Why Scion FR-S Sales Have Plunged

[Atticus808]

Originally Posted by Celadrielas

GRATZ On the wedding! I am getting married 10/29, myself.

thanks!

destination wedding in Hawaii, so i don't have to invite lots of people and have a huge wedding. which means more money for car!

[UtahSleeper]

Originally Posted by beatgenie

The average OTD price here in Orlando (around Fall, last year when I was car shopping) was 29-30k. I'm pretty sure it varies depending on your location but I was speaking on behalf of the people in my area. That's a little high for MAJORITY of their target crowd. In fact, when I was purchasing the car, my salesman told me that more than half of the people I see driving TC's around originally walked into the dealer for an FR-S but drove off in a TC because of the price point.

The demand for the FR-S is there, but people just can't afford it.

Just to clarify, I'm not complaining about the price. I love the car and I feel as though it's worth every penny.

True, I always forget location lol. Utah isn't the high market area for these cars.

[Tromatic]

I don't know why this is so hard to understand.

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by UtahSleeper

Well, buying first release, you expect to pay big, just like with computer hardware and most tech things. Founders fees lol.

If you are like some of us, we waited. Plus, I don't count dealer fee's and such, cause those are on any car. I got my car for 22k, used with 684 miles. I got the price point I thought the car should have been at.

I cannot fathom how you 'don't count' the money out of your pocket to purchase the car, I wish I could live in a land where sales tax was irrelevant to my budget. Aside from that I managed to avoid all dealers fees and pick up a $500 incentive, a base car 2 years ago was about $28.3k out the door at MSRP in California (give or take a couple bucks based on region).

Agreed though, we would have seen a lot more praise and higher volumes if this car could be had out the door for $25k in this country, I would gamble we would also be seeing less of a decline right now. Not sure how they would have done it without significant sacrifices though.

[NWFRS]

Seems to me they've done everything right.

They've got a light rear-drive coupe for all the MX-5 enthusiasts.

They've got a neat-looking front-drive coupe for all the Civic enthusiasts.

We just have no patience because we're on this forum everyday. Jeeez, the car's only been on sale for three years...

[Davf24]

Heres my 2cents.

Coming from a Jeep Wrangler I can tell you that 90% of people are looking for a comfortable ride, look at the Jeep JK (2007 and up) this thing is like smooth in the woods and rides even better on the road, even after it is lifted. My 02 wrangler was rough and bouncy on the street/woods.

Look, if your looking for fun, fast and affordable then go the FR-S/BRZ and for anyone that buys one will understand what they want. I traded 03 tacoma, 6" lift, supercharged, 35" tires and clean for this car and have no regrets (ok the snow sucks but the right tires help) but it is a force to be reckoned with in the rain and dry roads.

Most of all, we all bought something that some day may be worth 5 times what we paid....and I and 100% satisfied.

Davf24

[Mr.Impreza]

I honestly don't see them making this car much longer considering if you look at the used market, there is so many 2013 for sale currently....most will buy used i assume if they still want one and not many would buy brand new.

[Celadrielas]

Originally Posted by Atticus808

thanks!

destination wedding in Hawaii, so i don't have to invite lots of people and have a huge wedding. which means more money for car!

We're staying local to here in AZ. But, because we're having a Halloween theme wedding (our favorite holiday), we've opted to keep things cheaper on cost for the incidentals for a wedding and her parents are paying for us to have our wedding in a castle (Theashleycastle.com). They've agreed to let us use fog machines and such to smoke up the place and make it look creepy as sin.

what we would have spent on a "normal" venue is being spent on allowing us to have a creepy theme to enjoy our favorite holiday.

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by Davf24

Most of all, we all bought something that some day may be worth 5 times what we paid....and I and 100% satisfied.

Davf24

I would love to see an example of a vehicle that had over 100,000 units made that is worth more than 2x what it cost brand new when accounting for inflation.

[Mr.Impreza]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

I would love to see an example of a vehicle that had over 100,000 units made that is worth more than 2x what it cost brand new when accounting for inflation.

Well you never know...with the trend of hybrids and no manual gear boxes cars like this could become little gems.

The thing is it always depends on the value of who is buying.

Someone like me...if i won the lottery...i wouldn't run out to lamborghini....i would run out and try to find mint RX-7's, Supra, Silvia's etc haha

[Davf24]

Originally Posted by Mr.Impreza

I honestly don't see them making this car much longer considering if you look at the used market, there is so many 2013 for sale currently....most will buy used i assume if they still want one and not many would buy brand new.

Agreed. (mine sat in the dealer for 2 years, 35 miles on it when I bought it last week)

Davf24

[torqdork]

I've said this before, but the twins were welfare for Fuji Heavy Industries who were on the ropes financially going back to when Toyota bought in to the Indiana plant to produce Camry. Nothing new, they have a legacy list of changing owners.

It worked, Subaru got some breathing room and debt relief to invest in future product while keeping JDM production going and Toyota supported a B-list player to avoid heat from the Japanese government record of forcing auto industry consolidation to bail out the weak players. Toyota got a halo car that will provide a ready market for FT-1 sales.

Subie is doing so well that they'll be resuming Indiana production and Toyota will move Camry production back to Kentucky next year. That's when we'll know whether the sales plan will be modified to proceed with a 2nd Gen or continue on with special editions and phase out like MR2 Spyder.

[DantKR]

Huh, I had no idea that Fuji had been doing bad. They're doing so well here in the states it's not even funny over the past few years.

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by Mr.Impreza

Well you never know...with the trend of hybrids and no manual gear boxes cars like this could become little gems.

The thing is it always depends on the value of who is buying.

Someone like me...if i won the lottery...i wouldn't run out to lamborghini....i would run out and try to find mint RX-7's, Supra, Silvia's etc haha

But here's the thing, Corvettes and 911's, the top dollar cars are going for for mid 6 figures now, lets be optimistic, $150k today, $6k new for both. $6k inflation adjusted today is ~$45k, at best you're doing about 3x your initial investment minus all the costs of keeping it in good condition and realistically average cars are much closer to the $50k-$60k mark, that's a loss if you kept it on the road the whole time even as a low mileage weekend car.

And that's after 50 fucking years of waiting on cars that were top dollar then. The equivalent of the FRS is an MGB or TR6 or GT6, respectively $10k, $14k, and $10k average values today.

The only way to make money on cars is to buy when they are rock bottom, a guy who picks this thing up for the equivalent of $5k today but in about 10 years and can keep it going and alive for another 30 years after that may be golden, like the guys who picked up long hood 911's for a couple hundred bucks in the 70's and early 80's. We are not those guys today.

Edit: Agreed on the lottery winnings, cars that are legitimately fun to drive and own and beat the hell out of, I don't think I could spend more than $50k on a car today with the exception of a new Porsche but I would be under no delusions that they would be a hobby and not an investment.

Edit: Oh you probably meant the last generations of those cars that all got built into F&F Dyno Queens...