Why was Honda NSX not a great seller?

[entropy]

Discuss

[Vixpy1]

The main reason ultimately was that it had the wrong badge on the front, the interior felt fairly cheap too.

Fantastic cars though.

[PaulB81]

It was too expensive. People just thought, 'why would i pay that for a honda when i can have xx'

Cant see any other reason it was/is a great car

[Johnboy Mac]

Ignorance and as mentioned the badge, price didn't help either even if it was justified.

[Targarama]

Mainly the same reason the Lotus Evora won't be a great seller. Unfortunately. Of the total £60-£80k performance car market, what % are true enthusiasts who will sacrifice some comfort for thrill (or whatever).

[ge0rge]

Ugly?

[Johnboy Mac]

Targarama said:

Mainly the same reason the Lotus Evora won't be a great seller. Unfortunately. Of the total £60-£80k performance car market, what % are true enthusiasts who will sacrifice some comfort for thrill (or whatever).

911 owners will be out in force shortly!

[Zp]

Targarama said:

Mainly the same reason the Lotus Evora won't be a great seller. Unfortunately. Of the total £60-£80k performance car market, what % are true enthusiasts who will sacrifice a badge for thrill (or whatever).

EFA

(rather than me type out what I was going to say, which was pretty much what you said)

[Wayney]

The car was never marketed well?

911 goes GT racing and dominate the GT3 class at Lemans. The GTR made a big song and dance about being quicker then 911 turbo around the ring. Ferrari is ever present in F1, Audi dominate LeMans etc etc etc

Where was Honda's marketing, apart from the odd Lemans entry??

[Pesty]

As mentioned above.
Partly badge snobery partly what you could get instead.

its still going on over the GTR today wierd people calling them datsuns and saying they would never own a nissan.

I've always loved the NSX fantasic cars (should have bought one when I had the chance)

[Johnboy Mac]

Wayney said:

The car was never marketed well?

911 goes GT racing and dominate the GT3 class at Lemans. The GTR made a big song and dance about being quicker then 911 turbo around the ring. Ferrari is ever present in F1, Audi dominate LeMans etc etc etc

Where was Honda's marketing, apart from the odd Lemans entry??

A valid point. But wasn't that one of the nice things about the NSX being low key thus making it rather cool.

[Mastodon2]

Awesome car without the marketing or the cool image to help it shift. I love them, would have chosen one over most of it's contemporaries if I was buying something of that ilk back in the day.

[MX7]

Wayney said:

Where was Honda's marketing, apart from the odd Lemans entry??

Supplying engines to F1?

[robsco]

I'm not entirely sure it was a lack of marketing. I understand what people are saying, but surely having the development backing of a man of Senna's calibre was all the marketing Honda needed? Its more likely that it was just badge snobbery, IMO.

[B Huey]

It looked odd, was underpowered and overpriced.

Next question.

[dvance]

MX7 said:

Wayney said:

Where was Honda's marketing, apart from the odd Lemans entry??

Supplying engines to F1?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Racing_F1

[Alfanatic]

The car didn't get good reviews when new, in the press that I read. I don't know how much weight that carries in that sector of the market, but it did seem to reinforce the expected stereotypes that could be expected to be formed about Japan's first junior supercar, released in the late '80s.

Basically it kept losing tests, being described as lacking the drama, or sense of occasion that should accompany cars in its sector. In other words, the press saw it as a high performance Civic, instead of a reliable Ferrari.

The poor thing even lost a twin test to the widely unloved Ferrari 348!

So if you wanted a sportscar with lots of theatre, you bought a 348, or latterly a F355. If you wanted one with plenty of practicality, you bought the 911.

Funnily enough, it did seem to possibly have an influence on Ferrari, whose small sportscars since then have moved towards easier daily use, with better reliability, more comfort, lighter controls and so on. A modern NSX might fare much better today than the original did before.

[5lab]

19,000 odd built, which for such a niche car isn't too bad a figure. its approx double what the esprit sold, for example

[Johnboy Mac]

B Huey said:

It looked odd, was underpowered and overpriced.

Next question.

I'll translate.


The design gave great visability and made it as easy to drive as your mother's 1.2
The chassis was so brilliant it could have handled a lot more power
The price reflected it's overall quality and most couldn't see past the badge

[EDLT]

Alfanatic said:

Basically it kept losing tests, being described as lacking the drama, or sense of occasion that should accompany cars in its sector.

I hate it when they put out lines like that, to me it just sounds like they were looking for reasons for the other car to win(usually a Ferrari, and we know what they are like...).