Sportscars Continue as Recession-Recovery's Biggest Casualties

Sportscars Continue as Recession-Recovery's Biggest Casualties

From top to bottom, the sportscar segments have been hammered by the last two years' economic upheaval - and while most analysts consider the broad auto market to be gaining a slow but consistent strength, sportscar sales are not recovering.

Even Mazda Motor Corp.'s MX-5 Miata, the car many consider the bellwether of the sportscar market, can't regain its footing. Through October, Mazda had sold just 5,695 Miatas for the entire year, a number down 19 percent from its bleak 2009 number for the same period.

Mazda's RX-8, the industry's one and only remaining home for the unique rotary engine, is soon to be discontinued, and flying in the face of industry reports last week that Mazda is planning a successor are sales numbers that will suggest to Mazda's accountants a different course of action: in October, the company sold 93 RX-8s in the U.S. And for the first ten months of the year, 951 had been sold, a 50.2-percent plunge from 2009.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp.'s Eclipse has been a stalwart of the affordable sportscar scene, but the lineup's 3,868 sales through October reflect Mitsubishi's ongoing struggle to remain relevant in the U.S. market. Mitsubishi sold just 249 Eclipses in October and for the year, Eclipse coupe sales are down 32.5 percent and the Eclipse Spyder has plunged 45.8 percent.

Big-Dollar Sportscars Gather Dust, Too

Although it's well up the price chart from Mazda's famously affordable Miata, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.'s GT-R coupe - the domestic-market supercar enthusiasts virtually demanded the company offer in the U.S. market - has descended to little more than an asterisk on Nissan's sales report.

After a heavily-promoted buildup to sales that begin in the U.S. in June, 2008, all those potential buyers who clamored for the car to come to America (one AutoObserver reader called it "the most overhyped vehicle on the planet") have faded into the woodwork, probably leaving company planners and engineers to wonder why they bothered. Nissan sold 46 GT-Rs in October and is unlikely to move even 1,000 examples of the $84,060 coupe this year. Through October, GT-R sales totaled just 789, a 40.4-percent decline from the same period last year.

For perspective on the GT-R's creaky sales performance, Porsche Cars North America Inc. sold six times as many (4,752) of its 911, the car most directly competing with the GT-R, through October. And 911 sales already are off 20 percent compared with the same period in 2009.

Nissan's 370Z, another longstanding sportscar nameplate, is experiencing its own sales falloff this year compared with an already languid 2009. Demonstrating the crumbling fortunes of the sportscar market, the 370Z's 8,859 units sold through October makes it one of the segment's higher-volume players.

And the story of the decline of the market's seminal nameplate, General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet Corvette, continues as well. Chevy is barely moving 1,000 units a month of the iconic Corvette, with sales thru October totaling a feeble 10,809. Year-to-date Corvette sales are down 9.5 percent compared with 2009, which turned out to be the nameplate's worst sales year since 1961.

Rumor in Detroit is that GM is fast-tracking a heavy reengineering of the Corvette, a program that had been shelved as the company tumbled toward bankruptcy in 2008.

Ponycar Update

America's ponycars are fighting it out in a sales race that will have even the winner posting full-year sales disappointingly in arrears of typical volumes.

Chevrolet Camaro sales were faded 38 percent in October to 5,013, although year-to-date sales remain up a solid 51.4 percent at 71,521 units compared with last year, when the Camaro did not go on sale until March.

The Camaro's October swoon could be directly attributed to full availability of Ford's heavily revised 2011 Mustang, which moved 5,317 units in October and, at 64,171 sales for the first ten months, has at least pulled ahead of 2009's sales by 13.6 percent. With two months of sales remaining this year, the Mustang trails the Camaro by slightly more than 7,000 sales. Last year, the Mustang beat the Camaro (which was on sale for less 10 months) by fewer than 5,000 sales.

Dodge's Challenger sold 30,964 units through October, a 45-percent gain compared with the same period last year, meaning all of the domestic ponycars are bucking the strong downward trend the market's other sportscars are enduring.

Photos by the manufacturers

1. 2012 Nissan GT-R goes on sale in the first quarter next year
2. Mitsubishi Eclipse sales down to 249 in October
3. Can the revised 2011 version help Ford's Mustang keep the ponycar sales crown?

Bill Visnic:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter