This is sort of the point. The japanese manufacturs got thier foothold building small, cheap, economical cars. With gas (permium) north of 3.50 in many places will they want to go "high HP" or more MPG? The Honda I believe you are referring to was a "1200 CVCC". My buddy had one in college. Car rusted thru and thru, ALSO ran economiclly for 15 years. I'm not anti-performance in any way, just fairly certain that if things do not change with the gas situation, the auto manufacturs will be forced to up the MPG and possibl lower HP (it might be possible to have both, but it also might be quite expensive).

Ok here's a question. Has it been proven that under the new SAE rating the current HP and Torque would be less? Or is this just an assumption with some guessing of numbers?

Links?

Actually, this was the car I was talking about, the 600.
Honda 600

Wow, pretty cool. But that is still part of my point. The Japanese got to where they are by delivering bang for the buck. They built the corolla, we built the citation, they built the sentra we built the sunfbird. That said with premium @ 3.40 and rising is there business sense to say "298 hp is not enough, the G must have faster 0 - 60 times" or is there business sense to say "the G must have 5 more mpg". The next G was designed before premium went over 3.00, however I'd guess the enhancements may lean toward fuel economy. With the new camry sport edition styled more agressively, and capable of high 20's for milage Nissan is not going to want to lose sales by giving "Johnny RiceRocket" .2 seconcds faster 0 -60 time, when the could increase sales by increasing mpg.

I think you are wrong. Gas prices went up over 40% since last Spring. Very few people got 40% pay hike and I'm pretty sure those who did didn't get it by the virtue of cost of living adjustment.

In Japan GT version (I'm not sure) of V35 has CVT with Paddle Shifters.
They also have V25 with 215hp VQ25DD.

I love how the oil and gas companies always say, "but adjusted for inflation
back to 198x gas is NOT at record highs"

Newsflash to the oil, gas, and anybody else who uses inflation as
an EXCUSE as to say that gas prices are NOT at an ALL TIME high...

NOT everything in life goes UP the same percentage as inflation each year!!

If that was the case a McDonald's Hamburger would cost $3.00 instead of
79 cents.
There are things that actually go DOWN in price over the decades and
don't rise equally with inflation. Many people's income or jobs don't make
as much now as they did 10 years ago.
Many people's jobs don't get 3.5-4.5% raise every year either.
The inflation argument is just lame and not appropriate.

The FACT of the matter is, gas prices are high in dollar value now than
they've EVER been before!!
The COST to MAKE gas surely hasn't gone up at the rate of inflation either, so that's another reason why they CAN'T use that arguement.
But the oil companies profits have gone up FAR MORE than the rate of inflation....that equals price gouging.
Anyway, I'm contributing to making my OWN thread go off topic.

Sorry.

So, gas prices have gone up 40%? That doesn't mean that one's income must also increase by the same amount.

Sure, gas prices irritate me, but that's all. I have not changed my driving habits at all. I still drive 20+ miles *one way* just to get friggin starbucks, several times a week. I put as many miles on my car per week now as I did 8 years ago when gas prices locally were $1.10 and I drove a dodge colt that got over 30mpg average.

The cost of gas, for my family, is little more than an inconvenience. The fact of the matter is, if my personal finances get crunched that badly, I'll like drop something like the HD portion of my cable service, or scale back to fewer mobile minutes, or each out one or two fewer times a month than I do now, rather than change my driving habits.

The fact is, if one is truly concerned about gas prices, he has three options: consume less(change habits/lifestyle), change vehicles, or get over it. Which are *you* going to do?

For now I'm exploring option #2.
Money saved will be invested in oil/gas companies stock. That will be my way of sticking it to the man

Sure, that makes sense, I mean if you made $50k a year, 40% would be $20k, and you sure wouldn't be spending $20k more on gasoline.

The only chance that Infiniti may offer that engine here is in the upcoming 2008 CX25.....

infinity just needs to put a real overdrive gear in these cars. on the 6MT, the overdrive gear is something like .78:1 or .8:1.

If they put in a .6x or .5, that would make a huge difference on highway mileage.
That is exactly what chevy does on the corvette. The old LT1 vettes used to have 2 overdrive gears on the 6 speed models. They were something like a .8 and a .5:1. That .5:1 overdrive was amazing on the highway. You would be putting along at less than 2000 rpms while crusing at 80+!!!!

The 6 speeds in the LS1 Fbodies, as well as the vettes, do indeed have two overdrive gears, with 6th gear approaching 40% overdrive.

Hell, even the 6 speed auto in the lexus IS has two overdrive gears.

That is the question about the next G. Will the mass buying public (not just the posting enthusiasts) want more power or better milage. With premium @ $3.40 my guess is you'll see a shift towards more practicality than performance. Or look at this way, 20 more HP car is .4 seconds faster to 60 - weeohh, 4 more mpg (20% increase) I save 8 bucks every week (one extra dinner out a month). Gas prices are not the only issue to the car buying public. Interest rates are rising, those who used "creative" mortgages are beginning to feel the bite. More and more people are beginning to realize they need to save and plan for retirement. Between all of these issues, one could see a 30 mpg v6 sonota becoming a hit car while the expensive gas hungry power cars are pushed aside.

Many people today (especially the younger ones that lease our cars) probably don't remember much about the economy from 1977 - 1982. Rates were high, gas was expensive (for the times) jobs were not plentiful. Cars like the honda 600 / 1200, the corolla, the mazda GLC all became VERY popular because they were economical and fuel efficent. While we have more income today, many things especially real estate is WAY more expensive on a percentage basis. Here in Phoenix our real estate has more then doubled in the last 7 years, our incomes sure haven't. This still leaves the question as to what the mass buying public will gravatate towards pure performance or a mixture of performance and fuel economy.

fuel pricing will ALWAYS be an issue for some people... as will real-estate prices, interest rates, insurance costs, etc... However it will NOT stop the production of performance vehicles. There is a car for every market and the fuel prices will not stop manufacturers from providing to the enthusiasts.

Muscle cars are seeing a comeback - Mustang, Charger, upcoming Camero and (hopefully) Challenger. Nissan is not going to shun the Import community by toning down its offerings.

As with all things in life individuals must balance their budgets to afford what they want/need. Performance vehicles are on the list of many - and will continue to exist despite the price of fuel