Hmmm, interesting. The Miata is already an established player so probably doesn’t need as much of a push as the Toyobaru to make it stick.

Good point, but the BRZ does have a significant weight advantage. I think it could give the Ecoboost a run for its money in turbo format.

Interesting, and contrary to what I’ve read before. Is that combined FRS/BRZ sales or FRS alone?

You know I do too. I wonder how much of that is it being a bigger market, and how much of that is the GT-R hitting that market better...

Ah, were these used car sales? I can understand dealers liking them, but that’s not a manufacturer’s first interest.

True, but I really don’t see why they couldn’t hit both markets using a single platform. It’s not a question of ‘turbo or na’ but of ‘turbo and na, or just na’.

The only reason people were never going to buy this car is because the automakers specifically restricted themselves from making it appealing to people who would. The 30k price bracket is a crowded market, but there’s a reason for that. There’s more people who are willing to spend that amount of money on a faster…

Exactly, and the 135i is a significantly more expensive car. If you could have bought a turbo BRZ for around the price of a 135i (or even a little less), you may well have been tempted into buying one. Instead, Subaru/Toyota lost the sale.

If they didn’t want that money, why did they waste so much of it building a dedicated platform for a low-volume car restricted to a niche part of a niche market, give it it’s own dedicated powerplant and spend god knows how much marketing the thing before it even went on sale?

True, but the Toyobaru doesn't continue to sell well and I doubt they will continue to produce them beyond this generation. If they do, I will be pleasantly surprised, but based on their sales figures I'd deem it unlikely.

If they didn’t want that money, why did they waste so much of it building a dedicated platform for a low-volume car restricted to a niche part of a niche market, give it it’s own dedicated powerplant and spend god knows how much marketing the thing before it even went on sale?

True it’s fun to drive, but that’s not the image issue it has. The image issue it has is a lack of power, which a 5bhp bump will not address.

Yeah it does sound like they’re holding back to save more profitable models (I’m guessing a new Supra from Toyota).

Direct injection won’t help with that as it runs hotter than port injection anyway. Running hot is bad for warranties though so I can see why they don’t do that.

Very true, although the fact that they told us it was designed for compatability with other Subaru engines would mean that they should be able to drop the already turbocharged, already certified EJ into it.

Interesting, but something that could have (and should have if they wanted to get the most money from their investment) been sorted during the car’s development. I'm sure there are solutions to that as well, although that would increase the cost.

That is true, but I wouldn’t discount the fact that there are people who make decisions high up the chain of command who don’t have a good grip on things. Toyota is very successful, but it’s not very successful at selling sports cars (not recently anyway). Just because a corporation is successful, doesn’t mean that it…

Interesting, although that is comparing it to the last 4 years of the last generation of Miata. I’d like to see it stacked up against the new one.

The Mustang is too good now, but it was the last generation of Mustang that the BRZ was released alongside (which would pale in comparison).

I think you're right. I wonder if it's an issue with corporate culture in Japan. I've read numerous times that Japan is a culture which is very conservative, and values authority (as much as any culture can by typified as a whole).