Has the FT86 changed the sports car industry?

[thill]

Cars are going to shed weight to improve gas mileage. Engines will most likely get smaller and lighter to also be more efficient and save gas mileage. CAFE regulations and the general public will force car companies to evolve or die.

I think all of this would have happened outside the FT86 platform, but I do think the FT86 really did catch the industry by surprise. For many years it has all been about horsepower and how fast a car can go 0-60. The FT86 flipped that on it's head and here is a car that focuses on the driver first and foremost, and having fun again. So in some ways I do think you will see other manufacturers take notice.

As for the Z, Nissan lowered the price because sales have been in the toilet. With increased pressure from Subaru/Toyota, Ford, Chevy, and even Hyundai, Nissan had to do something.

[gily25]

Interesting to bring up the 240z...if Nissan did a revival car I think it would create some serious competititon for buyers looking at an 86, similarly I think the S2000 had enough of a cult following to compete with a revival car.

I can't say the same if Mazda were to invent a coupe MX5/revive the RX line. Mitsubishi may have a shot if they were to try to bring a RWD coupe to market b/c they've stopped their Eclipse production but have a good following with EVO.

With respect to Mustang, Camaro, and Challenger, I feel like they have their following. I can't stop picturing the third gen fox body I4 and laughing when I think of a Mustang on a diet (a few kids in HS had them and I always won in my granny car LeBarron-- a sleeper I guess with its 3.0). Camaro and Challenger have always been big, slimming those would probably lose more buyers than gain out of our small market. Ford and Chevy are more likely to stick with the hot hatch market an keep adding performance versions of their current line.

I can't see them doing anything to the Gen coupe to take the "cheap" out of it, regardless of how many Hyundais are sold or the claims they make. They've reinvented their coupe so many times and meh it never goes anywhere.

[jblmr2]

Originally Posted by DarkSunrise

Yes Mazda sells the Miata, but never had the willingness to develop/market it as a fixed-roof coupe. Maybe now they will.

Mazda has traditional offered a coupe, RX 7/8. Scuttlebutt has it that the RX-9 will debut in 2017. If that is indeed in the hopper, it wouldn't appear that another performance oriented coupe based on the Miata would be likely.

[bcj]

Originally Posted by jblmr2

Like the 240Z did in 69, the twins have shown is that there is again a market for our type of car. Whether it will spur competitors or not only time will tell.

Yeah, that.

Plymouth and Dodge were working on the behemoth aero roadrunner and stuff for NASCAR.
Let's make it fatter and heavier so it sinks into the road. Grrr.

[fatoni]

posts like this just make me imagine that this forum is full of a bunch of sixteen year olds. the miata has always been around and pretty much any thing the frs has already done and has been doing it pretty consistently for the last 20 something years. was the rx8 or s2000 really that long ago?

[husker741]

Originally Posted by fatoni

posts like this just make me imagine that this forum is full of a bunch of sixteen year olds. the miata has always been around and pretty much any thing the frs has already done and has been doing it pretty consistently for the last 20 something years. was the rx8 or s2000 really that long ago?

So you don't think the 370z lowering its price has anything to do with competing directly with these cars? You must be a Miata fanboy. Did I hurt your feelings?

[Jertronic]

How much was the 370z price lowered?

[SkullWorks]

Originally Posted by husker741

So you don't think the 370z lowering its price has anything to do with competing directly with these cars? You must be a Miata fanboy. Did I hurt your feelings?

No he was pretty close to the point really.

Look how far back the 86 lineage goes. The miata has been here the whole time.

As far as Im concerned the RX-8 and S2k haven't been gone long enough to be missed. If you really wanted to drive an S2K they are still current and available in the used market, I think the automakers understand that you won't sell alot of the same tuner car year after year until the used market is lacking, and for the real simple rwd coupe's it was getting a little thin. Now other manufacturers need to jump in and get their share while people are hungry.

The S-Chassis from Nissan has been gone long enough to make a successful comeback perhaps....or maybe i'm just a Nissan fanboi


P.s...I may actually just be a Nissan fanboi

[husker741]

Originally Posted by SkullWorks

No he was pretty close to the point really.

Look how far back the 86 lineage goes. The miata has been here the whole time.

As far as Im concerned the RX-8 and S2k haven't been gone long enough to be missed. If you really wanted to drive an S2K they are still current and available in the used market, I think the automakers understand that you won't sell alot of the same tuner car year after year until the used market is lacking, and for the real simple rwd coupe's it was getting a little thin. Now other manufacturers need to jump in and get their share while people are hungry.

The S-Chassis from Nissan has been gone long enough to make a successful comeback perhaps....or maybe i'm just a Nissan fanboi


P.s...I may actually just be a Nissan fanboi

Aren't our cars the babies of 90's sports cars? MR2, MX-5, Supra, Z, RX-7. What I'm saying is that after all those 90's sports cars went away, there were only a few light, RWD, manual cars out there. Now that this car came out, I feel it revitalized this type of driver's car. Once automakers see that Toyota and Subaru have been successful with a car like this, they want back into it.

[fatoni]

Originally Posted by husker741

So you don't think the 370z lowering its price has anything to do with competing directly with these cars? You must be a Miata fanboy. Did I hurt your feelings?

so you dont think the fact that its thousands more than the gen coupe and even the mustang gt had anything to do with it? this car is just the car that saturated the market enough to get nissan to reconsider their pricing in the market. this car is revolutionary in the same way that the straw that broke the camels back is. it might be the latest influence but its not the most important regarding what nissan is doing with the z.

as far as i can tell, the z has sold as many cars the year the frs was on the market as it did the year before it came out. its also pretty much on target to almost get there again despite the cars age.

my feelings are fine. i just think your perspective is skewed by your favoritism.

[fatoni]

Originally Posted by husker741

Aren't our cars the babies of 90's sports cars? MR2, MX-5, Supra, Z, RX-7. What I'm saying is that after all those 90's sports cars went away, there were only a few light, RWD, manual cars out there. Now that this car came out, I feel it revitalized this type of driver's car. Once automakers see that Toyota and Subaru have been successful with a car like this, they want back into it.

the mr2 ended in 2007 right? the miata is still around, i guess the supra is sufficiently old but the rx was made up until 2012. i dont think we have been out of these sports cars long enough to say that the frs is reinventing the segment.

[strat61caster]

One car doesn't change the industry. If this car never got released we'd be seeing the exact same things happening from other auto manufacturers. You'll have to look 5+ years down the road to see if this had any impact at all.

Personally, this is not a course changer but rather a swan song, this is the last generation of petrol driven handling focused cars with a wiggly stick in the middle, hybrids and electrics will phase in the next generation leaving what we enjoy now as "outdated dinosaurs" in the age when 0-40 is done electrically and the turbo I3 takes you up to 60: in under 5 seconds. The 86 is the first of the last, the Mustang, Miata and others will be the finishing touch, and like I said, they'd be developing exactly the same if the 86 never existed.

[husker741]

Originally Posted by fatoni

my feelings are fine. i just think your perspective is skewed by your favoritism.

You obviously haven't seen my other threads about frustrations with my car.

[fatoni]

Originally Posted by husker741

You obviously haven't seen my other threads about frustrations with my car.

im sure i have but i think its possible to think a car is flawed but still put it on a pedestal.