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One big glaring argument against all this hand-wringing:
If the GT86/FRS/BRZ are doing so poorly, why are Nissan and Kia (and possibly Chevy with the 130) offering production-ready concepts for precisely the same market?
As noted, the sports car market is a niche, so it would be foolish to expect 100,000+ units per year, and anecdotal evidence says there are more and more of these.
I'm seeing at least one or two FRS/BRZs per day in mid-town and downtown Toronto (not even talking about Markham, which has a higher Asian population), surprising given that RWD tends to be frowned upon here.
What this might be, however, is an indication that it would be unprofitable to go for niches of niches (i.e. the convertible niche of the sports coupe niche).
It might make sense to expand the line for the car guys with families (i.e. 4 door sedan a la Altezza/IS200).
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