2023 Nissan GT-R

The 2023 GT-R is a pure carry-over year of the R35 generation, running the hand-assembled 3.8L VR38DETT twin-turbocharged V6 at 565 hp in the volume Premium trim; the NISMO uses GT3-derived turbochargers for 600 hp. That output sits far above the top of the coupe normalization band (520 hp), so the item maxes out — 565 hp is supercar territory from a car that stickered under $120k.

467 lb-ft from the twin-turbo V6 clears the top of the coupe band (450 lb-ft) outright, and it arrives as a broad mid-range plateau rather than a single peak — which is why the GT-R pulls so hard in any gear despite six comparatively long ratios.

Nissan publishes no official US 0–60 figure, so this is scored on instrumented testing of the mechanically identical 565 hp car: roughly 2.9 s in the most commonly cited magazine runs, 3.1 s in Edmunds' launch-control test, with the 600 hp NISMO quoted around 2.5 s. Any figure in that range is at or below the bottom of the coupe band (3.0 s), so the item tops out — the ATTESA E-TS all-wheel-drive launch is the single most repeatable hard launch in the segment, quicker off the line than a base 911 or a Mustang and level with cars costing three times as much.

The VR38DETT is the standout part of this car and remained so in its final years: hand-built by a single takumi per engine, essentially free of drivetrain slop, and delivering a shove that reviewers have spent eighteen years describing as physics-defying. Response is immediate above about 3,000 rpm and the pull to redline is relentless. Marked down from the top band on two counts — testers still note a beat of turbo lag off boost at low rpm, and the engine's soundtrack is muffled and mechanical rather than charismatic next to the AMG GT's V8 or the 911's flat-six. Placed just below the AMG GT and Corvette on delivery quality, clearly above the Mustang, Supra and Nissan's own Z.

The GR6 six-speed dual-clutch rear transaxle is a split verdict and the weakest link in an otherwise exceptional powertrain. At speed and in R mode it fires off shifts in milliseconds and never hunts — six ratios and a locked-in launch program make gear choice trivial. Around town it is the opposite: the transaxle clicks, pops and clunks audibly, low-speed engagement is jerky, and reviewers of the final model years still called it out, with some going as far as "possibly the worst transmission in a modern performance car." Six gears is also two or three short of every current rival. Rated mid-band: brilliant at ten-tenths, genuinely unpleasant at two, and well behind Porsche's PDK or the ZF 8HP units in the Supra and BMW coupes.

All-wheel drive is standard on every 2023 GT-R and the hardware is among the most sophisticated ever fitted to a road car: ATTESA E-TS with an independent rear-mounted transaxle and a front propshaft running back alongside the engine, continuously varying the split from fully rear-drive to 50:50 based on wheel speed, yaw, steering angle and g-loading. That is the whole reason the car launches and puts power down the way it does, and it makes the GT-R usable in weather that sidelines a rear-drive rival. Held short of the ceiling only because there is no low range or terrain-mode provision — irrelevant to the car's mission, but it is what the top of this band describes. Far above the rear-drive-only Corvette, 911 Carrera, Mustang, Supra and Nissan Z.

One engine, one gearbox, take it or leave it. Every 2023 GT-R runs the same 3.8L VR38DETT through the same six-speed dual-clutch transaxle; the NISMO's 600 hp is a state of tune, not a distinct powertrain, and with only two trims offered in 2023 (the T-spec was absent this year, returning for 2024) there is not even a third tune to point at. No manual, no naturally aspirated option, no hybrid, PHEV or EV variant was ever offered in the R35's eighteen-year run. Bottom band, and slightly below the Nissan Z, which at least gives buyers a manual-versus-automatic choice.

2023 is a pure carry-over year of the R35, so the 3.8L VR38DETT twin-turbo V6 — 565 hp in the volume Premium grade — still hauls roughly 3,900 lb of all-wheel-drive coupe through a six-speed dual-clutch transaxle for 18 MPG combined. There is no electrification, no cylinder deactivation and no stop-start to soften it (the EPA record flags both cylDeact and startStop as 'N'). That is 4 MPG under the floor of the coupe band (22 MPG), so the item bottoms out; among the coupes scored so far only the Corvette and AMG GT sit in the same territory.

16 MPG in town is where the GT-R's mass, permanent all-wheel drive and two turbochargers working off boost cost the most. It sits 4 MPG below the coupe band floor of 20 MPG for a zero — level with the V8 Mustang GT and Corvette Stingray, and well behind the Nissan Z (18–19 city) that shared the 2023 showroom.

The R35's 0.26–0.27 drag coefficient is genuinely good — Wikipedia records the 2,000-plus wind-tunnel runs that produced it — and the six-speed's top ratio is tall, yet the car still only manages 22 MPG cruising, 4 MPG under the coupe band floor of 26. The gearbox is as much the limiting factor as the engine: 2023 rivals with eight to ten ratios (GR Supra 29 MPG highway, EcoBoost Mustang 33) gear down harder at highway speed.

The one place the GT-R's efficiency story is merely mediocre rather than bad: a large-for-the-class 19.5-gallon tank offsets the 18 MPG combined for roughly 351 miles between fills, ahead of the Nissan Z (~328 mi) and the GR Supra (~343 mi) despite burning far more fuel. It lands in the lower sixth of the 300–650 mi coupe band, and enthusiastic use — the way this car is actually driven — cuts it toward 250 miles.

EPA puts the 2023 GT-R's annual fuel bill at $4,200 — roughly 833 gallons of premium a year at the standard 15,000 miles, and $10,000 more than the average new vehicle over five years by the EPA's own 'you save/spend' figure. That is half again the top of the coupe band ($2,800, where lower is better), so the item bottoms out. It is a running cost on the order of a second car payment.

Premium is required, not suggested — Nissan specifies 91 AKI minimum for the VR38DETT and 93 to see the rated 565 hp, so an owner in a 91-octane market is either down on power or paying for the top grade. There is no hybrid, no E85, no diesel and no plug anywhere in the 2023 lineup, which was cut to just two grades (Premium and NISMO), so there is no way to buy cheaper energy at any point. The 19.5-gallon tank also makes each premium fill a large one. Bottom of the band alongside the Nissan Z (20), GR Supra (20) and Corvette (22); the GT-R rates a notch below them because it pairs the same mandatory premium with the segment's highest consumption and the largest tank to fill.

NHTSA has never crash-tested the R35 GT-R, and 2023 is no exception — the model-year record exists in the ratings database but every crash and rollover field reads "Not Rated", which is routine for a hand-assembled car selling in the low hundreds of US units. Carried at the dataset's standard untested placeholder of 4 stars, the same value used for the Corvette, 911, GR Supra, Nissan Z, AMG GT and R8.

The GT-R has never been tested by IIHS in 18 years of production — the institute buys its own test cars and a $116,040 low-volume coupe is not worth the outlay — so there is no award, no crashworthiness result, and no basis for credit above the untested baseline. Structurally the car is better placed than most supercars (steel/aluminium Premium Midship platform with Zone Body Construction, front and rear crumple zones, high-strength side door guard beams, energy-absorbing steering column, knee bolsters, and 3,935 lb of mass on its side), but the airbag set is a front-occupant package: dual-stage front bags, front seat-mounted side bags and roof-mounted curtain bags covering the FRONT seats only, with nothing protecting the heads of anyone in the 2+2 rear. Placed a few points under the untested coupe peers (Corvette 55, Supra 55, Z 55, R8 54) for that rear-occupant gap.

The 2023 GT-R offers no driver-assistance suite at all — not standard, not optional, on either of the two grades (Premium and NISMO). No AEB, no forward collision warning, no lane departure warning, no lane keeping, no blind-spot monitoring, no rear cross-traffic alert, no adaptive cruise. The entire active-safety content is Vehicle Dynamic Control, ABS, TPMS, a RearView Monitor and (Premium only) front and rear parking sensors — the federally-mandated floor plus parking aids. Even the Corvette (15) and the ADAS-free Audi R8 (5) are no worse; this is the bottom of the segment, and unlike the Z or Supra there is not a single optional box to tick.

There is no automatic emergency braking system to rate — the 2023 GT-R has neither vehicle-to-vehicle nor pedestrian AEB, and IIHS has run no front crash prevention evaluation on it. The 3 points reflect only that the car has ABS with brake assist and enormous Brembo hardware (16.14-inch front rotors on Premium) once a human presses the pedal; no automated intervention exists at any speed, day or night.

No blind-spot monitoring, no rear cross-traffic alert and no safe-exit alert on either 2023 grade — and this is the car that needs them most, given the C-pillar. Rear parking sensors and the RearView Monitor cover backing out of a space at walking pace and nothing else; the aftermarket sells convex blind-spot mirrors specifically for the R35 because the factory offers no answer.

No lane departure warning, no lane keep assist and no lane centering — there is no forward camera in the car to support them. Nissan's ProPILOT hardware, standard or optional on most of the 2023 US lineup, was never fitted to the R35, deliberately, on the grounds that it would intrude on the driving experience.

Plain speed-hold cruise control only — no radar, no following distance, no stop-and-go, no highway assist. It earns the handful of points over a car with no cruise at all and nothing more; scored beside the Audi R8 (6) and Corvette (8), which are in the same pre-radar position, and far below the AMG GT (78) and Supra (60).

No hands-free highway system, and no path to one — the GT-R never received ProPILOT Assist, let alone a hands-off tier. The car cannot even hold a lane, which is the prerequisite.

The volume Premium grade gets 4-bulb LED headlamps with AFS (Nissan's steering-responsive Adaptive Front-lighting System), integrated LED running lights and auto on/off as standard — adaptive curve lighting on the volume trim is genuinely good hardware and better than the fixed projectors on several rivals. The NISMO drops the AFS for plain LED units. No IIHS headlight rating exists to confirm the beam pattern, and there is no auto high-beam function, so this sits at the untested-but-well-equipped level shared with the Corvette, Z and Supra (62) rather than the 911/AMG GT tier (78) whose lights are IIHS-verified.

Split verdict. Forward and over-the-shoulder-left visibility is better than the mid-engine supercar norm — the GT-R is front-engined with an upright, tall-ish greenhouse and a driving position reviewers consistently call easy to place for a car this fast. The rear three-quarter is the problem: a very thick C-pillar and the high tail create a genuine blind zone that owners routinely patch with aftermarket convex mirrors, and with no blind-spot monitor there is zero electronic compensation. The RearView Monitor plus front and rear parking sensors cover low-speed maneuvering only — there is no surround-view camera. Lands just above the GR Supra (45 with worse sightlines and no parking aids) and below the Corvette (58) and 911 (70, 360-degree camera).

Nominally a four-seater with LATCH hardware, functionally unusable — and the R35 rear seat is unchanged for 2023. Cars.com's Car Seat Check found the GT-R's lower anchors sit an inch or two above where the rear cushion ends, so a connector physically cannot reach them, and the top tether anchors on the rear shelf sit under removable covers with too little clearance to clip into easily; the heavily bolstered rear seat also pushes a car seat off at an angle. Add 26.4 in of rear legroom and 33.5 in of rear headroom (the front seat must be moved forward to fit anything rear-facing), two-door access over a fixed front bucket, and curtain airbags that cover only the front row, and the rear seat is a parcel shelf that happens to have belts. Below the 911's 2+2 (26), which at least offers workable anchors.

The R35 GT-R is a 2+2, so it nominally seats four — one more than the strict two-seat Z, Corvette and GR Supra — but four seats sits exactly on the floor of the coupe band (4–5) and therefore scores 0.

Mid-pack front headroom for the segment — level with the Porsche 911's 38.0 in and just under the Nissan Z's 38.2 in. No sunroof is available on the GT-R at any trim, so there is no headliner penalty on the upper car.

Best front legroom of any coupe in the dataset and the GT-R's single strongest packaging figure — above the top of the coupe band (40–44 in), so it maxes the item. The front-mid engine and rear transaxle push the cabin back and leave genuine room for tall drivers.

Below the coupe band's 35 in floor, so it scores 0. The fastback roofline drops hard over the rear bench and reviewers consistently report adults feeling cramped and claustrophobic back there.

26.4 in is far under the coupe band's 32 in floor and scores 0. These are token seats better used as a padded parcel shelf — anyone beyond small children needs the front occupants to give up their own legroom.

Below the coupe band's 10 cu ft floor, so it scores 0 — but it is the most usable hold among the sports cars here in practice, deep enough for golf clubs or a weekend's luggage, which is part of the GT-R's long-standing grand-tourer case.

Adequate rather than clever. Two decent center-console cupholders that take bottles or travel mugs, a real glovebox, and the 2+2 rear bench doubles as a usable shelf — but the console cubby under the armrest is shallow, the glovebox and door pockets are small, and there is no fold-flat or underfloor trick anywhere in the car.

The Premium's heated, power-adjustable leather-and-synthetic-suede sport seats are supportive over long stints and part of why the GT-R daily-drives better than its lap times suggest. Marked down for limited adjustment range and aggressive fixed lumbar support that some drivers find intolerable, plus a rear bench nobody sits in twice.

Standard Bilstein DampTronic adaptive dampers with Comfort / Normal / R settings give the GT-R real bandwidth for a 3,900-lb track weapon — Comfort mode is repeatedly described as no rougher than a sporty Audi. It loses points for a chassis whose fundamentals date to 2007: sharp impacts still send noise and vibration through the structure, and the 20-in run-flats leave no sidewall to absorb them.

The GT-R's worst comfort trait and a genuine barrier to using it as a GT. Bose Active Noise Cancellation, acoustic glass and added sound deadening are all fitted, and none of it contains the roar the mandatory Dunlop SP Sport Maxx GT600 run-flats generate on coarse concrete at highway speed.

The basics are all standard on the volume Premium trim — dual-zone automatic climate control, heated front seats, power front seats, an 11-speaker Bose system, heated mirrors and front/rear parking sensors — but the list simply stops there. No ventilated seats, no heated steering wheel, no memory seating and no remote pre-conditioning are offered at any price, which is thin for a $116,040 car.

The 2023 GT-R returned to the US after skipping 2022 with the Premium as the entry grade at $113,540 plus $2,500 destination and handling. That is roughly double the coupe band ceiling of $55,000, so the item floors.

Premium is the volume grade — the only alternative for 2023 was the $215,740 NISMO, a low-volume halo. The option sheet is essentially paint and accessories, so a typically equipped Premium lands near $117,000.

GT-R servicing is dealer-network-restricted and priced like a European exotic: ~$300 dealer oil changes, $900–$1,200 transmission/differential fluid services, and $3,000–$5,000 30,000-mile interval work, plus ~$2,000 run-flat tire sets. Model-based class estimates understate it because they exclude consumables.

The R35's residuals are the best thing about owning one, and the 2023 car benefits from being one of the final US model years — Nissan ended North American sales after 2024 and production entirely in 2025. Observed three-year retention is close to flat, so a 70% five-year figure is conservative relative to the market and well above the coupe band ceiling.

Standard Nissan coverage with no GT-R uplift — the segment floor, and shorter than the 4-year terms German rivals offer at a fraction of this car's price.

Nissan's standard 5-year/60,000-mile powertrain term applies to the hand-built VR38DETT with no extension, sitting at the bottom of the 5–10 year band.

No included scheduled maintenance — Nissan's Maintenance Care oil-change program is a mainstream-model offer the GT-R does not qualify for, and there is no national free-service program. What comes with the car is the standard 3-year/36,000-mile roadside assistance plus access to the GT-R-certified dealer network, which is a service restriction as much as a perk. Scores below the Corvette, which bundles a complimentary first maintenance visit, and near the Nissan Z's identical coverage.

$117,040 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (70% retained, or about $81,928) leaves about $35,112 in depreciation. Add the projected $8,000 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $43,112 in total.

A thin-data, mixed-signal case that lands in the upper half of the average band. Consumer Reports carries no predicted-reliability rating for the 2023 GT-R — the model is nowhere near the survey sample size CR requires — and J.D. Power's model-level figure is largely brand- and segment-estimated rather than earned. What evidence exists points upward: 2023 is the sixteenth model year of an R35 whose hardware has been iterated continuously since 2007, it is a pure carry-over of the 2021 US car (Nissan skipped the 2022 model year in the US entirely), and it accumulated zero NHTSA recalls and zero NHTSA owner complaints. Holding it out of the 80s is the GR6 dual-clutch transaxle — the one component with a documented owner-reported failure pattern — and a service schedule expensive enough that owners routinely defer it. Scored above the Nissan Z (65.3 category), whose VR30 and 9-speed are both less proven, and below the GR Supra and 911.

A brand-level item, held at the figure this dataset carries across every Nissan scorecard — a halo coupe does not get a different Nissan than a Rogue does. The recent record is genuinely split: Nissan was the highest-ranked mass-market brand in J.D. Power's 2025 Initial Quality Study at 169 PP100 against a 192 industry average, but initial quality measures the first 90 days. The three-year dependability picture is mid-pack at best — 17th overall in the 2025 Vehicle Dependability Study — and Consumer Reports places the brand 12th of 22 on reliability. Never top-5 across multi-year studies, never bottom-third either, which is the middle of the 50-79 band.

The strongest item in the category by a wide margin, and the reason this score is not stuck in the 50s. The 2023 model year carries zero NHTSA recall campaigns and zero registered owner complaints, and across the R35's entire eighteen-year run only four campaigns appear in the federal database — a steering-column issue in 2009, a labelling defect in 2015, a backup-camera campaign in 2019 and a rear-axle spindle campaign in 2021. Not one touched the engine, transaxle or driveline, which is remarkable for a 565-hp all-wheel-drive car. Low production volume flatters the count, but the absence of any powertrain or fire campaign over eighteen years is a real result, not a sampling artifact. Service bulletins cluster on GR6 transaxle behavior — judder, clutch learning, fluid intervals — rather than anything structural, which is what keeps this off the very top of the band, as does the fact that the most recent campaign (2021 spindle) is only two model years behind this car. Scored above the GR Supra and well above the Corvette and Mustang.

A split verdict between two halves of the drivetrain, which is exactly the middle band. The 3.8L VR38DETT is the durable half: hand-assembled in a clean room at Yokohama by takumi craftsmen, in production since 2007, refined for 2020 and unchanged for 2023, with no systemic defect pattern — well-maintained examples routinely pass 100,000 miles. Its known failure mode, rod-bearing wear, appears under sustained high-rpm use or aggressive tuning rather than in stock service. The GR6 six-speed dual-clutch transaxle is the liability: clutch-pack wear documented from roughly 50,000 miles on hard-launched cars (80,000-plus on gently driven ones), heat-driven fluid breakdown that compounds into slip, and a filter-and-fluid service Nissan specifies every 18,000 miles that costs four figures — with clutch-pack or full-transaxle work running well into five. By 2023 this is the most developed version of the unit and far removed from the pre-2012 pressure-sensor and clutch-seal failures, but the repair-cost tail is real and nothing else in this comparison set carries one like it. Scored above the Z (66 on this item) on engine strength and below the proven naturally aspirated units — Coyote 85, B58 87, LT2 76.

This item is judged relative to price, and at $116,040 plus $1,895 destination the GT-R is measured against cabins it cannot answer. The architecture dates to the 2017 facelift and much of it to 2007: an 8-inch NissanConnect display with Apple CarPlay but no Android Auto, switchgear and HVAC controls drawn from cheaper Nissan and older Infiniti parts bins, and hard plastics where a six-figure car should not have them. Reviewers have been consistent about it for years — the touchscreen housing gets compared to a late-1990s computer monitor. The credit side is real but narrow: the standard leather-and-suede seats are well shaped and supportive, the carbon-fibre centre console and gauge surround are authentic, the Polyphony Digital multifunction display remains a distinctive piece of engineering, and the optional Premium Interior Package adds hand-stitched semi-aniline leather. That, plus a sticker roughly $7,000 below the final-year car for the identical cabin, keeps it just inside the average band rather than the bottom one. Scored slightly below the Nissan Z, which uses comparable materials at a third of the price, and far below the AMG GT and Corvette.

Assembly quality is clearly ahead of perceived material quality — the distinction this item exists to capture. The GT-R is built on a dedicated low-volume line at Nissan's Tochigi plant, the body combines steel, aluminium and carbon-fibre to tolerances set by a wind-tunnel programme that reached Cd 0.27 with front and rear downforce, and the engine arrives from Yokohama hand-assembled and name-plaqued. Sixteen model years of production have produced no recurring pattern of panel misalignment, rattles or squeaks in owner or press reports, the 2023 car has zero registered NHTSA complaints, and Nissan's initial-quality results are currently the best in the mass market. What holds it short of the top of the band is that the ride harshness and constant mechanical noise reviewers describe can read as coarseness at this price. Scored above the Z, which shares the plant, and level with the class leaders.

Better than a boutique exotic's network, meaningfully worse than the raw Nissan dealer count suggests. The GT-R cannot be serviced at just any Nissan store: sales and service run through GT-R-certified dealers that must commit a dedicated master technician, complete the I-CAR Nissan GT-R repair series, and maintain specific facility and tooling standards. Roughly 691 dealers held that certification at the 2008 launch, and the number contracted steadily as annual volume fell to a few hundred cars — the 2023 car was sold at "select U.S. Nissan dealers," Nissan's own wording — so an owner outside a major metro can be a long drive from an authorized service bay, and further still from a body shop certified for the car's carbon and multi-layer panels. Nissan's brand service-satisfaction results also run below the industry average. Set below the mainstream Nissans in this dataset (Rogue and Frontier at 72) and below the Z, which any Nissan dealer can service, and well below the domestic performance networks.

The aftermarket is a genuine asset and the OEM parts bill is a genuine problem, and they roughly cancel into the low-average band. On the credit side, the R35 has one of the deepest enthusiast aftermarkets of any modern performance car and a mature independent-specialist network, so an owner is not wholly captive to the dealer for wear items, tuning hardware or even transaxle rebuilds. On the debit side, almost everything factory is supercar-priced: RepairPal puts GT-R average annual maintenance at $920 against $500 for Nissan overall, an OEM-spec oil change runs $200–$350, larger interval services $1,200–$2,500, and this scorecard's own cost-of-ownership category carries roughly $8,000 over five years. Documented owner spending over seven years includes $7,700 on run-flat tires, $2,700 on transaxle fluid services and $1,800 on brake rotors, and a GR6 clutch-pack or transaxle job runs from four into five figures. Body repair is worse still — the carbon-fibre and multi-layer panels are dealer-and-certified-shop-only. Scored well above the AMG GT, which lacks the aftermarket entirely, and well below the Z, whose parts are ordinary Nissan-priced.

Both 2023 GT-R grades — the $113,540 Premium and the $210,740 NISMO — carry the same 8.0-inch NissanConnect multi-touch display that arrived with the 2017 facelift and was unchanged for 2023. There is no larger screen at any price and no option to add one; eight inches in a six-figure 2023 car sits near the bottom of the coupe band, where mainstream compacts already shipped 12-inch-plus displays.

The 2017-facelift head unit is honest and simple rather than good: a rotary display commander on the console, physical shortcut keys, dual-zone climate on its own hard controls, and no menu-diving for anything done while moving — ergonomic fundamentals the segment was already losing by 2023. Against that sit graphics and processing speed that were dated when the car was new and conspicuous at $113,540, plus navigation reviewers describe as inaccurate. What lifts it off the floor is the Polyphony Digital Multi-Function Display, a genuine engineering readout — turbo boost, oil and transmission temperatures, front-to-rear torque split, g-force plotting, a lap stopwatch whose times download over USB. Nothing else in the segment ships that. Scored below the Nissan Z, which runs a newer generation of the same NissanConnect hardware, and well below the BMW-sourced system in the GR Supra.

The weakest phone-projection story of any coupe in this dataset. Apple CarPlay is standard on both 2023 grades but wired-only through a console USB-A port, and Android Auto is not offered at any price — it appears nowhere in Nissan's own 2023 equipment listing. Roughly half of US phone owners get no projection at all in a $113,540 car, which is why a sizeable aftermarket sells retrofit modules for the R35's factory screen. Held just above the 0–49 "not offered" floor only because one platform genuinely is standard and works. Scored below the Nissan Z, which has wireless CarPlay standard and wired Android Auto, and well below every German rival in the segment.

Both boxes are checked and neither is done well. The Nissan Navigation System is standard on both grades — better coverage than a base GR Supra or any GR86 — and voice recognition for navigation and audio is standard too, but it is the old fixed-command-list implementation rather than a natural-language assistant, and reviewers single it out as clumsy while calling the map data inaccurate. With Android Auto unavailable, Android owners cannot route around it with a phone, so the weak native nav is the only nav they have. That combination puts it below the Nissan Z, which pairs a similar command-list system with a newer head unit and wireless CarPlay as an escape hatch.

The one genuinely strong element of the GT-R's tech package and the only item here that beats the segment average. An 11-speaker Bose system — nine speakers plus two subwoofers set into the rear centre armrest area, mounted in aluminium die-cast panels tuned to this specific cabin — is standard on both 2023 grades rather than a top-trim upgrade, and it comes with Bose Active Noise Cancellation and speed-sensitive volume, both of which matter in a cabin reviewers consistently call loud. Short of the 80s because an 11-speaker Bose tune dating to the 2017 facelift is a tier below the Burmester, Bowers & Wilkins and 3D surround systems available in six-figure rivals, and there is no upgrade path. Scored slightly above the Nissan Z's 8-speaker Bose on speaker count and standard-across-the-range fitment.

There is no digital instrument cluster on any 2023 GT-R. The binnacle is the original 2007 architecture: a physical analog speedometer and tachometer with analog coolant-temperature and fuel gauges flanking them, and a small monochrome LCD trip odometer as the only screen. The carbon-fibre gauge surround and the driver-angled layout are attractive, and the NISMO's red-accented tachometer is a nice touch, but none of it is configurable and none of it is digital. The car's rich data readouts live on the centre display, which is item 7.1.2's business, not the cluster's. Scored far below the Nissan Z, whose 12.3-inch full-digital TFT is standard on its cheapest trim.

Nothing on this car updates itself. The R35's head unit predates Nissan's over-the-air programme entirely — there is no whole-vehicle software update, no feature-adding release, and not even the infotainment/maps-only OTA that would put it in the middle band; navigation map data is a dealer or physical-media update. Nissan's OTA effort in 2023 was concentrated on the Ariya and the newest crossover architectures, and a 16-year-old halo platform built in the hundreds was never going to receive a back-port. Scored below the Nissan Z, which at least runs a connected head unit capable of taking map and infotainment updates.

The core telematics set is present and subscription-gated, which is the literal definition of the middle band's bottom edge. NissanConnect Services powered by SiriusXM is standard with a trial that converts to a paid subscription, giving the MyNISSAN app remote door lock/unlock, vehicle locator, alarm and boundary/speed alerts, automatic collision notification and emergency call. What is missing is everything that would lift it: factory remote engine start with climate preconditioning does not appear in the GT-R's equipment table, there is no phone-as-key, and no charging or scheduling functions apply. Scored just below the Nissan Z, which carries the newer NissanConnect Services generation, and far below the app-first German and American rivals in this segment.

Device power is a 2010-era provision sold at 2023 prices. Two USB ports in the centre console, both USB-A on the old iPod-interface standard, plus 12-volt outlets — and that is the entire inventory. There is no USB-C anywhere in the car, no wireless charging pad on either grade, no rear-seat port despite the 2+2 layout, and no AC outlet; Nissan even sold USB charging cables as a dealer accessory. A modern phone charges slowly and only with an adapter the owner supplies. Scored below the Nissan Z, which at least pairs a USB-A with a USB-C, and below the GR86 and BRZ.

Solidly middle-band: the Nissan Intelligent Key proximity system with remote keyless entry and a console-mounted push-button start is standard on both 2023 grades, so nothing here is trim-gated or optional, and a HomeLink universal transceiver is included. But that is the complete list — no factory remote engine start, no phone-as-key or digital key, and a two-door coupe has no powered decklid or hands-free tailgate to earn the convenience points that lift SUVs into the 80s. Scored a notch below the Nissan Z, whose fob supports remote start on automatic cars.

Adequate for parking, nothing more, in a wide low car with a thick C-pillar and genuinely poor over-shoulder visibility. A RearView Monitor plus front AND rear parking sensors are standard on both grades — the front sonar earns real credit given how much front splitter there is to protect, and is more than the Nissan Z offers. Against that, Nissan's Around View Monitor surround camera was never fitted to the GT-R at any price, there is no parking automation of any kind, and the reversing camera is a low-resolution unit shown on the same dated 8-inch screen. Scored a shade below the Nissan Z, which lacks front sonar but adds rear cross-traffic alert and rear automatic braking — coverage the GT-R has no ADAS hardware to provide.

No head-up display is offered on any 2023 GT-R — not on the $113,540 Premium, not on the $210,740 NISMO, and not as a dealer-installed accessory. It is a pointed omission in a 565-hp car explicitly engineered around track use, where projected speed and shift-point data is the one HUD use case nobody disputes, and where the driver otherwise drops their eyes to an analog tachometer. Scored at the floor alongside the other coupes that offer none, and slightly below the Nissan Z because the omission is harder to excuse at nearly three times the price.

The R35 is a 2+2 with four belts and rear LATCH hardware, which puts it above the strict two-seaters in this segment, but the rear bench measures 26.4 in of legroom and 33.5 in of headroom and the lower anchors sit above the seat bight where a seat cannot be cinched down. Two long heavy doors, a low roofline and a fixed rear backrest make installing or loading a child seat a contortion, and a stroller has to go in an 8.8 cu ft trunk with a high liftover and a narrow opening.

The weakest family-safety proposition of any coupe in this dataset. The 2023 GT-R carries no driver-assistance content on either grade — no automatic emergency braking, no forward collision warning, no blind-spot monitoring, no rear cross-traffic alert, no lane departure warning, no rear-occupant alert — while a Nissan Rogue in the same showroom ships Safety Shield 360 standard. It has also never been crash-tested by NHTSA or IIHS, so a family has no independent crashworthiness data. What is left is six airbags, VDC stability control, ABS, a RearView Monitor and front/rear sonar.

Four seatbelts, but no family of four is doing a multi-hour trip in this car. The rear pair is unusable for anyone past early childhood, there are no rear climate outlets, no rear USB power and no rear amenities of any kind, and the 8.8 cu ft trunk cannot hold four people's luggage once the rear seats are occupied. It clears the two-seaters only because a small child plus a bag can physically ride behind the front seats, and it edges the 2024 car on the strength of a Comfort-mode ride that reviewers found genuinely liveable.

Everyday usability is the R35's signature claim and it holds up: front-engined with an upright greenhouse so the driver can place the nose, easy entry and exit for a supercar, class-leading 44.6 in of front legroom, physical and obvious controls, standard ATTESA E-TS all-wheel drive that removes the wet-road drama defining rear-drive rivals, and Bilstein DampTronic dampers whose Comfort setting makes the commute genuinely tolerable. What holds it out of the top band is real: sharp impacts still ring through a 2007-vintage structure on 20-in run-flats, the exhaust drones and the transaxle whines, there is no adaptive cruise control of any kind for a jam, the standard summer rubber is unusable below about 45°F, and the low front lip makes every steep driveway a calculation.

The most expensive car per commuting mile in the coupe field. 16 MPG city on required premium is about $4,200 a year in fuel alone at EPA's 15,000-mile assumption, and the consumables are worse than the fuel: full-coverage insurance averages roughly $5,724 a year, scheduled maintenance and wear items run around $1,600 a year at a certified GT-R dealer, and the staggered 20-in Dunlop run-flats are a four-figure replacement on a wear-hungry all-wheel-drive chassis. No stop-start, no cylinder deactivation and no electrification soften any of it.

Better on paper than in practice. At 185 in long the GT-R is shorter than a Camry, its roughly 37 ft curb-to-curb turning circle is tight for the width, the driving position is high enough to see the corners of the hood, and a RearView Monitor plus front AND rear sonar are standard on both grades. But it is 75 in wide, the C-pillar makes over-the-shoulder checks guesswork, there is no surround-view camera and no parking assist at any price, and the low front lip turns concrete wheel stops and garage ramps into an approach-angle problem owners solve with ramps or by parking nose-out.

No work capability of any kind. Nissan publishes no tow rating and no payload figure for the US-market GT-R, there is no factory or dealer-accessory hitch, the cargo hold is a sealed 8.8 cu ft trunk behind a fixed rear backrest, and roughly 4–5 in of clearance under a composite undertray rules out an unpaved jobsite before anything else does. The 467 lb-ft the engine makes is the only point in the item's favor and it has nowhere to go.

Half the drivetrain is genuinely tough — the hand-assembled VR38DETT has a sixteen-year record of surviving track abuse and heavy tuning, and the R35 chassis is among the most proven in the segment. Everything wrapped around it is the opposite of work-duty hardware: the GR6 transaxle is the known weak link and a documented four-figure repair, the leather and synthetic-suede interior has no wear-friendly or washable alternative, summer run-flats on staggered 20s punish rough surfaces, the ground clearance rules out unpaved use, and there is no fleet history because nobody has ever run GT-Rs as a fleet.

Essentially nil. No onboard AC power outlet, no bed or open load area, no tie-down points, no roof rails or rack provision, no hitch, no washable surfaces and no upfit ecosystem — the GT-R's enormous aftermarket is aimed entirely at power and aero, not at work. Device power is two USB-A ports and two 12-volt sockets, which is a phone-charging provision rather than a jobsite one.

The GT-R was engineered as much as a grand tourer as a sports car and the bones show it: heated power front buckets that stay comfortable over long stints, class-leading 44.6 in of front legroom, all-wheel drive plus an enormous mid-range that makes high-speed cruising stable in any weather, Bilstein Comfort mode for broken interstate, and a 19.5-gallon tank at 18 MPG combined giving roughly 350 highway miles between stops. Two things cap it. The cabin is loud at a cruise — run-flat roar on concrete, exhaust drone and transaxle whine that Active Noise Cancellation only trims — and there is no adaptive cruise control, no lane centering and no highway assist at any price, so the fatigue reduction this item asks about is simply absent and every mile is driven manually.

The best of a weak field, on the strength of one thing: ATTESA E-TS Pro all-wheel drive is standard on both grades rather than optional, and fitted with winter tires the R35 has a long, well-documented record as a genuinely all-weather supercar. Everything else this item asks about is missing. Roughly 4–5 in of clearance at the front lip ends any ambition past a smooth gravel road, the standard Dunlop summer run-flats are unusable below about 45°F as delivered, and there are no roof rails, no rack provision, no hitch, no tow rating, no 110V outlet and no fold-flat surface for camping. There is not even a spare wheel — the run-flats are the contingency.

Capacity is respectable for a supercar and flexibility is nonexistent. The 8.8 cu ft trunk takes two carry-ons or a set of golf clubs — Top Gear's famous line about the R35 ended with "And a boot" — and the vestigial rear seats absorb soft overflow. But the rear backrest is fixed, so there is no fold-down and no pass-through for anything long; the opening is narrow with a high liftover; there is no underfloor bin, because the transaxle and battery live there; and with no roof rails and no hitch there is no way to carry gear outside the body at all. Bulky items are simply refused.

2023 is a pure carry-over year of the R35, and the chassis is still one of the most capable ever sold at the price: independent double-wishbone aluminum front / multi-link aluminum rear on an integral tube-frame structure with six-point mounting, computer-controlled Bilstein DampTronic mono-tube dampers with three driver-selectable modes, a 1.5-way mechanical limited-slip diff, and 255/40ZRF20 front / 285/35ZRF20 rear Dunlop SP Sport Maxx GT600 rubber. With ATTESA E-TS shuffling torque forward under load it corners flatter and puts power down harder than anything near its money, holding roughly 0.96–1.01 g on the skidpad. Held below the top of the band by two real limits: 3,935 lb of curb weight with a nose-heavy 55/45 split that the electronics mask rather than erase, and a character reviewers describe as point-and-shoot — it works to make the driver look good rather than involving them. Placed above the Corvette (80.7) and AMG GT (80) on outright composure, below the 911's (91.3) blend of capability and transparency.

The GT-R was one of the last performance cars on sale with hydraulic assistance — a vehicle-speed-sensitive power rack-and-pinion in an aluminum housing, four-point mounted on stiff insulators, geared at 15:1 for just 2.4 turns lock-to-lock. That is genuinely fast and accurately weighted, and it feeds back road surface in a way the electric racks in the Supra and Nissan's own Z do not. It sits in the 80-100 band but low in it: reviewers still fault it for wanting more feel at the limit, and the ATTESA front axle takes some of the loading information out of the rim under power. Above the Z (72) and the BMW coupes, below the 911.

Brembo-developed hardware that is oversized even by supercar standards: full-floating six-piston monoblock front calipers on 15.35 x 1.28 in vented and drilled rotors, four-piston rears on 15.0 x 1.18 in rotors. The pedal is firm and linear, instrumented stops land in the high-90-foot range from 60 mph and around 150 ft from 70 mph despite the mass, and the 2023 Premium's road testers singled the brakes out as a high point. Short of the top band only because the Premium runs steel rotors — the carbon-ceramics stayed a NISMO item until the 2024 T-spec — so repeated hard track laps in a two-ton car will eventually cook them, and this is a car whose acceleration constantly invites that.

A split personality that lands this squarely mid-band. Above about 3,000 rpm the hand-built VR38DETT and the GR6 rear transaxle are close to flawless — instant response, no slop, shifts that land faster than the paddles can ask for them. Below that it is the roughest-mannered car in this comparison set: the transaxle clicks, pops and clunks at parking speeds, low-speed engagement lurches, and there is a beat of off-boost lag before the turbos light. That is textbook "occasional shudder, lag" territory, and it is the reason a 565 hp car does not score in the 80s here. Consistent with the 68 given to transmission behavior in cat1.

No harshness or vibration through the controls, but the GT-R's soundtrack has never matched its performance: the twin-turbo V6 is a muffled mechanical whoosh under load rather than a voice, even routed through a titanium exhaust, and the audible mechanical chatter from the rear-mounted transaxle at low speed is drivetrain noise the driver hears in the cabin. Active Noise Cancellation is standard and does its job on engine drone. Mid-band — audible but inoffensive, and a step behind rivals that sell partly on sound (AMG GT's V8, the 911's flat-six). Note this item covers the drivetrain only; the GT-R's genuinely intrusive tire roar on coarse pavement is a cabin-NVH matter scored in cat4.

Nissan publishes 36.6 ft curb-to-curb for the 2023 Premium, mid-pack in the coupe band and clearly worse than a compact sports car like the Z (34.1 ft). The wide 255-section front tires, a 109.4-inch wheelbase and the front differential and driveshafts of the ATTESA all-wheel-drive system all eat into steering lock — the price of the traction that defines the car. The NISMO's wider setup extends it to 37.4 ft.

Better than the GT-R's reputation suggests, without reaching the top band. The driver gets an 8-way power sport bucket with harness cutouts that a tester found comfortable over a 275-mile day, a manually tilting and telescoping wheel (an adjustment the Nissan Z still does not offer), a low hip point, and a control layout the 2017 freshening simplified by deleting sixteen buttons and switches. Against it: the 8-inch center screen is small and its many performance sub-pages are redundant, the wide sills and low roofline make ingress and egress a deliberate act, and there is no power lumbar or memory on the volume trim. Comfortable for most with minor reaches — the middle band, described exactly.

Godzilla still delivers an event every time it is used in anger — the launch is a party trick nothing this side of an EV matches, the grip is bottomless, and enthusiasts unreservedly recommend it; nearly two decades in, outlets were still naming it among the best sports cars on sale. What keeps it out of the top of the band is the long-standing charge that it does the work for you: reviewers describe a "guided missile, a point-and-shoot car that works very hard to make you look good," and the muted soundtrack plus the DCT's around-town manners blunt the take-the-long-way-home appeal on an ordinary commute. Above the Corvette and AMG GT for sheer occasion, below the 911 and roughly level with the GR Supra.

Near-monospec and genuinely inclusive on hardware: the $113,540 Premium arrives with the full 565-hp hand-built VR38DETT, ATTESA E-TS AWD, the GR6 dual-clutch, Bilstein DampTronic adjustable dampers, six-piston front / four-piston rear Brembos, 20-inch RAYS forged wheels, Dunlop SP Sport Maxx GT600 run-flats, titanium exhaust, mechanical rear LSD, leather and synthetic-suede heated power front sport seats, carbon-fiber and aluminum trim, dual-zone climate, navigation, Apple CarPlay, an 11-speaker Bose system with active noise cancellation, LED headlights, and front and rear parking sensors — with the factory option sheet amounting to paint and accessories. That is more included content than a base Porsche 911 at similar money, which is why it sits above the 911's 48. What holds it to the mid-band is the other half of the ledger at a six-figure price: no driver assistance of any kind (no AEB, blind-spot monitor, lane keeping or adaptive cruise at any price — this scorecard's cat3 rates ADAS breadth 5/100), an 8-inch screen (cat7: 12/100), analog gauges, no Android Auto, no wireless charging and no head-up display. A point above the 2024 car on the same content at ~$5,700 less.

The stopwatch case is strong and the everything-else case is weak, but 2023 is the better-value end of the R35's final US run — $115,435–$116,040 delivered buys 565 hp, roughly 3.0 seconds to 60 mph and all-weather AWD traction, money that at Porsche buys a base Carrera with nothing like the thrust, and a fraction of a 911 Turbo. Against 2024 it is the same car for about $7,000 less, which is why it scores four points higher. The drag is that the GT-R's whole identity was undercutting supercars and by 2023 the US price had run to roughly 1.6× the R35's launch MSRP while a ~$65k Corvette Stingray matched its 0–60 and the new C8 Z06 arrived at similar money with a modern cabin and a full safety suite — and running costs are the segment's worst (this scorecard's cat5 scores 28.5, with insurance near $5,700/yr and dealer-certified service mandatory). Fair value carried almost entirely by pace; scored below the R8 (72) and 911 (71), whose premiums buy commensurate interiors.

The narrowest the GT-R lineup ever got in the US. Returning from a skipped 2022 model year, Nissan offered exactly two grades — Premium at $113,540 and NISMO at $210,740 — a $97,200 chasm with nothing in between after the Track Edition was dropped following 2020 and with no T-spec for this year (that arrived on the 2024 facelift). Underneath, configuration choice is nil: one 3.8L twin-turbo V6, one six-speed dual-clutch, one drivetrain, no manual, no roadster, no cheaper entry point, and an option sheet that is essentially paint and accessories. Take-it-or-leave-it in practice — well below the 2024 car's four-grade ladder (56), the R8 (58), the Camaro (84) and the 911 (95), which genuinely span budgets and body styles.

390 US sales in 2023 is a rounding error in absolute terms, but this is the one reading in the R35's late career where the trajectory points the right way: the car had been off sale for the 2022 model year (57 units of leftover stock), and its return produced the nameplate's best US year since the late 2010s, up 584%. Volume this low is partly by design for a hand-built halo built at a rate of a few hundred a year worldwide, so the item is scored against the segment's other exotics rather than against mass-market coupes. Eight points above the 2024 car, whose 265 units were a decline into a publicly announced discontinuation, and above the R8 (22), which was in the same terminal phase; still far under the AMG GT (55) and any car selling in real numbers.

The GT-R badge carries more equity than the brand above it and operates largely independently of it. "Godzilla" brings three decades of JDM mythology, Gran Turismo and Fast & Furious cultural reach — the 2023 sales spike was partly attributed to a Fast X halo — and a following that treats the R35 as a modern classic rather than a used car, which shows up exactly where this item says it should, in residuals: this scorecard's cat5 records roughly 5% depreciation in three years, near-flat retention that is the best thing about owning one. The discount from the German exotics is the parent brand, not the model: Nissan's 2023 showroom image is mid-market and the network is a mass-market one, capping the ownership halo below Porsche (96) and Audi/AMG (90). A point under the 2024 car, whose farewell year and limited Skyline Edition added collector heat this year did not have, and comfortably clear of the Nissan Z (62) and Camaro (70).

Scored on buyer benefit this is near the bottom band: no factory rebates, no subvented financing and no lease support on the 2023 GT-R line, thin allocations against pent-up demand from a skipped model year, and dealer addendums of roughly $5,000–$10,000 typical on the Premium with $30,000–$40,000 seen on NISMO and specials. Paying MSRP was the good outcome. Five points above the 2024 car only because the final-model-year framing had not yet arrived to hand dealers their worst markups, and patient buyers could find Premium allocation at sticker. Below the 911 (35) and R8 (40), both of which left some room to negotiate.

The oldest car in the segment, and 2023 is its least fresh model year on the criteria as written. This is the fifteenth model year of an R35 that went on sale for 2009 on a platform finalised in 2006–07; its last substantive facelift was 2017; and Motor Authority confirmed the return from the skipped 2022 year brought literally nothing — "no changes have been made to the car during its time away." Redesign risk then resolved against the buyer inside the model year: Nissan revealed the facelifted 2024 GT-R at the Tokyo Auto Salon on 13 January 2023, with new front and rear fascias, revised aero and the return of the T-spec, US-bound that spring — so a 2023 buyer knowingly took the superseded car weeks before its replacement was shown. A point below the 2024 model (10), which at least carried the fresh sheetmetal, and level with the set's other end-of-life cars, the R8 (10) and Camaro (10).

Deeply respected on legacy, distinctly mid-pack in 2023 verdicts — the middle band, and below the 2024 car whose farewell coverage was warmer. The career record is enormous (2009 Motor Trend Car of the Year, World Performance Car of the Year, Guinness records for the fastest-accelerating four-seater, Carwow's best sports cars of 2023, Evo's best coupes 2022, Autocar and Auto Express best hardcore sports cars 2021–22) and every review still credits the pace and grip. But contemporary 2023 scoring is the weakest of its late years: U.S. News gave it 6.3/10 and ranked it #15 in Luxury Sports Cars, faulting a sparse cabin, basic infotainment without Android Auto, cramped rear seats and above-average ownership costs; Edmunds pointed buyers at the R8, M4, Corvette Z06 and 911 as "newer, more refined and deliver just as much, if not more" performance; and it won no comparison tests against the 911 or C8. Eight points under the 2024 car (74), under the R8 (84) and far under the 911 (96), and level with the Nissan Z (66) — the legacy and the enduring performance verdicts holding it up against a weak contemporary reception.