I'm tired of hearing this line, especially here. So I dug around a little and pulled up the US production numbers for some of the most popular cheap sports cars. Realize this is US sales only, no Canada, no Mexico, no Japan, no rest of the world, just good ole 'Merika. Do you see any trends?
Check it out:
Datsun Z
1970: 16,215
1971: 33,684
1972: 52,628
1973: 45,588
1974: 40,172 1974 2+2: 9,499
1975: 40,216 1975 2+2: 11,594
1976: 45,766 1976 2+2: 13,792
1977: 54,594
1978: 62,699
280ZX
1979: 86,007
1980: 53,687
1981: 73,177
1982: 63,855
1983: 55,011
300ZX
1984: 73,652
1985: 71,781
1986: 60,090
1987: 33,283
1988: 20,051
Mazda RX-7
1978: 19,299
1979: 54,853
1980: 43,731
1981: 43,418
1982: 48,889
1983: 52,514
1984: 55,696
1985: 53,810
1986: 56,243
1987: 38,345
1988: 27,814
1989: 16,249
1990: 9,743
1991: 6,986
1992: 6,006
1993: 5,062
Mazda Miata
1990: 51,658
1991: 34,610
1992: 24,847
1993: 22,350
1994: 22,705
1995: 20,790
1996: 17,984
1997: 17,381
1999: 36,450
2000: 18,121
2001: 16,165
2002: 15,956
2003: 10,547
2004: 9,629
2005: 7,760
2006: 17,730
2007: 15,075
2008: 10,977
Toyota MR2
1984: 1217
1985: 37674
1986: 31352
1987: 15742
1988: 8144
1989: 2537
1990: 17606
1991: 9505
1992: 3740
1993: 1742
1994: 625
1995: 93
Toyota MR-S
2000: 7233
2001: 6750
2002: 5109
2003: 3249
2004: 2800
2005: 780
Porsche 924
1978: 11638
1979: 9636 Turbo: 950
1980: 3700 Turbo: 3440
1981: 2155 Turbo: 1529
1982: 2277 Turbo: 876
Porsche 924S
1987: 6947
1988: 2190
Porsche 944
1983: 5506
1984: 16618
1985: 6167
1986: 10901 Turbo: 7513
1987: 8346 Turbo: 3221 S: 3127
1988: 3731 Turbo: 1972 S: 5562
1989: 5652 Turbo: 1385 S2: 970
1990: 0 Turbo: 144 S2: 2273
1991: 0 S2: 1072
Porsche Boxster
2003: 6432
2004: 3728
2005: 8327
2006: 4850 Cayman: 7313
2007: 3904 Cayman: 6249
2008: 2982 Cayman: 3513
2009: 1909 Cayman: 1966
2010: 2177 Cayman: 1322
Pontiac Fiero
1984: 136,840
1985: 76,371
1986: 83,974
1987: 46,581
1988: 26,243
Seems to me whenever an affordable sports car hit the market it sells like hotcakes. When it gets pricier the sales fall off dramatically. Still, there seems to have been quite the US market for a good 20-25 years.
Wonder what more modern cars sales numbers will look like? I hope the BRZ/FRS sell like gangbusters, too. I'd love to add them here. What else should I look at? The rest of the NC production? Toyota MR-2? Original 986 Porsche Boxster? Fiero? Corvette?
It definitely makes for interesting reading.