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2020 4C sales verses the competition

8K views 97 replies 31 participants last post by  Raymond L 
#1 ·
Interesting chart showing sales in 2020 and how the competition faired. Which would you choose if the 4C wasn't available ?

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#5 ·
Looks about right. BTW here are C8 numbers.


GM produced 46,580 C8 Corvettes over the first two model years (MY20/21). That number was extremely supply limited obviously but it's already over 5X the number of 4Cs that exist globally (or ~20X the number of 4Cs in the US).
 
#6 ·
For what I purchased the 4C for and for what is available in the US, I'm not sure I would have picked up any of those options. I already have a F-Type and love it. If the 4C wasn't available, I likely would have bought another race car.

That being said, if I didn't have the Jaguar F-Type or the 4C, the Supra would be at the top of my list from that list.
 
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#12 ·
Hmm, not sure how meaningful that chart is, but it is entertaining... If I was looking at a 4C would a F-Type, Audi TT or Nissan 370Z really be in the running?

The Lotus 330 would be the closest thing to the 4C, so that would be my second choice...
Re the lotus, 330 is the number sold, not the hp, I think they do a 350, 410 or 430
 
#10 ·
New kid on the block sells well.
Discontinued car with limited production, not so good.
Film at eleven!

It's an interesting graphic.
Alpine looks terrible because it has just come off being the "new kid on the block".
Nissan 370Z is only a decade old model with replacement finally coming out, so not a huge shock there.
Kind of the same for the F-type and Audi TT. It's had a few mid model refreshes, but the car has become pretty stale, especially at its price point.
Porsche sales volumes always surprise me, but so does their ability to get MSRP or often massive premiums on subscriber cars.

4C is the best looking car on the chart, though!
 
#14 ·
Unfortunately, we don't have any of those versions here in the US. I believe the graphic is discussing 2020 "new" cars in which the Alpine and Exige would not be accessible for US folks.
 
#20 ·
Out of the listed cars, I would take the A110. I actually decided within 24 hours if I was getting the 4C or the A110.

My brain still thinks I should have gotten the Alpine. Way more usable, with a 7 speed gearbox and a proper interior, and way more luggage space. I would have gotten so much more use out of that than of the 4C, which mostly lies around and forces me to have at least a second car. My spec of choice was the Legende in Grey with comfort leather seats in brown. I could have had it new (and fully loaded) for the same price I got my 2018 4C for. I don't think it's even available any more in that spec right now, and they went up in price way faster than the 4C did. It would have been a better deal all-round.

If only the 4C wasn't that sexy.


EDIT: It's obviously my personal limit, based on the chart, but I will never understand someone who buys the current Supra. It's of bad taste.
 
#23 ·
It's obvious our friends overseas, across the pond, etc. etc like the Alpine. Not sure anyone in the US cares about it.
I was going to get the new Supra before I bought the 4C. Huge fan of the old Supras. But the BMW influences in the Supra just didn't get my juices flowing.
The Audi TTRS. Nah. Why not buy a used R8 V10 instead.
Boxsters/Caymans. Nah. Buy a used 911GT3.

Looking at that chart. Yeah. I'm biased, but damn. The 4C is the BEST looking car there.
 
#25 ·
The Porsche 718 kind of surprised me as a few years ago Porsche was actually thinking of dropping it as worldwide sales were closer to 3,000. Actually it still amazes me that so few sports cars are sold... period. The annual amounts posted above would be monthly sales 20 years ago. The world has definitely gone soft in the automotive scene. At least we still get it!
 
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#35 ·
The Alpine A110 & the Lotus Exige. But then they do not even have a carbon fiber tub. What is holding these lesser brands back? When will they join with Alfa and make the move into the 21st century? :unsure:
But, then again they may have better cupholders. I hope those cupholders are carbon fiber. If not, I am sure that they are working on it. :D
 
#36 ·
Just chiming in to point out the numbers themselves (my only alternatives on that list would have been the GT4 RS or the best sexposed shifter Lotus made) - in the US, Florida at least, minus alpine and audi tt (no one cares for these, and if they do, even if 1k bhp mod sees them trading eventually - sad, as plenty saw the rally potential the gen 1 had back in it's day), this list pretty much makes up 2/3rds of a local track day (of course lightened 911's, hacked miatas, 3" atw subarus, corvettes/camaros, and Hondas/BMW's on fart mode make up the rest). It isn't a mystery (real) sports cars are thinning out from status symbols/universal pleasures to a nerdy niche thing to have, but it does call to attention how little the car-crazy pandemic era saw in new sales, and now with shortages nearly everyone saw coming when China realized it didn't have to make everyone's everything anymore? Seems to me the real driver's favorite spot will now be the used car lots, given the new cars, no matter how good, will likely only be bought (and rationally afforded) by collectors and hustlers, which isn't doing wonders for a product's image anymore.

Syd Mead made some very interesting illustrations, two contrasting ones specifically: a high tech lockheed martin fighter jet factory with infinite vantage (like an amazon warehouse), and a chrome bullet (usually a Cadillac concept in black) on a pedestal with alien "action figures" pretty much ignoring the frame's central focus. Given the world will start to have to roll up it's sleeves to build it's own products lest we globalize under a sort of eRMB and crown a New World Emperor, the sheer scale of a these near future's giga-factories just won't have relevance for micro-market sports car product, maybe taken on by a few dudes with leftover Kuka arms and an autoclave in a rented warehouse, rafters lined with today's oxidizing lumps of ICE. What would the price have to be, then? As your favorite brand prints out perfect people movers (maybe subscription plans instead of car ownership) to recoup their trillion dollar bailout factories, how long do you think these 2020 models will last until fuel price and availability are the least of the issues? The "silver bullet" halo on a pedestal comes to mind: it won't be a showcase of the EV powertrain every subscribed mover has, but a 1969 Stradale in 10/10 condition. A memory, like walking through a museum.

Occurs to me when asking a book fanatic in the age of the internet: sure Michelangelo's diary and JK Rowling's manuscript are behind glass somewhere, but you're spoiled for choice for 99% of books at bargain prices given the challenges to preserve them for XXX years. I look forward when piles of these 2020 models (except, what, the concept and prototypes sitting somewhere? W/e) go for change, frankensteining a runner from several for a fraction of the likely cost of a couple of passionate dudes in a warehouse's "2035+" sports car. All the 911's/718's and F types and C8's to toss about nature-recovered B roads, sharing the surprise of occasional traffic with "the unplugged", just leave it where it runs out of gas and APP an autonomous ride back home.

Sales volume used to be a good thing, but it seems the simple rarity of the 4c will be it's saving ironic twist of fate, maybe becoming like a gutenberg bible - plentiful to be a quirky, accessible collectible, but rare and curvy enough to be conversational, since, no one will be left to remember or remotely care how the anyone felt about the crowd-pleasing 911, a car that will melt into all these other "old crap" items many of today's children will be eager to toss out (if they have any value at all) so the garage rooms can be converted for something useful. Don't forget: 300hp used to be eye watering 35 years ago, now it's the standard teenager's first car's wheel output with a descent insurance rate. That GT3 RS might give you the feelies now but it won't be long until that thrill is gone (and evolved or at least dead).
 
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