Fair point, though cars have all gotten a little heavier in the past 15 years, and sub 3000 pounds for a fun car is still pretty rare.

If it’s going to be an EV, just leave it dead.

You’d have to be insane to launch a new attainable sports car right now. I know I’ll be flamed to death but that segment is dying a slow, agonizing death.

I can’t, in good conscience, believe that Jeep really thought they would be grabbing any appreciable market share of the F-150, RAM, Silverado, etc. crowd.

Selling 5,000 base model units to Avis is absolutely low margin. They pay far less than retail pricing based on the volume.

Replacing all cars with trucks is a dumb idea. What do we do once everybody is driving trucks?

In a word, CAFE.

Fleet sales are notoriously low margin. It helps to generate top line revenue and does impact the amortization of R&D but overall a fleet vehicle has a much smaller impact on profitability than a consumer purchase.

Most of those cars are being proped up by fleet sales. If you removed rentals the Fusion, Elantra, Sentra and Altima numbers would be terrible.

Odd comparison, but good point.

To be fair, if the jeep wasn’t so damn expensive (it starts 7k more than a taco), had a normal bed length, and could come with less than 4 doors, they’d have more sales. Sure that’s the standard way people would purchase it, but they also made it so you can’t buy it in any other configuration.

Sales numbers are only part of the story. If those cars required heavy incentives to be moved, there could be a net loss and that would be as good as not having any such cars to sell in the first place.

The Bronco is at Supra-level of anticipation for the everyman

The market has moved on, friends. Consumers in developed countries want their vehicles in an SUV/CUV form factor, period.

It shouldn’t be that hard to make a fun EV....

No manufacturer will produce a manual electric, as it makes rather little sense.

In 2020 you buy a manual because it is more fun and more engaging than an automatic. Those are subjective reasons most people don’t care about.

I thought it was well established that modern autos are faster though, which is kind of the point of a sports car?

I think if you look at the actual sales numbers for sports cars, manuals are still chosen significantly less than the auto’s.

Just sayin’