If there are still people out there that are clinging to hope that Nissan->ke62 would eventually build an entry-level sports car->ke506 to serve as the automaker’s answer to the Mazda MX-5->ke1185 and the Toyota 86,->ke4085 better cut those strings now because the Japanese automaker has officially ruled it out due to economic reasons.

It’s disappointing news, but not one that comes as a shock. After all, Nissan has gone cold on the prospects of developing an compact sports car ever since Andy Palmer bolted for Aston Martin->ke13 in 2014. Without its champion campaigning for the production of these cars, it seemed inevitable that the whole plan would be scrapped entirely.

Recent comments made by Nissan’s senior vice president, and chief creative officer, Shiro Nakamura, doused whatever ember was left of that fire. Speaking to Auto Express, Nakamura explained that prospective development of the sports car has been shelved entirely because the company couldn’t afford building a new platform specifically for the car. Certain concessions could’ve been made had the projects pushed through, but the platform wasn’t one of them. To make things worse, Nakamura also admitted that Nissan’s platform strategy isn’t where it’s supposed to be, so in effect, there really are bigger concerns in play for the Japanese automaker other than determining the viability of an entry level sports car.

Now is it safe to hammer the nails into the coffin of an entry-level Nissan sports car? At this point, that seems to be the direction Nissan is going, but if the auto industry has taught us anything, it’s that those coffins don’t tend to remain shut permanently. Just don’t expect it to be reopened anytime soon.

Continue after the jump to read the full story.

Why it matters

I know it’s disappointing news, but the writing has been on the wall for quite some time so it’s really not that shocking anymore. If you’ve been following this story, it was clear from the start that the entry-level sports car really was Palmer’s baby. He championed it from the get-go and doubled down on it when he spearheaded the launch of the pair of retro-stylized IDx concepts at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show. ->ke1834

But, everything changed when he left for Aston Martin in 2014. The entry-level sports car lost its biggest supporter and any chance of the car being green-lit was thrown into disarray the moment Palmer exited Nissan. I get it though. I understand where Nissan is coming from because it doesn’t have the materials it needs to build a car while trying to keep the cost of doing so at an acceptable level. It might have been a different story if it had a new multi-model platform that it could use for the car. But it doesn’t, and it doesn’t plan on building a new platform for the specific purpose of using it on the sports car. That doesn’t make financial sense and Nissan is right for taking that business approach.

I just hope that this decision isn’t permanent. Maybe it will be revisited in the future. Who knows, really? What I do know is that it would’ve been awesome if Nissan had a sports car that could compete with the Mazda MX-5, the Toyota 86, and the returning Honda S2000.->ke1409 Can you imagine the kind of Japanese sports car war that would incite? It would be an all-out sports car war the likes of which we haven’t seen in a long time.

Let’s hope that at some point in the future, that scenario still plays out. It’s all up to Nissan now.

Nissan IDX Nismo

Read our review of the 2013 Nissan IDX Nismo here.