kumainu

Honda neglected to update the car along with the competitors. It sold "well" for such a limited-production car in its first few years. Had Honda continually updated the NSX, it wouldn't look or be anywhere close to the latest NSX, akin to a Ferrari 348 to 430.

sahtt

Chris you are all over the place. So now you use the lowest production specialty vehicle Elise to prove that no one likes 'real' performance cars. I have no idea what you are even arguing for at this point.

You say people don't buy using bang for the buck as a major consideration, then you say you aren't wrong because there are more corvettes sold than all the others, because most corvettes are automatics?!?

Chris Stack

No, I am saying people buy automatic Corvettes because they aren't buying the Corvette for the performance factor. If you buy one of the world's premier sports cars and saddle it with the automatic transmission, are you buying a performance machine, or an imagemobile?

sahtt

I see your correlation but it's ineffective. Even if no one "used the performance" (what does that even mean?) that doesn't mean they aren't buying the car because of the bang for the buck ratio. The handling and power is still identicle, I'm not even going to bother saying how many people now believe the performance of automatics are superior to manual transmissions (I'm not a fan of autos on a sports cars either, and the vette transmission isn't exactly F1 quality).

People often choose between sportbikes based on if one runs a quarter mile .1 faster than the other. They don't necessarily plan on putting slicks on it and racing it, but it's still an important factor in choosing which one they are going to buy.

Bang for the buck matters in the 50k sportscar market just like it does in 99.9% of markets.

Chris S

Nothing could be further from the truth. A Porsche was her dream car, but she never imagined she'd be able to own one. Fortunately, she married well, and she was very supportive when I started dreaming about buying one.

Chris S

So only .00001% (approx.) of Porsches are real? Nice car, but the engine is in the wrong location! (actually, I'd buy one if I could comfortably afford to so so w/o raiding my retirement funds)

Chris S

That's a HUGE assumption. Just look @ JD Power rankings for Nissan vs. Porsche over the last few years. So far, my CS has exhibited (old) Toyota-like reliability and quality. My friends who've bought 350Z's haven't said the same about their cars.

sahtt

If you are somehow saying the Porsche's long term ownership costs are going to be less than the albeit expensive Nissan's I think you are dreaming. However, Porsche has a come a long way and I think they are great vehicles. The older 911's have proven to be quite reliable especially drivetrain wise.

350z's might have some issues but they are usually either just annoying or they are covered under warranty. Long term costs should still be low.

Chris S

How did we suddenly switch from reliabilty to long term ownership costs? Normally, I'd agree w/ you, but I suspect the GT-R to have abnormally high operating costs:

- tires, 20" run flats
- brake pads
- much more frequent maint. intervals than Porsches (but each service s/b cheaper)
- worse reliability post-warranty: face it, Nissan just doesn't have the track record for building bulletproof sports cars that Porsche does
- gas: it's a heavy w/ awd and a lot of hp

I think it's too soon to tell, but I expect the GT-R's ownership costs to be very high relative to its MSRP.

PedalFaster

Not to mention all of the electronic do-dads, which I'm sure will catch the gremlins after a while...