The first Leopard (also known as Leopard TR-X) was introduced in September 1980 as a contender in the upper medium class of cars, including its primary Toyota contender, the Toyota Chaser. The angular body, available as a two-door hardtop coupé "personal luxury car", and a four-door hardtop sedan, which featured very slim C- and D-pillars and large glass surfaces. The coupé featured a "glass-to-glass" rear window sharing the very slim C- and D-pillars from the sedan. The angular appearance was shared with the Fairlady Z, but the coupé was exclusive to "Nissan Motor Store" locations, while the sedan was exclusive to "Nissan Bluebird Store" Japanese Nissan dealerships. The coupé replaced the Nissan Cedric/Gloria coupé and the Nissan Laurel coupé. The wind resistance coefficient of the two-door version is 0.37. At the time of introduction, the two body styles both carried the same price tags. The Leopard featured some industry firsts, for instance a fuel consumption gauge in the dashboard.