Quote:
Originally Posted by trollface
I think sports cars are money makers, just not Japanese ones. Look how many Mustangs/Challengers/Chargers/Camaros/Corvettes the Americans move each year. They sold like 100k Mustangs last year. The FRS sold like 10k in it's best year since release.
American sports cars print money. Not sure when/why the shift happened, but here we are.
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There are profitable sports cars but those are from sports car manufacturers like Porsche and Ferrari. They're profitable because they're expensive for what they are and people will buy them because of the brand recognition. That's their business model. Win races, sell really expensive cars and sell a bunch of hats and T-shirts with their logo on them. Ferrari makes more money off merchandise than their cars.
Brand recognition is why the Mustang was saved from the culling of Fords passenger cars and they saved it to turn it into an SUV. Challengers, Chargers and Camaros are not sports cars, they just took existing platforms and put big motors in them. Change they styling a bit and you have a pony/muscle car. The Camaro's platform is the same one in pretty much every Cadillac sedan. Those MIGHT be profitable because the shared platform reduces R&D costs but FCA doesn't show profitability for individual cars. Rumour is, GM is scrapping the Camaro again. Probably don't want a second money losing car along with the Corvette.
The Corvette is interesting. It can be profitable but GM doesn't charge enough for it to be. More expensive versions would bring more profit but the volume isn't there. GM expects to lose money on every Corvette under $80k.
https://www.motor1.com/news/385310/g...lowing%20years.