Age matters. Or is a factor in sports car sales. Because for the first time, the newer Nissan Z outsold its elder Toyota Supra in 2024. Yes, you still may never see them on the roads, but someone is buying them.
Last year, Nissan moved 3,164 Zs, compared to 2,615 Supras that found new homes. Both models have been on opposite tracks since the Nissan Z debuted in 2021; that year, the Supra was still riding high after coming back from a 17-year holiday and notched a generation-best 6,830 sales. Meanwhile, the Nissan Z launched to great fanfare amid pandemic-related global supply chain upheaval and struggled out of the gate with a whopping 36 sales.
The following year, Supra sales dropped by 27 percent to 4,952, and then dipped by nearly half in 2023. And this was after Toyota announced it was saving the six-speed manual for a comeback. Then 2024 was basically flat from 2023. During the same time frame, the Z was seeing its numbers do the opposite: 263 in 2022, 1,771 in 2023, and now 3,164 last year.
Okay, yes, there are other sports coupes available. The pocket-sized but feisty Mazda MX-5, Subaru BRZ, and Toyota GR86 come to mind. You can even through the Ford Mustang EcoBoost in there if you feel generous. When comparing sales to the broader group, selling 11,426 of the GR86 and the 8,103 of the MX-5 doesn’t even equal the combined Zupra numbers. And all pale in comparison to the mighty Mustang, which, even in a down year, Ford still sold 44,003 of ’em.
However, in their base forms, which is sometimes their only form, none match the standard high performance that the Supra and Z bring from the get-go. They create a segment of two and are the subject of numerous comparos, including our own head-to-head review. So, it’s just as fair to compare their sales head-to-head, too.
The Nissan Z could potentially increase its sales gap over Supra even further. Toyota dropped the base GR Supra 2.0, which means the GR Supra 3.0 is the new entry car. That means the 2025 Supra starts at $57,385. Yes, it’s got 386 horsepower and 368 pound-feet of torque but… the base Z Sport offers 400 hp and 350 lb-ft of torque. Nissan hasn’t released pricing for 2025, but the 2024 model starts at $44,110. No matter Nissan’s current struggles, it’s unlikely the automaker will punch up a $10,000 year-over-year increase.
The Supra’s fraternal twin, the BMW Z4, is supposedly going away in 2026, leaving Toyota with the keys but not much else. Nevertheless, Toyota insists that the “Supra brand” will continue, with or without BMW. “Brand” is an interesting word in place of “model,” but we’ll see where this story goes and if (when?) the Supra regains its foothold against the now more dominant Z.
