Quote:
Originally Posted by WolfpackS2k
-marginally bigger brakes cost the manufacturer...close to nothing
-wheels 1-1.5" wider cost the manufacturer...close to nothing
-more performance based tires cost the manufacturer...not much
Beefing up the transmission and all related forced induction equipment costs money yes, but not much more in the long run. A Porsche Cayman S costs roughly $10k more than a base Cayman. And for that $10k you're getting considerably upgraded brakes, suspension, a larger engine, different transmission and a few other options. Porsche has ridiculous amounts of profit built into their pricing and yet you're telling me that Subaru can't pull off an upgrade for less than $10-15k...even more than what Porsche does?
You gotta be kidding me.
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If by long run you mean economy of scale, then maybe, but I'll take this conversation without the condescension, thank you.
Even if I'm wrong and it costs Subaru $5k to add all of this stuff (on their end), my original point is that a 300hp FR-S/BRZ will be much closer to 40K MSRP than anything else.
Why? For four reasons:
1. They can, because it would be very comparable (if not better) than a Cayman S at (still) 10k+ less.
2. It costs WAY more than you think to add a turbo (at this point in the development stage). Even if they add the DIT 2.0 from the Legacy GT, they still have to (again) make sure it passes emissions here, balance the car, strengthen/add parts (larger exhaust), provide a warranty, etc./in short you're paying for R/D time; at this point it would be an almost entirely different car.
3. It will most likely be an STI version.
3b. They wouldn't want to cannibalize other sales so they'd have to price the car at a premium.
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When I wrote this post last year I'll provide some context:
In the beginning here people were all, "Oh the FRS/BRZ is going to be in the low 20's! There's nothing here that will make the car close to 30k"
And obviously the car is selling for what it is now and people dropped like flies because they couldn't afford it. And very generally my point was that people think that more power is easily reliable and obtainable on the cheap, it isn't. The only way to "cheat" is to go aftermarket. And even then a Stage 1 kit + ECM + Tune + any extras (exhaust, wheels, tires, brakes) = 7k+. But we already covered this.
Over time the cost of things like development will go down, and the longer the BRZ is in development the cheaper adding more power will be, however when that time comes (if ever) the car Subaru comes out with will most likely be an STI version which will be 10k+.
So either way my ultimate point stands.
TL;DR
It's not cheap to add power, especially if it's reliable. And even if it's cheap for Subaru to do, they're still going to charge a premium for it.