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Originally Posted by Joshua312
Some of the newer cars on the market meant for 20-25 year olds are priced out of this world, it's no wonder the sales are slouching for car companies. But I still hold onto my previous post...If I had it big one day I would like one  |
Absolutely right. It's quite ironic that the younger crowd prefers sports cars and car companies market these sports cars to them, yet the same companies are pricing them out of range of reasonable ownership to people who typically have limited incomes at younger ages. The sweet spot from a sales volume standpoint is between $20-30K for a majority of the population in the US, which is why the Z has done reasonably well and the Mustang continues to sell. BMW and Benz just released their Sept sales reports, and if you look at their volume leaders, it's always the lower end cars (3 series 325 models, C-class). Year to date for 2006, BMW sold something like 1,400 M3s IIRC. Does Toyota believe their car is better than the M3? I should hope not, meaning sales should be below that of the M3 or other comparable premium marques. Not enough to justify long term production IMO for the Supra. Instead, they'll drop the car after a brief reintroduction, and retool those factories for high volume SUV production, the bread and butter profit winners anyway. Toyota better seriously rethink their strategy and target market for their supercar, or it's on its way out before it ever gets here.
If I had $50k+ laying around to drop on a sports car, the Supra would be near the bottom of that list, not because it's just a Toyota or a poor performer, but because you can buy better performance and a more prestgious ride for the same amount elsewhere.
Even the base model Supra (at $40K), with 350 hp?! I mean, come on, you can get a brand new $27K Stang or 350Z, quickly mod it and arrive at 350hp and pocket the cash. Is 50 hp worth the $10K+ price differential between the base Supra and a Z? Not to me.
My $0.02....