2025 Nissan Z Review – Nissan has pulled off a true modern classic …

While most of the industry quietly phases out manual transmissions, Nissan doubled down with the 2025 Z — a twin-turbo six-cylinder, rear-wheel-drive fastback that still ships with a clutch pedal. New for this year is Bayside Blue, borrowed straight from the GT-R’s own color palette, plus a starting price under $43,000. Kirk Kreifels makes the case for why that combination still matters. Watch the full review to see what’s changed under the skin.

Manual transmissions are disappearing from new car lineups faster than almost anything else in the industry, quietly discontinued option by option until a stick shift becomes a genuine rarity on a spec sheet. Nissan didn’t get that memo with its newest sports car — or more accurately, it got the memo and decided to ignore it entirely. What Kirk Kreifels found when he got behind the wheel of the 2025 Z wasn’t just a car that still offers three pedals. It was a car that made the case for why that choice still matters in 2025.

A Formula Nissan Refused to Abandon

Nissan’s Z lineage stretches back to the original 240Z, and every generation since has leaned on the same basic formula: a straight-six or V6 engine up front, rear-wheel drive, and a fastback silhouette that’s stayed recognizable across five decades of redesigns. The 2025 model continues that lineage deliberately, resisting the industry-wide pull toward smaller turbocharged four-cylinders, electrification, or all-wheel-drive complexity that’s reshaped so many of its competitors. Kirk Kreifels frames this continuity as the car’s biggest strength, not a limitation — a sports car that still feels like a direct descendant of the cars that built the nameplate’s reputation.

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Six Cylinders, Rear-Wheel Drive, and a Clutch Pedal

The manual transmission remains available on the 2025 Z, a detail the review calls out explicitly with the hashtag “savethemanuals,” reflecting how rare that option has become across the broader sports car market. Pairing a manual gearbox with a genuine six-cylinder engine and rear-wheel drive is a combination fewer and fewer manufacturers still offer at any price point, let alone one accessible to a broader range of buyers. That mechanical honesty — no dual-clutch substitute, no simulated engagement — is central to why the review treats this car as something closer to a genuine modern classic than just another sports coupe.

Bayside Blue: Borrowing From the GT-R’s Own Playbook

New for 2025, Nissan added Bayside Blue as an available exterior color, a shade with real significance since it’s the same iconic hue long associated with the Nissan GT-R. Extending that color to the Z is a deliberate connection to Nissan’s most celebrated performance nameplate, giving Z buyers access to a piece of GT-R visual identity without the GT-R’s price tag. Alongside Bayside Blue, the 2025 update also introduces two new two-tone exterior options, expanding the customization available on a platform that’s historically offered fairly conservative color choices.

What $42,970 Actually Buys in 2025

Pricing for the 2025 Z starts at a Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price of $42,970, a figure that positions it against a shrinking field of genuinely rear-wheel-drive, six-cylinder sports cars still available with a manual transmission. At that price, buyers are getting a purpose-built sports car rather than a compromised platform shared awkwardly with a sedan or crossover, which is increasingly rare territory in a market where manufacturers routinely cut corners on dedicated sports car development to protect margins on higher-volume vehicles.

Twin-Turbo Power in a Familiar Fastback Shape

Under the fastback bodywork sits a twin-turbocharged six-cylinder engine, a genuine evolution from the naturally aspirated engines that powered earlier Z generations, delivering the kind of low-end torque and mid-range punch that older Z owners simply didn’t have access to. That powertrain shift reflects broader industry trends toward forced induction even on cars built around driver engagement rather than outright efficiency, but Nissan paired the turbos with a chassis and gearbox setup clearly tuned to keep the driving experience analog rather than letting the technology overshadow it.

Why “Modern Classic” Isn’t Just Marketing Language Here

Calling the 2025 Z “a true modern classic” isn’t just a headline hook — the review builds the case methodically, pointing to the combination of a historically faithful drivetrain layout, a still-available manual gearbox, and styling that references the nameplate’s own history rather than chasing whatever trend is dominating sports car design at the moment. Modern classics, by definition, are cars built in the present that still manage to feel timeless, and the review argues the 2025 Z earns that label through genuine mechanical choices rather than retro styling gimmicks alone.

The Case for the Z Against Its Modern Rivals

Against rivals that have increasingly embraced turbocharged four-cylinders, dual-clutch-only transmissions, or all-wheel-drive systems that dilute the classic rear-wheel-drive sports car feel, the Z’s commitment to the traditional formula becomes its clearest differentiator. For buyers who specifically want three pedals, six cylinders, and power sent only to the rear wheels, the field of genuine alternatives has narrowed considerably — and the 2025 Z’s continued existence, at a starting price under $43,000, makes the case that Nissan understands exactly why that narrowing field of buyers still matters.

How the Z Stacks Up Against the Supra and the Mustang

Against the Toyota GR Supra, the Z’s closest direct rival in spirit, Nissan’s six-cylinder engine and available manual transmission stand out specifically because Toyota’s Supra initially launched without a manual option at all, only adding one in later model years, and relies on a BMW-sourced inline-six rather than an in-house Nissan design. Against the Ford Mustang, the comparison shifts to a question of layout philosophy — the Mustang offers a V8 option the Z simply doesn’t match displacement-for-displacement, but the Z counters with a smaller, more tossable footprint and a chassis tuned specifically around two-seat sports car dynamics rather than a pony car’s broader mission. Neither rival matches the Z’s specific combination of turbocharged six, rear-wheel drive, and manual availability at a similar price point.

What the Manual Option Actually Costs Nissan to Keep

Keeping a manual transmission in production for a low-volume sports car is a genuine engineering and business commitment in 2025, since manual take rates across the industry typically run in the single digits, making the option a cost center that many manufacturers have simply eliminated rather than continued supporting. Nissan’s decision to keep offering it on the Z, and to build a marketing campaign partly around that fact with tags like “savethemanuals,” signals the automaker sees enthusiast credibility as worth the investment even where the spreadsheet math might argue otherwise. That’s a meaningfully different calculation than most of the Z’s competitors have made, and it’s central to why Kreifels frames the car the way he does throughout the review.

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