why is nissan making little altimas and maximas and ect. with like 260hp- 300hp? why is so much hp needed?

Consumer perception that more hp means a "better" vehicle with more value. Imo family 4 door sedans with regular suspensions/brakes don't need 250-300 hp.. shrug.

yup.. why buy a 160 hp vehicle for the same price as a 200 hp vehicle, if they're comparable in every single other way?? of course it's only one factor, but more is what people want... it's the sad truth (just look at the rate of increase us north americans are getting increasingly fat at... does that make sense?? my head hurts...)

Every one likes the fact that they have a more HP under the hood than that other guy. Most of the time it is a non issue in the real world, but some people like the fact that there kid hauler has more hp the that other kid hauler.

Speaking of Nissan, want to hear something interesting about the 350Z? Remember how people were on months long waiting lists to get it? Well, demand is slowing down considerably. We had 7 of them on one of our Nissan lots the other day, and I went and asked our Nissan buyer what was going on- and she said that demand has dropped through the floor. Sure, 7 doesn't sound like much, but for a car that was so hot just a month or two ago, that's a huge amount to have just sitting there not selling.

Who knows, perhaps noone wants to buy a sports car in the dead of winter. Or maybe Nissan overestimated the number of 2-seaters that they can actually sell. Anyway, there are a lot of similarly priced performance cars coming out in the next year or two, it's going to be really interesting to see what happens when this market segment really heats up...

I think the Infiniti G35 Coupe happened. Now the first few allocations have got rid of the waiting list people can walk into an Infiniti dealership and pick one up at MSRP.

A 6MT Leather G35C at $32k is an incredible buy, with similar performance and supposedly better handling than the 350Z and far more practicality.

i think nissan should not focus on hp, and more on your driving experience and how there cars drive. if u look at the comercials of nissan they just put a song and u see people driving the cars,they dont say anything about it. ohh and i saw the 6 today its awsome it flew rigth by my car.

I agree with unemployedpimp, from Europe it seems that the only important thing for Americans are Hp's.... There is a lot of cars with 250 hp and front wheels drive!
How can you discharge the full power after a narrow corner? What about driving pleasure with ton and ton of understeer?

It's just the cheap petrol/gas in the USA that allows for bigger engines and horsepower. I don't personally know of a single person in the UK that owns a car with an engine bigger than 2.0 liters and that gets less than 30mpg (petrol is over $5 per gallon). Most of my friends/family in England have cars like BMW, Audi, Volkswagon etc with 1.6 liter engines (not turbo either). Also a lot of cars are diesel engined which tend to produce more torque than big hp numbers.

All my cars in 10 years of driving in Europe were between 1.3 liters and 2.0 liters and made between 70 hp and 130 hp (and more importantly gave between 30mpg and 40mpg). Of course this was..... a little while ago.

sure there are these differences between USA and EU.
But i still dont' understand why advertising, magazines in USA call "sportscar", car who aren't....except for the raw value of engine power.

sure there are these differences between USA and EU.
But i still dont' understand why advertising, magazines in USA call "sportscar", car who aren't....except for the raw value of engine power.

i think nissan should not focus on hp, and more on your driving experience and how there cars drive. if u look at the comercials of nissan they just put a song and u see people driving the cars,they dont say anything about it.
Exactly what Zoom-Zoom is all about. Compare the car brochures and it is plainly obvious how each maker is targeting their market. Honda fell off the fence this year, Toyota is playing catch-up, and Mitsubishi and Subaru are dueling their AWD rally cars(EVO and STi). Mazda is the only Japanese or domestic car company claiming to own "The Soul of a Sports Car". Even the MPV van can out-slalom all others(as if that is a real selling point :) ).