Remember when the Nissan GT-R was a new machine that could compete with any giant? The most cutting-edge, hand-made, inch-perfect dream machine on the market that was inspired by video games? It’s been more than fifteen years since then. Things change over time, and prices go up. The 2024 Nissan GT-R will cost $122,885 before taxes and fees, Nissan said on Tuesday. This is much more than when the car’s US sales began in 2008, costing less than $70,000. The $69,850 price did not include transportation, and it was set two presidents and two financial disasters ago, before the 2008 recession. Even with inflation, the price of $69,850 is still in the five-digit range (just under $99,000), but the current GT-R is clearly in the six-digit range. The 2024 GT-R shown on Tuesday is nearing the end of its production run. It is neither a “final edition” nor limited in any way other than being a 15-year-old supercar that competes with younger ones. For $20,000 more than the base price, you can switch to the Nismo T-Spec, which has carbon ceramic brakes, a more excellent interior, limited-edition paint, and gold-painted wheels. That might be fine for Nissan fans, but the “Final Edition” will almost certainly have specs that will make collectors wring their hands and drool. The 2024 Nissan GT-R Nismo has a new front limited-slip differential and an extra 35 horsepower, bringing the total to 600 hp. It costs an eye-popping $220,990, a six-figure increase over the original model. At almost $200,000, the 2024 Nissan GT-R Nismo is much more expensive than many similar, more modern, and appealing cars. If you want to buy it, you’ll have to give up a lot of other vehicles that are just as good or better. This doesn’t mean that the Nissan GT-R we have now is the same car that was shown off in 2008. When it first came out, the base car had 480 horsepower, but now it has 565 horsepower. Almost every part of a car has improved in the last fifteen years, and the clutch is one of them. On the other hand, the R35-generation GT-R is the same as the one we’ve known for a while, and Nissan’s price tag may be the last time in this generation that it asks, “What’s the price you’re willing to pay for incremental progress?”
