On the sales charts, mega-horsepower sports cars have become low-performance vehicles.
And several of the world’s best-known sports cars may be skidding into oblivion as buyers desert them for more practical vehicles, such as trucks, sport-utilities and sports sedans.
Higher prices have closed out many of the younger buyers who want to drive such vehicles. Besides, there are fewer young people in the market for a sports car. And insurance for high-performance cars is expensive, whether you’re young or old.
If sports cars continue to founder, manufacturers will have a hard time justifying new models because they won’t have a reasonable chance to sell them at a profit, said Thad Malesh, a senior auto consultant at J.D. Power and Associates, a marketing research firm in Agoura Hills, Calif.
Indeed that die may have been cast by Toyota, which has said it will not sell its MR2 in the U.S. after the 1995 model year.
Toyota, in announcing its decision to kill the snappy two-seat MR2, cited sales of just 290 this year and said those levels ruled out a replacement model.
The MR2 could be the first of many sports cars to get the black flag in the next couple of years.
Nissan may drop the 300ZX after the 1996 or ’97 model year. Sales peaked in 1979 at 86,007. Through July this year Nissan has sold or leased just 2,117 300ZXs.
By comparison, Nissan has sold about 95,000 Altimas this year. The 300ZX was redesigned in 1990, and no replacement is in the works.
Despite the addition of a removable roof and several mechanical improvements, the Acura NSX still isn’t selling well.
The NSX is built in a special factory that produces no other car line. As Honda broadens its lineup with trucks and mini-vans, it may need to make more efficient use of its factory.
And Subaru has redefined its strategy, at least in the U.S., by focusing the bulk of its production and advertising dollars on its line of all-wheel drive Impreza and Legacy sedans and wagons. An expensive, slow-selling sports car such as its SVX doesn’t mesh.
The Dodge Stealth also may be on the endangered list. Built in Japan by Mitsubishi, the Stealth is one of the few foreign-made cars still sold under a domestic nameplate.
New-car sales are down about 4.6 percent through the first seven months of 1995 from the 1994 period. But sales of sports cars are down even more.
A few examples:
– Ford Mustang, down about 21 percent.
– Chevrolet Camaro, down about 22 percent.
– Mitsubishi 3000GT, down about 33 percent.
– Pontiac Firebird, down about 10 percent.
– Mazda Miata, down about 7 percent.
– Chevrolet Corvette, down about 18 percent.
Malesh, who has just completed a lengthy study of the sports car market for his company, said J.D. Power is predicting demand will continue to shrink for at least the next five years.
Nissan officials think part of the decline of the sports car has to do with a change in buyer’s attitudes.
“Toward the end of the 1980s, the American sports car market showed overt signs of a downturn due to a shrinking buyer base and a cultural shift away from conspicuous consumption,” says Nissan in its official history of the Z car. “At the same time, growing families of the aging Baby Boomer generation led to strong consumer demand for multipurpose vehicles such as mini-vans and sport-utility vehicles.”
Mazda spokesman Fred Aikins believes the collapse in sales of the rotary engined RX-7 has more to do with price than anything else. Mazda’s lightweight turbocharged sports car, the only one on the market with a rotary engine, starts at $37,500. The original RX-7, which debuted in the late ’70s, cost about $8,000.
“The more you raise the price, the lower your sales will go,” said Aikins.
Even the $17,000 Miata roadster, a two-seater patterned after British sports cars such as the Austin-Healey Sprite and Triumph Spitfire, has been hurt by the rising prices. In July, Mazda introduced a special lease deal for the Miata, and sales rose 67 percent, Aikins said.
Higher prices also have affected domestic automakers.
To combat sluggish sales, Ford recently introduced the $16,910 Mustang GTS, a stripped down version of the Mustang GT. The GTS offers the same performance but not all the equipment of the GT. And its costs about $1,200 less.
Though the exchange rate between the Japanese yen and the dollar has stabilized in recent months, the value of an American dollar in Japan is less than half of what it was in the 1970s and ’80s. That means Japanese automakers have to charge more for their cars to make a profit.
“Manufacturers are always looking at what other manufacturers are doing. When someone puts more stuff in their car, we have to match this or beat it. Buyers have become accustomed to more and more features, but they wonder why cars cost more,” said Aikins of a trait shared by such cars at the RX-7, 300ZX and Toyota Supra.
No manufacturer has replaced its sports car with a new generation model that doesn’t raise the admission price, some of which can be attributed to added safety equipment, such as dual air bags, traction control and anti-lock brakes.
Even some of the most affordable sports cars aren’t selling well.
Despite fresh styling and a load of standard safety features, sales are sluggish for GM’s two highest volume sports cars, the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird. Both start at about $16,000 and come with dual air bags and anti-lock brakes standard.
When it comes to the sports car future, Hyundai may have a better idea.
Analysts say Hyundai took note of the fact that surging sales of sport-utilities and compact trucks are a major reason the sports car market is in decline.
There’s no room in many sports cars for surfboards, mountain bikes and camping equipment. And even if there were, many are low to the ground and couldn’t be driven off the road.
So Hyundai is building a vehicle that combines the best of sports cars and compact sport-utilities.
Its low-slung, 240-horsepower, all-wheel-drive, HCD III concept car has a sliding convertible roof, height-adjustable suspension, roof rack and foldaway rear seat.
Hyundai showed the HCD III this year at the Detroit and Chicago auto shows, where it attracted quite a bit of attention.
Hyundai officials say the car delivers the performance and comfort of a sporty passenger car with the off-road capabilities of a sport-utility.
“We did get potential customers calling to ask about the production capabilities or feasibility of the vehicle,” said Hyundai’s Bill Wolf. But there are no plans to produce it.
Sales of sports cars may be flat, but automakers haven’t given up.
Several cars on the way may breathe some new life into the market.
Porsche is preparing its low-slung $30,000 Boxster for a 1997 introduction, and BMW will roll out its $29,000 Z3 roadster early next year. For 1996, GM is adding a beefed up V-6 engine to its base Firebird and Camaro in hopes of increasing the performance without raising the price much.
At Chrysler, the Dodge division is preparing a hardtop version of the 10-cylinder Viper, and Plymouth is expected to produce the Prowler, a retro-styled two-seat hot rod. The Viper should roll in the 1997 model year, the Prowler about a year later.
Several British auto magazines have reported that the Rover Group will export a new MG and a higher performance Austin-Healey sports car to the U.S. within five years.
And Motor Trend says Chevrolet in 1998 will introduce a radically restyled and less complex Corvette-with a price around $30,000, about $6,000 less than the current model.
But these developments might not be enough to return sports cars to the fast lane.
“There probably won’t be a major turnaround. The demographics don’t support it,” said Thad Malesh, a senior consultant for J.D. Power.
“Because of their age, Generation X can’t spend at that level. New products will only go so far, and they will have an uphill battle. It’s the sports car’s turn to be out of favor.”
THE TALE OF THE NUMBERS
A comparison of sales figures for sports cars in the first six months of 1994 and the first six months of 1995 with the percent change, according to data from Automotive News. %%
Model Jan.-July 1994 Jan.-July 1995 Percent change
Acura NSX 368 411 +12
Chevrolet Camaro 76,985 60,101 -22
Chevrolet Corvette 13,879 11,329 -18
Dodge Stealth 4,748 2,752 -42
Dodge Viper 1,201 898 -25
Eagle Talon 15,449 13,553 -12
Ford Mustang 105,089 83,445 -21
Ford Probe 54,095 33,666 -38
Mazda Miata 17,430 16,195 .-7
Mazda RX-7 1,213 1,195 -1.5
Mazda MX-3 10,681 5,774 -46
Mitsubishi Eclipse 32,004 31,870 -0.4
Mitsubishi 3000GT 9,694 6,532 -33
Nissan 300ZX 4,215 2,117 -50
Pontiac Firebird 29,210 26,304 -10
Porsche 3,335 3,547 +06
Subaru SVX 827 1,194 +44
Toyota MR2 625 290 -53
Toyota Supra 2,222 1,356 -39 %%
