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Originally Posted by Aki
Well, market viability
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Exactly! My $30k baby LF-A question was strictly hypothetical and definitely shows the upper limit of value at least on this forum. It would take massively convincing marketing to push a $30k value upon the FT86 at this point, when all along they've been touting the similarity with the affordable AE86 [as tranzformer rightly pointed out]
Here's the counterpoint: sports cars in general do not sell in big numbers in the USA. In order to gain market share, they must water down and market the appearance of sport-derived fun with perceived reliability and practicality for a larger [read: less hardcore]. You see very few Miatas, Corvettes, Caymans, and 370Zs driving around on snow tires in the winter. This isn't because they're poor performers in snow per se, it's that most people A) aren't hardcore enough to really want them to make it happen year-round, because B) they're brainwashed into thinking big SUV or AWD cars are the only ones that will even move in winter. This propagation of ignorance [at least in the USA] is a big reason sports cars remain perceived as inherently impractical, despite them rarely being less practical than most people actually need.
So, back to the question of price. There is only one other actual sports car on the market that starts at $23k, the Miata. Will Toyota be able to pull off a brand new car with more ratios, what's sounding like a custom Yamaha-tuned engine, probably larger wheels, and an interior from 2012 [not 2006 like the Miata] for the same price? I think it's safe to assume most of us want to say "YES!", but how do you think it'll actually happen? No convertible saves money, shared development and platform production with Subaru saves money. What about parts bin interior bits, suspension parts?