Nissan put the new Z on sale in 2021, but it took the company a long time to ramp up production. Finally, it seems to be churning out Zs at a decent clip, and for the first time in its history, Nissan's new sports car outsold its closest rival, the Toyota Supra. Nissan managed 3,164 U.S. Z sales in 2024, compared to 2,615 Supra sales.
It's just 549 more cars, but that's something considering that in 2023, the Supra outsold the Z by almost 1,000 cars. And that in the new Z's first two years on sale, Nissan didn't even manage to sell 300 in the US.
| Year | Toyota Supra | Nissan Z |
| 2021 | 6,830 | 36 |
| 2022 | 4,952 | 263 |
| 2023 | 2,652 | 1,771 |
| 2024 | 2,615 | 3,164 |
Despite the fact that the Z isn't quite new, it is a newer model than the Supra, which debuted back in 2019 and went on sale later that year. That's reflected in the fact that Supra sales have decreased significantly since 2021. The Z also has a much lower base price, $44,110 to the Supra's $57,385. Though, Toyota did cancel the four-cylinder base Supra for 2025, effectively bumping up the cost. Even still, the Supra 2.0 base model started at $47,545 when it was on sale, making the Z something of a bargain.
Nissan also made a big enhancement to the Z lineup in late 2023, too, with the introduction of the 420-horsepower Nismo model. Meanwhile, Toyota added a manual transmission to the Supra around the same time, and did a 45th Anniversary special-edition model last year, but has offered no other significant mechanical upgrades.
Things look good for the Z, but not if you compare it to the other major sports coupe on the market. Ford sold 44,003 examples of the Mustang here last year, but with a $34,210 base, the pony car is a lot cheaper. Rounding out the broadly affordable rear-drive sports car segment, the Toyota GR86 managed 11,426 sales and its platform-mate Subaru BRZ added 3,345 to the total. At the time of writing, we're still waiting on Mazda Miata sales for 2024.
Anecdotally, none of the Motor1 staff have seen many Zs in public, but perhaps that will change as sales tick up.
