4 Reasons Sports Cars Are Now Irrelevant
 

4 Reasons Sports Cars Are Now Irrelevant - Business Insider

This article is nonsense.

The only reason anyone would buy a 40k Porsche SUV is because of the sports cars.

Sports car have been and always will be a niche market. It should come as no surprise that Porsche will eventually sell more mainstream vehicles than sports cars because they appeal to a much larger segment of buyers.

IMHO, I worry more that they are slowly but surely ruining the Porsche brand image by selling what are essentially re-badged VW's and Audi's.

Sports cars dead? People buying those 400+ HP Tesla Model S car might disagree.

p.s.
Haven't the Cayenne/Pana's already been outselling the Box/Coxster and Carrera?

p.s.s.
Porsche haven't been selling the type of sports cars that made them famous in the first place since (for the most part) the 964 was retired.
Nearly all Porsches since then are either too big, or are too mushy in the turns, or AWD makes them really understeery, or the steering feels more and more mainstream like, or they've become too easy to drive fast... just like a regular over-powered sedan or SUV.
If anything they are making their sports cars more like their regular cars. But to be fair, they aren't leaky with expensive engine rebuilds as a regualr part of the ownership experience. So you get some good and you get some not soo good.

Speak for North America and Europe (other than Italy and the UK). The market only started about ten years ago in Asia and Middle-East. Community of sport, luxury and supercars is growing by 'millions' every years here in China alone, and not likely to stop anytime soon. All imports. Not a single week goes by without seeing a trailler full of Lambo, Ferrari, Porsche 911, AMGs, A.M., you name it they are everywhere.

Petrol imported from Russia - Cheap Cheap!!!

Go Go Green ;) pffffff

Idiot Thinks Sports Cars Are Now Irrelevant Because Stupid

Well, this article is quite a counterargument.

China buys super cars and SUVs. They don't buy sports cars. They buy a tonne of Cayenne in China, barely any Boxsters and Caymans.

Personally, I think the article is mostly right, at least in sentiment. Sports cars are in long term decline. Core western markets are losing interest while emerging markets want luxury cars, SUVs and super cars. Not sports cars.

And when someone buys a Cayenne in China, it's not because the understand the tradition and history of Porsche sports cars.

Like I said, the market has just started and getting worst on the positive side for manufacturers of sport cars as well. Yes the Cayenne and Panmera are in every gardens and roads here. Still, the number of Pcars, Maseratti, AMGs, etc etc is growing by months. I share those roads believe me I can see it. Its that bad.

Ridiculous to a point where e.g. some use their 458 as DD (rush hour and all). The Supercars trend just started just a few years ago. Now to the sport cars....

Let me take a picture of the refurbed Pcar service center & dealer combined and their inventory/land size next time - that's worth seeing thinking of it. Makes anyone feel very small ;)

Viral

No, correct. It is a stereotype, a brand, and a proof of weath.

But that is changing also. You can see it by looking at the number of performance shops and Indy opening in every corners of the cities and provinces.

Influenced a lot by JP and the HK rich & famous, of course

PS: Showing a vintage car to a local has the same effect as if you would show them an OLD Naked Grand Mother. Picture that ;)

Dude read my mind... :p

"So what he's getting at here is that Porsche's small SUV is about to come out, and that's relevant because he claims it marks a big change where these SUVs will outsell Porsche's sportscars. Which I get would be big news, if it hasn't already been that way for a long-ass while"

Lies! I filled my SUV up for $2.999 last week, true story

I think the original article was mostly right, even if the author doesn't fully understand the issues.

Porsche was selling 20k Boxsters a year at one point, now it's selling less than 15k Boxsters and Caymans combined. The 911 is holding steady, but it's become a rather large GT / luxury coupe.

True sports cars are very rare. Pretty soon, all mainstream Porsche 'sports cars' will probably be PDK and turbo at which point I won't personally class them as sports cars.

In hope you're right, but I'm confident you're dead wrong.

I think the chances of the Chinese buying any proper sports cars are zero. They'll buy super cars and luxury coupes.

But something like a light-weight, manual, naturally-aspirated, rear-wheel drive sports car with decent control weights and feedback (or at least something with most of those things)? Not a chance, in my view.

Let me know when the Chinese start buying 100,000 GT86s a year. I won't hold my breath!

Nobody in China would be caught dead driving a Lotus Elise/Exige, Caterham Seven or Superformance Cobra and GT40...

Quite. And not many in the west want such cars, either. Sports cars are dying, sadly. There's no getting round it.

Let me put this into perspective...

That is a little regular Sunday afternoon track day here and of course a fraction (0.1%) of what's rolling on the streets during day time alone. That was 3 years ago. Figures today are 4x more attendance to track days, motorsports oriented events, and keep doubling every years according to our dedicated and local experts.

If you tell me there is no market potential for manufacturers in the sport & super cars then I'm at lost :/

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And no Ekam, no Elise nor Japanese EVOs here, nah. Thank god!

We have a lot of Shelby/GTs, Camaro (yellow?!), and Corvette tho

To say that Sports cars are Dying is frankly Laughable. I cannot believe some of you posted such. As long as there are young men, testosterone, girls to impress (so we think), technology / engineering and a business model to implement to make money off of said demo-graph, There will ALWAYS be sports cars.

^ there goes a better 'perspective' of things as they are and will be for a long-long time to come

Porsche doesn't break down it's China sales publicly, but it does say it sells more Cayenne in China than anywhere else.

Given that it sells more Cayenne overall than any other model by a MILE, you don't have to be terribly good at maths to work out that the vast majority of Porsche sold in China are Cayenne.

I see no evidence as yet for mass market demand for sports cars in China and a few busy track days doesn't change that!

It's all SUVs, luxury cars and super cars.

Except that stats show that year on year, every year, a smaller proportion of young men even bother to get their driver's licences much less buy sports cars! Especially young men living in urban areas who are the ones who actually have the money to buy sports cars.

What's more, surveys show that teenagers increasingly would choose a smartphone over a car.

Things have changed for the younger generation. Cars are no longer the symbol of freedom and mobility they used to be for us lot.

The fact is, the young urban types who are affluent enough to buy new cars are less and less interested in them with every passing year.

3800lb, flappy paddle, electric steering "sports" cars... yup.

Blame the hippie greenies, the cheap manufacturers' hybrids this & that, and this silly new generation which has no ambitions ;)

Experts' focus and main objectives are to promote motorsports across the region here, so far they are doing an excellent job!

Let's hope for the best outcomes

OP: ...Sports cars are now irrelevant

Even if they are, so what?

They will NEVER be irrelevant to "drivers" who appreciate a fine automobile capable of a providing a kinesthetic driving experience that tests the drivers skill and rewards him with an unforgettable experience. THAT will never change, and there will ALWAYS be a market for such cars, and when there is a market, there will always be suppliers.

Witness Singer.

TO

I'd say it's more to do with the reality of urban life and car use = grid lock. That plus rocketing fuel and insurance costs and the idiotic obsession with draconian speeding enforcement and the romance has disappeared from motoring for most.

Cars are now more like domestic appliances. The younger generation don't covet fancy microwaves or refrigerators. And increasingly they don't covet cars.

Now don't go saying that......They will put on their Butt Hurt Sad Face. Let the Apologizing Ensue...........

Sorry, what?! Singer have sold a tiny handful of cars!

Sure for the foreseeable future there will be independent shops building nice custom cars.

But you need massive volumes to make a full on production sports car add up and there's little evidence of demand.

As Ekam said above, you'll be able to buy some overweight, paddle-shifting, playstation gadget. But actual sports cars are on the way out.

It's not the 50's or 60's anymore. The days of the XK120, E-Type, MGA, MGB, Bugeye Sprite, TR3, Lotus Elan, etc. are gone. And that's not such a bad thing. But there still are desirable sports cars available to the public. Even now in North America, one can shop for Twin Turbo RX-7, S2000, MR2 Spyder, Z3, Boxster for reasonable prices that offer the "sports car" experience".

No argument here. The advanced technology incorporated in today's modern vehicles make up for a "drivers" shortcomings. But there's always a Caterham Lotus Seven if one desires the "real" experience.

Or maybe a TVR. ;)

TO

""At a time when gasoline bounces between $3 and $4 per gallon -- and will eventually go higher -- conspicuous fuel consumption just isn't cool.""

I love it how the author thinks he can predict the future price of a commodity, oil no less, with absolute certainty. If I could do that, I assure you that I would own every sports car ever made! :)

More to the point, the only thing that explains expensive gas, falling consumption of imported sports cars and the electric car programmes is the devalued dollar and zero interest rates. Once we get an interest rate again, the dollar will increase in value and it will no longer be profitable to leave tanker-loads of oil floating at sea just to bank the contango.