Sportscar value for money

[otolith]

I've thought for a while that it is interesting how people perceive the value of sports cars. Whenever some new, low volume car appears on the market, it seems that people expect to get it for peanuts, yet are quite happy to pay through the nose for a mass market car with a big engine (especially if it wears a German badge). It's also odd to see what people expect for their money - when Lotus released an Elise with an off the shelf small capacity Toyota four cylinder engine, some people seemed to expect it to be a third cheaper than the sister model with another, slightly different and more powerful, off the shelf small capacity Toyota four cylinder engine - if Lotus were running that kind of margin, I think they'd be in different financial shape...

At the moment, on one thread people are complaining that the £50k 850kg Alfa Romeo 4C will only have four cylinders, while on another thread someone else is complaining that the £55k 1080kg V6 Exige doesn't have a plush enough interior. Now, I understand that for that sort of budget you could have a Porsche Cayman with six cylinders and a luxurious interior, but relative to these lightweights it's a porker in more ways than one. It's a lovely car, but it isn't the only possible answer to "what kind of sportscar could someone want to spend 50k on" - "it costs 50k" does not, to me, necessarily imply that it has to be a particular kind of car.

Is this a failure of imagination, small-c conservatism, what?