Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkSunrise
Yeah I wouldn't mind a turbo engine either, but NA would be my first choice for its simplicity and response. In any even the bigger hurdle is probably corporate Honda choking on the sales numbers they saw for the ND Miata, 370z, Twins, and especially their own S2000.
Agree, it wouldn't surprise me if an S2000 replacement never even reached the US. Just don't seem to have a market here for lightweight RWD sports cars sadly.
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Maybe the numbers would work if they tried to compete with Porsche, who is managing to sell 20k sports cars a year, which is around the same as the Miata and twins combined. Porsche also happens to have extremely fat profit margins on their cars.
What I have noticed in the Bay Area at least is that the people who do buy an FRS or BRZ have a tendency to pour thousands in upgrades into their cars. Only now that some of the high mileage cars are getting closer to the 10k mark rather than the 20k mark is it becoming an "accessible" and "cheap" sports car for the enthusiast lacking money. Another thing I noticed is that there are way way more Limited BRZs than Premium.
The way I see it, 25k must not be a good price point for a sports car these days. You either have enough money to stretch the budget to 30-40k, or you can't afford a new car in the first place.
Maybe if Honda tries to make a "budget Porsche", slotting it in where the S2000 was (not exactly a cheap sports car, but less money than a Corvette or Porsche), giving it a relatively premium feel and higher grade components, that would be a good seller. A 35k car would have more of that luxury cachet and performance, while still being in range of the people who buy twins, Miatas, WRXs, etc. Give it a slightly spiced up run of the mill 4 cylinder engine to save money, but give it some faux leather, nice looking buttons, bits of aluminum here and there for weight savings, etc. I can tolerate if they make it a soft top to help sales, I'll just throw the latches away and bolt a hard top on. I personally would have wanted a nicer interior for the twins, and a lot of enthusiasts I met felt like the car was too slow, so if you improve those two areas the demand might be better.