Report: Nissan Might Kill the GT-R After 2025
The automotive world is going electric while many companies are focused on keeping the lights on. Both are true for Nissan, so it’s not surprising to see that 2025 might be the last for its R35 GT-R sports car. The car hasn’t changed much in its 17 years on sale, but it’s hard not to mourn the death of another iconic gas vehicle.
Japanese auto magazine Mag X reported that Nissan will build just 1,500 units for the final 2025 model year, 300 of which will be reserved for the higher-performance Nismo configuration. There’s no word on how those vehicles will be distributed throughout the world, but the super limited production number means that they will be hard to get and expensive.
Nissan updated the car for the 2024 model year, giving the Nismo model a slight boost in output. The standard car’s twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V6 retains its 565-horsepower base output, but the Nismo variant’s mill has been boosted to 600 horsepower. Nissan may opt for a special final-year configuration for the car, but there’s nothing official on that front.
The GT-R’s departure marks the end of an era for Japanese car enthusiasts. Even before The Fast and the Furious, the cars were legendary among JDM groups, and classic models’ desirability has made them some of the most expensive cars to import from Japan. The R35 was the first GT-R to be sold in the U.S., and its arrival was a revelation.
The car’s look, performance, and technology were completely alien to American enthusiasts, and while its star has faded a bit over the last almost two decades, it’s still a serious performance car with respectable numbers.
[Image: Nissan]
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Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.
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Being a Corvette enthusiast since 1979 when my father in law dragged myself and his daughter to a Chevy dealer and we reluctantly bought a new '79 model (still in the garage, drives like a tractor) I have always told anyone interested in a Corvette should buy a used one. People buy them and then never drive them. So a used Corvette can be had for a reasonable price, with low mileage. Not so with this Nissan.
I'm sure many of us here remember all of the criticism against the GTR circa 2008 or so. It's too digital. It's too heavy. The computers drive the car for you. Now, roughly 16 years later, or an even longer period of time than it took a space probe to fly by Neptune and head into the void, enthusiasts now look at the GTR as a purist supercar devoid of unnecessary screens, overdone styling and tech, and the weight hasn't skyrocketed while Nissan added more power and wanted a lot more money. I'll miss it. I'll miss the brutal way it blasted through corners with the somewhat crude DCT hammering through gears while making noises that can be nicely called Hoover-ish. But, hey, Nissan still sells the invisible on the streets Z, right???