Lets Look at Sports Car Sales

"472CID" (472CID) 01/08/2015 at 12:26 • Filed to: Useless Data

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2014 is in the books so now is as good of time as any to take a look at auto sales. Not just any autos, the cool go fast ones. Goodcarbadcar.com is a nifty site that lets you browse through data, lets have a look at the more interesting bits. All sales are US market.(look at that jump for the Stingray!)

The decline of the sport coupe - You may remember the 1980s and 1990s were a time of great joy for sporty coupes. Celicas, Integras, and Eclipses roamed free and pony cars wars were healthy. Then something happened, perhaps the baby boomers decided that their young families needed minivans and suvs, and the sporty coupes all but disappeared.

Return of the muscle car - Like the other coupes of the day the Mustang was down in the early 00s, but not nearly as bad as GM's F body twins (Camaro and Firebird). The Camaro died and the Mustang was left on it's own. In 2005 Ford reinvented the Mustang which kicked off a retro wave so crazy it brought not only the Camaro back from the dead, but the Challenger too. *note: Camaro figures include Firebird and GTO*

To put the success of the muscle car resurgence in perspective

'Hairdressers Cars' - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and looking at numbers I'm inclined to agree

Exotic performance - Unfortunately sales for Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Aston Martin are pretty hard to come by. For models like the 458 and Gallardo we can assume there's roughly 500-1,000 annual sales in the US.

nermal > 472CID 01/08/2015 at 12:40

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I think a lot of that has to do with competition from *sport-y* version of *regular* cars.

Think GTI / WRX / Ford ST / BMW 2&3 series, etc. How many people cross-shop those with the cars on this list, in the $30-$50k price ranges? Those models have gotten so good that there's no need to look at a dedicated sports car.

Also, a few other things to read from the charts - The 370z and Miata are both old and crappy, and nobody wants them any more. It's no wonder the RX-8 and Eclipse were cancelled. The new Corvette is awesome. The Mustang got PWNed with the re-introduction of the Challenger and "Camero". Buyers in the > $75k price range are fickle.

I think I got everything in there...

VonBelmont > 472CID 01/08/2015 at 12:42

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Interesting how almost every category went to hell between 2010 and 2013. It'd be interesting to compare it to luxury, economy, practical, and family sales.

T5Killer > 472CID 01/08/2015 at 12:44

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How is there larger Camaro sales for '03 to '09 when there was zero new made? Rebates and discounts? Its interesting that the '02 model year was horrid for sales.

T5Killer > 472CID 01/08/2015 at 12:45

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Very interesting thanks for posting!

Justin Hughes > nermal 01/08/2015 at 12:50

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I'm curious if the Toyobaru ate into Miata and 370Z sales at all, partly explaining their decline. Your point that they've gotten old and soft is still true I think.

And what you said about sporty "normal" cars taking a cut. I narrowed my choices down to the BRZ and FiST, and if I needed any more practicality at all I would've chosen the FiST. I know others have cross shopped those two seemingly very different cars, too. Their performance is somewhat comparable.

472CID > nermal 01/08/2015 at 12:51

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You're probably right, a lot of people who would have bough coupes went for WRX, Evos, and GTIs. Still those cars average around 15k a year which is still pretty far from the coupe heydays.

It'll be interesting to see how much the redesigns of the Miata and Z will help their sales. The Mustang was in a free fall before the Challenger and Camaro came out, but that's possibly due to the anticipation of those cars.

472CID > T5Killer 01/08/2015 at 12:53

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I should've mentioned that I lumped Camaro, Firebird, and GTO sales together.

472CID > VonBelmont 01/08/2015 at 13:06

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In general everything slumped 2008-11. Most categories recovered from 2012 or so on, sporty cars in general didn't. Interestingly one type of car that didn't decline at all was small crossovers, they've done nothing but grown the last 10 years.

T5Killer > 472CID 01/08/2015 at 13:09

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All that makes sense. The GTO sales would have started in '03 for the 04 MY.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > 472CID 01/08/2015 at 16:36

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This is a crazy graph.

Great stuff - thanks for putting it all together!

472CID > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/08/2015 at 16:43

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It's fitting for such crazy cars

golfball > 472CID 01/09/2015 at 12:31

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It doesn't seem that the muscle car returned so much as the Mustang lost its market share as the competition returned.

golfball > nermal 01/09/2015 at 12:33

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I would tend to agree. It wasn't that long ago that the Germans made the only credible performance cars with 4 doors. Now, most major manufacturers have 4 door vehicles that can do 90% of what the sport coupes and sports cars can in the performance department.

Zach Roether > 472CID 01/10/2015 at 13:27

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The website is goodcarbadcar.net. ".net"