the price of essential GTR materials and manufacturing have gone up, such as Carbon Fiber, Steel, rising wages, material transportation, kryptonite and first born's blood.
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