Nissan released a whole bunch of news last night about its plans for the future, which included a hybridized Rogue and a new Xterra. Buried in the long list of upcoming models and strategy charts was something that I think most enthusiasts my age will be pretty hyped about: A new Nissan Skyline.
While Nissan has never sold a car with a Skyline badge in America, anyone who grew up in the golden era of Gran Turismo and The Fast & The Furious will undoubtedly be familiar with the badge. For decades, the Skyline nameplate has graced the rear ends of Nissan’s Japan-only midsize coupes and sedans. High-end GT-R versions from the late 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s have become some of the most desirable JDM imports on the planet.
While most people are familiar with R32, R33, and R34 Skylines, Nissan never stopped making them. The car that replaced the R34, the V35, was sold in Japan as a Skyline, but marketed in the United States as the Infiniti G35. In 2006, that car gave way to the V36 Skyline, known here as the Infiniti G37. In 2014, the current V37 Nissan Skyline, known in America as the Q50, was unveiled.
Seeing as how that car is now 12 years old, the Skyline is well overdue for a replacement. So Nissan has published a short teaser video alongside a few images to get its Japanese buyer base excited. And as before, this new Skyline will come to America as an Infiniti-badged sedan. And it should have a manual transmission.
As far as official details are concerned, there isn’t very much to work with. Nissan published two close-up teaser photos of the car—one of the nose, and another of the rear quarter panel—along with a super-short eight-second video showing the shadow-covered Skyline next to what looks to be a third-generation Skyline from the late 1960s.
Aside from confirming the car is on the way, Nissan really didn’t say much about the Skyline in its big press release about the future of the company, adding just one line about the car towards the bottom:
Skyline: A Heartbeat model for Japan, delivering performance, precision and driver-focused character.
On a semi-related note, the company also included one paragraph about its plans for Infiniti (emphasis mine):
In the premium segment, INFINITI will remain important within Nissan’s product strategy. The brand will be revitalized through new and refreshed models, beginning with the all-new 2027 QX65 SUV this spring. This will be followed by four additional models: a new mid-size hybrid SUV, a performance-oriented V6 sedan and two frame-based hybrid SUVs.
While Nissan hasn’t confirmed it, it’s very likely that the new Skyline and this “performance-oriented V6 sedan” are the same car. As I mentioned earlier, Infiniti’s been selling rebadged Skylines for over two decades now, and while the last Q50 died in 2024, Infiniti has said it’s working on a replacement. So it’d make sense that, as before, Infiniti would bring the Skyline to America badged as a Q50 [Update: Looks like my guess was spot-on. Nissan Americas Chairman Christian Meunier confirmed that the Skyline will come to America as the Q50, according to The Drive – Brian].
The V6 part of this isn’t exactly a surprise, given that the last three Skylines and their Infiniti counterparts all used V6 engines. In a later version of the Q50 dubbed the Red Sport 400, you could even get a twin-turbo version, making—you guessed it—400 horsepower. What Nissan doesn’t mention in its release is the availability of a manual transmission.
The idea of a luxury brand like Infiniti introducing a manual car to the market in 2026 might sound unfathomable, but it’s definitely a reality. Automotive News first broke the story last summer, citing dealer sources, before Infiniti execs confirmed the news in December. Meunier told MotorTrend the manual should account for a small fraction of sales, adding that the clout from offering a stick shift will help boost the brand’s prestige in the segment:
Take rate for the manual will likely be only 10 percent or so, Meunier tells MotorTrend, but offering it is important to help restore Infiniti’s reputation as a bold luxury choice. Offering a stick helps burnish that rep. Meunier himself recently bought a Nissan Z because he wanted a manual transmission not only for its engagement but also because of the stick’s increasing rarity. There will be customers who will buy the revived Q50 specifically for the uniqueness a manual option brings, he believes.
This new manual Q50 sounds like it’ll slot cleanly between the Z and the full-kill, hybridized R36 GT-R, which, as The Drive reports, could arrive before the end of the decade. Something tells me that if Nissan doesn’t mess this up, it’s the Q50 that enthusiasts will gravitate towards most out of the three. A rear-drive sedan with 400-plus horsepower and a legit stick shift? Sign me up.
Top graphic image: Nissan
The model naming really kills the continuity. What a mess. If they just kept some consistency, maybe they’d not implode so much. Call it the Infinity Skyline. It’s not like there’s any equity in Q50. Crazy how badly a company can be at this.
Exactly. So close but still no cigar… or, er, Skyline.
All that PR copy reads as the position of a corporation still hobbled by legacy misapprehension, one that’s sunk costs into fallacy and is trying to unravel itself from a knot of bad directions but can only get so far. It knows it’s ailing but wasn’t allowed to take the necessary actions that might reflect badly on positions it can’t tactfully abandon, at least in the U.S.
The Skyline is Nissan’s halo car, more so than the Z. At this point, it is internationally known, to the extent that Skyline means “badass JDM hero” while its purportedly superior GT-R spinoff can be seen as a caricature of questionable priorities in Japanese carmaking: a technically proficient also-ran that does a lot of things well but fails to spark widespread joy.
Skyline is an extremely valuable brand. That rear-quarter shot with the signature taillights is so glorious it makes me bite my lip. Bringing the Skyline to the U.S. would be an important coup for revitalizing Nissan on these shores. What does Nissan mean here now? Big Altima Energy. VQ engines with terrible exhausts. Your neighbor’s Titan with flaking clearcoat. The Rogue your rental service assigned you. Three indistinguishable sedans… seriously, how is it so easy to mistake one of the very few Maximas sold here for a Sentra? Why bury the Skyline as just another Infiniti when the thing itself has so much badly needed cachet for Nissan?
Yep, especially everything you said about the current state. I just think of Nissan as Altima and Rogue. Just running on vapor at this point. Even sticking with the G35 moniker would’ve been better for Infiniti
Nissan are the WORST at this.
In Australia, they had the Nissan Pulsar. One of the great hatch backs. You bought a Corolla or a Pulsar unless you were weird and bought something French… (odd turn of events there in the end I guess)
After decades near the top, they decided, you know what, this car needs a new name, for its new styling! I honestly can’t even remember what it was. But that kinda flopped. So years later when the next new model dropped, they brought back the Pulsar name, noting they effed up by changing it in the first place. Big campaign, the Pulsar is BACK. Brand recognition etc.
By this point times had changed, and small SUV’s had taken over most of the hatchback market. The Nissan Dualis was doing well, great name recognition etc.
I swear it was the same week (but likely within the same 6 months, definitely same management though!) their volume selling SUV the Dualis, new model comes out, they rename it to effing Qashqai… which I’m pretty sure my Parents thinks is some kind of deluded sex act, and from the wiki.. Nissan thought we might call it Cash Cow.
Nissan got away with the Qashqai, as well, a small well priced SUV would sell well regardless. But it was more the point, they publicly acknowledged they stuffed up with the Pulsar name change, then in near the same breath changed the name of their current volume seller.
I’m sure there is more to it, but on the surface it seemed so so stupid.
As much as Nissan are pretty cooked atm, an inline six wouldn’t go astray in a skyline…
The name you’re looking for was the ‘Tiida’. Yeah it was epically bad. Young men and women alike could get around a Pulsar, with some genuine street cred in the hot hatch spec SSS. Tiida? Its like they were trying to cut their market in half. But they had been name chopping for years (remember the Terrano? Me neither..). I’m genuinely surprised that X-Trail (aka Rogue) nameplate lasted all these years
It’s kind of amazing that the same company that brought us the classic Z’s, the S-bodies, the Skyline series, the classic Pathfinder, and Frontier can suck so incredibly bad at actually selling vehicles. Who actually considered the recognition of the Skyline badge and said “Nah, this needs to be an anonymous Infinity Q-number car that nobody will give a damn about.”?
When the G35 was introduced, the Skyline name was not really known in North America outside of teenagers playing Gran Turismo, who weren’t exactly the target market. It replaced the G20 in the Inifiniti lineup, and all of Inifiniti’s models used alphanumeric names like the European luxury car manufacturers did.
Just call it the Nissan Skyline at this point. Infiniti doesn’t mean anything, either, and if they do it right they can pick up sales from millennials with excess income who were pissed about the Integra and Prelude.
It sounds a lot better with the Nissan nameplate, for sure
Agreed, I can’t think of anyone that does model naming worse. Skyline would be a huge improvement
i’m not gonna hate on it until i see it. but i sure hope it doesn’t weigh like 4500 lbs.
*monkey’s paw curls*
You ordered 5500 lbs, good sir?
yeah i don’t have a lot of confidence that this thing isn’t going to weigh like 3 miatas.
Cant they just deliver the damned car as a skyline. Why can’t nissan stop shooting their dicks with these sports cars. I don’t understand, on a basic, foundational level, how people have jobs at these companies still.
Sounds cool, be nice if they went back to the G badge as that’s still more fondly remembered than q
I hope Nissan survives long enough to bring this here. Then again, the G35/G37/Q50 never really came up on my shopping radar.
Make it an inline six you cowards.
The whole manual transmission circle-jerk is getting really old. Just gotta flap that hand on something.
Manual transmissions are an anathema in 2026 guys. Outside of racing, there is no longer a valid argument for them.
Cool
I don’t know how this missed out on Comment Of the Day. I love your response.
You’re on the wrong site. I think you were looking for cars-are-appliances.com, those are your people. They have an entire section on the latest tips for not paying attention to anything while your car drives you around.
In all seriousness, Manual transmissions are usually no longer the fastest option for racing. Computers and Machines are faster, and often more fuel efficient.
Manual Transmissions are for enthusiasts who prefer driving involvement. Many of us are here, so watch yourself.
100% this. It’s not a rational decision, and I don’t care. I enjoy driving stick and will do so for as long as I can.
They just need to go over to jalopnik
I like them. I want them.
Granted, I like them in lighter cars and I expect this infinity to weigh at least two tons.
I don’t mean to pile on here, but why not just skip these articles? The headline was basically a trigger warning for those upset by irrational enthusiasm over manual transmissions.
I personally like manuals, but it is fine if you don’t. I’m surprised anyone would be upset by having more powertrain choices, though, considering most manufacturers appear to be more interested in selling connected devices than driving machines.
“Outside of racing, there is no longer a valid argument for them.”
Heck, inside of racing there isn’t much argument for manual transmissions. But that misses the point of why everyday enthusiast drivers want them: experience, connection, directness of action. There are no real races to be won between me and the grocery store. Having a car that does what you tell it to do rather than being a potentially recalcitrant partner makes driving more enjoyable. For better or worse, it’s about being a driver rather than being along for the ride, about not having to guess the actions of a system that will probably do what you want… but might not. That’s why I gave up on a lifelong fascination with turbocharging. It’s gotten so, so much better, but there’s often still a disconnect between what your foot asks for and what the engine does. When milliseconds count, the boost can be seconds away. That’s part of why turbos and slushboxes pair so well.
Modern cars that one doesn’t have to shift through gears make driving faster, smoother, more efficient and yes, in some ways more direct… at least in the case of electric cars and their instant torque, if not their numb controls. EVs are a whole new breed of car that demands its own style of driving, not the laughable driving-sim antics of imaginary shift points and synthetic vroom-vroom noises. Instead of sharpening that connection with precise steering and intuitive controls, today’s cars of all types tend to dull the experience with game-ified fakery and clunky interfaces that were already bad UX in their implementation as static household electronics and totally out of place on the helm of a hurtling few tons of metal. This is why manual transmissions, together with buttons and dials, are seeing a comeback. People just want the thing to do what they tell it to do, when they ask it to do it. I don’t like depending on a computer to correctly intuit that I want a downshift – or how many – via my right foot. An accelerator can work as a gear selector, but it will never be a substitute for something that actually, physically does that job… at least not for drivers who want that to be a part of the way they drive.
TLDR: As long as cars have gearboxes, a significant proportion of engaged drivers will want direct control of them.
I can drive an automatic, but changing gears is so ingrained into my brain, I find it really hard to drive an auto, because I have to spend the entire time concentrating on keeping my left foot still.
Otherwise I keep stamping on the oversized brake pedal, because my brain thinks I need to change gear.
Also, manuals are cheaper; or at least they are in the cheap 2nd hand cars I can afford.
This is a very bad take.
Enjoy your slush box and self driving appliance……
I get it, and largely agree, but you can say the same thing about convertibles. Objectively worse — less rigidity, more complexity, more weight, less practical, less trunk space, more expensive, you name it. I have 2 of them, because they’re fun.
That’s it! They’re more fun.
This is the wrong way to look at it. Automatics now make cars faster. Most purpose built race cars are overwhelmingly automatic. Those that aren’t, are probably dictated by the class or are vintage.
The whole automatic transmission circle-jerk is getting really old. Driving automatics is just boring.
What is the point of clicking on an article you know doesn’t interest you, just to announce to everyone that it doesn’t interest you? What a waste of time. Are there any other hobbies that you want to announce are obsolete? Maybe people are wasting their time playing board games because they can just play an app on their phone? People should just give up sewing/knitting/crafting because you can just go to a store and buy what they want? Maybe drawing and painting are an anathema in 2026 because you can just ask AI to make you a picture?
On that note, I still buy physical music media (Vinyl and CDs.), which have actually been growing in sales in recent years, so us manual circle-jerk fans aren’t the only people that crave some control and ownership over the things in their life.
Being able to put the car in neutral whenever is nice, user determined shifts are nice, better engine braking is nice, etc.
I still prefer e-CVTs and BEVs to manuals, but still prefer manuals to automatics, CVTs, and DCTs
One of my only buddies in middle school who I could talk cars with, insisted that his older brother owned a “Skyline.” I didn’t believe him but he wouldn’t back down. This was well before even R32s were 25 years old.
Lo and behold, one day his brother picks him up from school. I couldn’t remember if it was a G35 or G37 but boy, was I disappointed. “It’s called a Skyline in Japan,” I remember him saying. Friendship over.
Just kidding. I think we just stopped hanging out after moving up to high school.
Nissan *dons flame suit*
I look forward to seeing one of these with slammed suspension and obnoxious V6 mooo exhaust in about 8 years from now.
I assume you’re somehow contractually obligated to remove your factory muffler on any VQ engined car over 10 years old?
With angled titanium mufflers as replacements.
I also believe these cars to be the most commonly de-catted modern cars. If I’m ever behind one with a modded exhaust I can easily smell the lack of cats.
Lol right-honestly that de-catting thing kinda pisses me off, driving behind a WRX bro the other day that clearly had removed the cat and it’s like hope the 5 hp was worth it dude so I can sit here losing brain cells behind you at a traffic light. And even ignoring the environmental arguments it makes working around your own car more pleasant, I’ve owned a couple old ’70s Blazers and those things stink, why give that up for some piddly barely noticeable performance gain, sometimes makes me wish WA would bring back emissions testing.
They aren’t doing it for the performance gain, they’re doing it because their misguided concept of masculinity says “environmental damage = manly and cool”
sadly probably true
From the looks of the cars these days, they probably sold their own cats for money.
makes working around your own car
moreless pleasantHighly cambered vapebros are licking their lips.
This has the potential to be cool and fun to drive. Nissan seems to be making some good decisions lately
Yes, hopefully not all vaporware. They can talk all they want, but can they execute?
The other car in the top shot looks like a C10-generation Skyline coupe, probably the original 2000 GT-R. Little musclecars, those.
Hakosukas!
Someday I’ll own a car with fender mirrors… *gazes off into distance*
https://www.walmart.com/ip/MG-Car-Stainless-Steel-Fender-Mirror/881346815
Every car is a car with fender mirrors if you own a big enough drill bit.
I owned one when I lived in Tokyo – a 1980 Prelude XE.
The mirrors, being manual, were never properly adjusted.
Honestly at this point why not fender mirrors? Basically all mirrors are electric nowadays, why not place them out of hands reach since your hands only need to hit the controls?
My coworker has a Q50 AWD, it seems like the most pedestrian thing ever. (pardon the mixed metaphor) Maybe its just that she’s a normal woman, not one of these kids with the Edgar haircut and fartcan exhaust on the car so when I see her in it, it just appears like a daily appliance, not a sporting car lol
Is it a 4 door? I think the Q50 was always a 4-door and the Q60 was the coup?
In any case, I feel like going back the sedan versions of the G35/37 were always relatively mundane and the coupes looked a LOT mor sporty. Not just the profile, but wider too and much more aggressive looking
You’re paying much more attention than I am to Infinity if you know the Qxx significance.
yeah its a 4 door. Out of curiosity I asked her about it after I made that comment above, Like when she bought it and whatnot. She seemed to know its a fast car. As she said she “likes it, it goes vroom vroom.” lol
The styling looks like it will be a big leap forward, which is unfortunate for us because Infiniti will ruin it with their unbelievably ugly design language.
I’m not sure I follow, the G35 was a pretty direct LHD version of the Skylline V35
The G36 was also a LHD version of the V36 etc..
Tried to link a bunch of pictures but it didn’t work out right, here’s my source from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Skyline
I didn’t know that! Color me excited!
If they keep the above styling then great. But Infinitis have looked like ass for decades, and the current ones aren’t any better.
Yeah my point is the existing G and Q vehicles have been copies of the various Skyline generations, so I don’t see why they’d diverge from that now.
I will have a second gen sport coupe please. It’s like a miniature Facel Vega, and I neeeeeeeeeed itttttt.
So not a 5000 pound electric Crossover with simulated sounds?
Don’t give them any ideas, or we’ll be getting the Skyline-Cross instead.
There is one! If you look at the Skyline Wikipedia page, they sold the “Skyline Crossover (DBA-J50, DBA-NJ50)” in Japan that was sold as the Infiniti QX50 in the US.
Worse yet, they somehow figured out how to add fake shift points to a manual transmission. The pedal and stick aren’t actually connected to anything. The AI decides…
This is cool and good
Lets just hope its not a trim level for a crossover SUV
Infiniti still needs to die. They would probably get more sales calling it is know a world over. If the hot boi can’t afford the skyline maybe they can sell him something else like an at a Nissian dealership like an Altima. What is the Infiniti dealer going to sell him, a used car, not beneficial to Nissian.
Not sarcasm. How many Infiniti customers are also manual transmission people?
Going for new (and in this case, underserved) market segments is actually smart.
But LOTS of G3Xs were sold in manual form.
Agree. I couldn’t guess the size of the market, but right now the main game in town between a Civic Si and a Blackwing/M car is the Type R/Type S and I suppose the WRX. That’s a pretty large price spread. If this can be in the $50-65K range, I think it’s pretty compelling for those who want more than an Si and either cross shop the Type R/S (or decide they want a bigger, more luxurious car and/or V6).
Well, there is also the Nissan Z there in the $42-65k range, though it is a 2-seater. A 2+2 or sedan with a manual in a similar price range would help differentiate it.
yup – i was focusing on sedans. something a middle-aged dad would like…a little more grown up than an Si but teenagers and their upcoming college tuitions make the Blackwing/M out of reach budget-wise. And yes I’m describing myself 🙂
I’m a middle-aged dad too, but the Z is near the top of the list for potential next car. My “family sedan” for the past 14 years has been an RX-8, I’ve got an old beater Expedition if I need to haul people/stuff.
The few that exist try to get others on board and it normally fails miserably they end up running back to Subaru or Mazda maybe Honda.
I don’t think they’re targeting the usual Infiniti customer with this, and it’s probably smart
More like, How many manual transmission people have been abandoned by their brands? Conquest sales are best sales.
Usually I find the “it’s has a MANUAL!!!!” pitch to be pretty cynical in 2026, particularly when brands like Porsche and Acura lock it behind a paywall. But to me this feels like a company getting back to their roots and filling a hole in the market/trying to branch out.
As a result I respect the hell out of it and will probably consider one down the line.
Anyone in 2026 who is still seeking a manual car, like me, knows the brand cachet around the Skyline name. While they aren’t going to sell 350,000 of them a year, they don’t have to if it builds the brand again.
Interesting cars are dying by a death of a thousand financial cuts.
Dozens of them!
And, if I remember correctly, 2 members of German parliament as well.
Dang, Nissan is actually making me root for them. I really hope they can actually stick the landing with their future products.
Ugh, I wish Nissan would just quit the Infiniti nonsense. Just bring it over as a Nissan. You may even sell a number of them as the Skyline. Bringing it over to dead-as-shit Infiniti dealers and calling it a Q-whatever is a great way to ensure nobody ever hears about it, much less buy it.
Well said.
I agree, but at least it will be the lone Infinity only vehicle in my recent knowledge.
As a way to help breathe life into Infiniti: they could bring it back as a “G” instead of “Q” as a way to attract more attention.
Forget Infinity. Go full Datsun.
They will always be Datsuns to me.
At least sell it as an option. I would much prefer my versa as a 210.
Fuck yeah.
+1
Nissan Maxima Skyline 4DSC.
Mic Drop.
they’re going to have to market the CRAP out of it. None of this Chevy SS BS. Nissan def trying to reinvent itself with xterra, that wild NISMO Armada thing and Z getting some upgrades
They’d have to market the crap out of it no matter what for sure. This just isn’t a car you’d expect to be really anywhere in the 2020’s, Nissan or Infiniti.
Currently my Infiniti dealer (there’s literally only one within… 150 miles of here? lol) has QX60s (badge jobbed Pathfinder) and QX80s (badge jobbed Armadas). That’s it. That’s the entire lot. No amount of marketing unfortunately is going to get people into that sad-as-hell showroom to see a sedan called the Q#. The poor thing would be dead faster than a Buick TourX.
Now bring it to Nissan dealers, which #1, actually exist, and #2, really need a shot in the arm from something exciting, and you can actually take advantage of the Halo effect. When this thing ends up inevitably being 45-60k, you might be able to get some butts into tarted-up Sentras or maybe even a Z instead. Maybe after a good experience with a Skyline, or even the settle purchase of a Sentra or whatever, that same family comes in to buy something like a Pathfinder.
The business case for a Skyline is to sprinkle fairy dust on the rest of the lineup, not to sell hundreds of thousands of sport sedans. The Skyline could easily do this for Nissan. It won’t do jack shit for Infiniti.
They need to pull up their pants and just call it an Infiniti Skyline if they’re dead set on keeping Infinity around.
Especially in this world of negative attention feeding the algo. People will crawl out of the woodwork to complain that it’s “nOt A rEaL SkYlInE” which will just get it in front of people who don’t care.
Hopefully this will not die the death of. I will buy one when they are used and nobody buys the new ones and it gets dropped.
Is the perfect two-car garage now going to be a stick shift Q50 and a hybrid Xterra? Ngl I’m liking what I’m hearing and seeing.
Man, I am feeling good and hungry, it must be Skyline time.
We’ll know it’s a worthy successor when it gets banned from car shows.
Technically, if they’re making a rule of of the “VQ” vehicles: that rule also eliminates the Frontier, Xterra, and Pathfinder.
But not the GTR, or 3.0 engined Q50/60 or current NissanZ as they’re all “VR” vehicles.