Open-air cars get second wind

The latest 370Z roadster has a good-looking profile whether the soft top is up or down. Photo / Supplied

Nissan has kept faith with wind-in-the-hair drivers, introducing to New Zealand the convertible version of its latest 370Z sports car.

The company has had an on-off relationship with open-air motoring over the years and some enthusiasts worried it wouldn't continue with the 370Z.

Nissan's convertible connection dates back to the first Fairlady sports car of 1961 but soft tops vanished with the 240Z of 1970 - although T-top models with removable roof panels were later introduced - and never returned until the slightly awkward-looking 300X of 1992.

Nissan showcased its latest roadster, which employs a slick electro-hydraulically operated soft top, during a drive earlier this week through Central Otago: an $81,000 car let loose in million-dollar scenery.

Although clearly related in its lines to the fixed-top version, the roadster is a different car from the windshield back, an indication of the re-engineering needed to successfully morph from coupe to convertible. It's a more graceful and integrated design than both the 350Z and the 300X, which some complained looked more like afterthoughts.

Nissan managed to keep the weight to only 49kg, more than the coupe, after employing a range of weight-saving features. It would have been lighter without safety-related stiffening in the side sills and A pillars. While convertibles often only look good with the roof retracted, the Nissan looks great either way. With the soft top in place, its profile is slightly reminiscent of the old James Dean-era Porsche convertibles.

The top is well-finished inside and provides good outward vision. Its cloth roof has a fabric inner liner that improves the ambience of the cabin and is said to cut noise. A glass rear window, which is bigger than before, includes a demister.

It is built over a weight-saving magnesium frame and takes 20 seconds to open or close. The top vanishes under a hard tonneau cover. Thanks to a re-design of the roof and its components, boot space is better than its predecessor and will take a golf bag or several bags of moderate size.

Nissan says the roof can be worked while the car is moving - but we're talking crawl speeds only, not the actual road speeds of some other models. It's worked by either a chromed switch on the centre console or a button on the door handle.

Inside, the roadster shares the same over-designed dash as the coupe and there's an odd covered box in the centre where the satnav would be; the Nissan system won't yet work here. Ironically, a crumpled map of Queenstown was shoved in the "satnav" box of the car the Herald drove.

Hidden from view is a new type of curtain airbag that deploys vertically out of the top edge of the door. It's a complex and sophisticated mechanism that could provide added difficulty for servicing in-door items such as the window-winding mechanism.

On the road, the grippy 19-inch Bridgestone tyres quickly show their weakness. They're really noisy on the coarse-chip roads common in Central Otago, drowning the engine whenever it's not under heavy acceleration. But that's easily fixed. Lower the top and wind noise quickly drowns the noise of the tyres!

That's not a criticism; even the most expensive roadsters can't fully tame wind noise and some owners wouldn't want them to - it's part of the experience. At speeds to the legal limit, driving a 370Z with the roof down is pleasant; press too far beyond and the airflow becomes blustery and buffeting.

Whether the top is up or down, a constant reminder the 370Z is a soft top is a fixed glass wind deflector behind the seats that's there to lessen cabin turbulence.

The company expects the roadster will account for almost half of 370Z sales. Nissan used the launch to outline some of its product plans. It is "looking closely" at a two-wheel-drive version of the Juke (aka Duke) crossover, making its debut at the current Geneva motor show.

It will be built in Japan and England in a wide range of configurations. A Qashqai facelift goes on sale May, with a big fixed glass roof on the top Ti model. "It's a really good facelift," says marketing boss Peter Merrie, who warns it will come with a price increase. Mechanicals will stay the same. A seven-seater version is coming mid-year with 200mm added to the floorpan. The seats can fold into the floor, making it a useful wagon.

A new version of the Patrol 4WD has just been launched in Dubai, but Nissan NZ is "looking at it from afar ... it's not on our product plan at present."

This is largely because no diesel is available, just a large capacity petrol V8. The local market for vehicles of this sort is primarily diesel. It's also physically a "big vehicle and very upmarket".

Navara STX from late May will arrive with cosmetic changes and its engine upgraded to 450Nm of torque, from 402Nm, and 140kW of power from 128. It will also get ESP. This restores the ute's position as the most powerful in its class, a title wrested from it last year by the manual Triton.

The engine will also go into the Pathfinder.

A Micra replacement is being introduced at the Geneva motor show and Nissan hopes to see it here November-December.

It'll have a new three-cylinder petrol engine and a continuously variable transmission.

There'll also be minor changes to X-Trail later this year.