Quote:
Originally Posted by stephen wilson
Let's face it, people who want a stripped-down car are a miniscule part of potential new car buyers.
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This is true, SW, but that's how companies like Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lotus, and McLaren got started, and where they found their initial market. People who wanted a car that performed athletically, not necessarily intelligently, on the road. The intelligence came from the brain behind the wheel.
Again, federally mandated stuff is one thing, and it just has to be accepted. But I feel if the companies are looking to expand their market to everyone else who isn't looking for a sports car (what a Porsche almost always was) and is instead going to buy ridiculous things like Cayennes, Rapides, Panameras and Cignets, all with all sorts of glitz and technological bleeding edge crap, then they should still allow for a completely basic, no-frills version of their cars like 911s, Boxsters, Caymans, etc for the people who want their status symbol to also perform like a sports car. They'd be lighter, have less crap to break in them (switches, backlights, electronics, etc), and it should cost less, though the companies would probably figure out a way of charging you more for providing you with less of an office on wheels and more of a CAR, sadly.
To add to that, I wonder how much energy one could save (in terms of fuel burning) for not having to run a bunch of computers, sensors, and additional lights on the car other than the dash lights and exterior lights? Hello, fuel efficiency bump.
