The Nissan Skyline Is No Longer The Performance Sedan It Once Was

The Skyline nameplate plays an important role in Nissan’s history. It was launched decades ago in 1957, and was first known as the Prince Skyline, and filled the role of a luxury car meant for Japanese executives and salarymen. Interestingly, Nissan even sold the Prince Skyline in the States during its first generation, although, as you can imagine, it did not sell well. Since then, the Nissan Skyline sedan has not been sold in the US to date, apart from a limited number of second-generation Skylines being exported to Hawaii.

Nissan

Nissan Motor Corporation is a Japanese automaker founded in 1933 and the parent automaker of Infiniti and formerly Datsun. Nissan produces a wide variety of mass-market vehicles, including popular SUVs like the Rogue, sedans like the Sentra, and trucks like the Nissan Frontier, but is also responsible for iconic sports cars like the Nissan Z and GT-R. Since 1999, Nissan has been part of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance (the name changed when Mitsubishi joined in 2016).

In the mid-1980s, the Nissan Skyline really began to come into its own regarding performance. Then, with the introduction of the eighth generation in 1989, the Skyline gained its most iconic grade: the GT-R. While the GT-R is the most famous Skyline, the Skyline sedan itself was also quite the performance car from the mid-1980s on. These days, however, the Skyline sedan is quite a lot different, and some of its former high-octane glory has left the scene.

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The Nissan Skyline Sedan: Decades Of Shadow

Thirteenth-Gen Nissan Skyline Quick Facts

• Introduced in 2014
• Also known as the Infiniti Q50
• No longer directly related to the Nissan GT-R
• Has gone six years without any styling update

Much like a star athlete, age eventually creeps up and begins to rob the athleticism that once served them well. Such is the case with the newest-gen Nissan Skyline sedan. As we touched on a moment ago, the Nissan Skyline was quite a performance-oriented car even outside the GT-R variants, although the Skyline officially broke away from the GT-R name beginning in its eleventh generation. It received many of the same performance upgrades and, in some cases, even the same engines as the Skyline GT-R. Now, this is simply not the case.

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These days, the current-gen Nissan Skyline seems to be a half-forgotten-about model that’s still on Nissan’s offering list, unbeknownst to some members of the Nissan brand. Whether or not the Skyline is sticking around for model loyalists, or to continue its rich heritage, we can’t be sure. Today, it’s more luxury sedan than performance four-door. The thing is, though, you still get a reasonable amount of performance.

Over in the States, we know the Skyline sedan as the Infiniti Q50. As of 2024, the Q50 has been discontinued in the US due to poor sales and an unwillingness by Nissan’s top brass to give it an all-new face after ten years of the same generation and minimal facelifts. Typically, when automakers go that long without any sort of major updates to a model, it’s due to the nameplate getting close to its eventual death, because why sink millions of dollars into the development of a new model if you are planning to ax it anyway?

Here’s Why It Just Isn’t The Same Anymore

Back in the day, Nissan’s Skyline sedan had a large penchant for performance, beginning in the late 1960s with the introduction of the GT-R iteration. Back then, the GT-R came as both a coupe and a sedan, marking 1969 as the first year the Skyline sedan became sporty. While the GT-R namesake would never be attached to a sedan again following the 1973 model year, the Skyline sedan still managed to retain some semblance of performance with things like turbocharged engine options.

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Once the GT-R was brought back in 1989, the Skyline range as a whole was quite sporty, since the GT-R was directly based on it. This lasted until the introduction of the Skyline’s eleventh-generation was introduced in 2001, marking the point in time where the GT-R and the Skyline effectively split, and were no longer directly related. Since then, the Skyline has been relegated back to its original Prince Skyline days, where it’s more luxury car than performance sedan.

Thirteenth-Gen Nissan Skyline Specs

While, yes, the Nissan Skyline sedan isn’t nearly as performance-oriented as many of its predecessors, the light hasn’t completely gone out, at least when it comes to a couple of its powerplants. Nissan offers a total of two engines for the Skyline sedan. From 2014 to 1029, Nissan also offered a 2.0-liter Mercedes-Benz turbocharged inline-four-cylinder motor, but it was dropped due to low sales.

Below, we’ll take a look at the current Skyline’s engine specs:

*Specs courtesy of Nissan Japan

In total, Nissan offers the Skyline sedan with a total of five grades. At base level sits the Skyline GT, which takes advantage of the 300-horsepower version of the VR30DDTT 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6. Keen Nissan enthusiasts will note the VR30DDTT motor is also offered in the current-gen Nissan Z. Buyers who opt for the Skyline 400R will be granted the use of a 400-hp iteration of the 3.0-liter V6. A pair of hybrid options, a rear-wheel and all-wheel-drive version, both take advantage of a 3.5-liter naturally-aspirated hybrid V6.

Just a couple of years ago, Nissan unveiled their NISMO variation of the Skyline sedan. On top of its modern NISMO getup on its exterior, it also brought back the Nissan “GT” badge, something that was first seen attached to the 1964 Nissan Skyline. A tuned version of the VR30DDTT with 14 extra horsepower is supplied, along with a unique, three-selection driving mode. Production was limited to 1,000 units, with a more exclusive “NISMO Limited” being limited to only 100 units.

The Future Of The Skyline Sedan

While no official statements have been made by Nissan, there are whispers that a fourteenth-generation Skyline, along with a second-gen Nissan GT-R, are in the works. What’s more, both the new Skyline and GT-R are reported to be electric vehicles. For many, this supposed news is a disappointment, as yet more iconic nameplates will be given a battery pack and potentially transformed into something potentially much more boring than what it used to be. Just look at the Ford Capri EV. However, this reported new-gen Skyline will be a sedan. That is, if the rumors are to be believed.

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As for the electric Skyline, it’s also said to be aimed at the North American market. If this proves to be true, it will be the first time in roughly 65 years since the US has seen a new Skyline sedan for sale that wasn’t a badge-engineered car. Of course, with Nissan’s recent financial turmoil, they’ve been much more focused on producing cheap, moderately-profitable models to try and stabilize their checkbook. But, once some of the near-bankruptcy dust settles, we may see the Skyline return as a completely different type of automobile. We can only hope it will retain enough of its sporting heritage to make it worth purchasing.

Sources: Nissan, Motor1.com, Supercars.net.