RX-7 and corvettes.

[Wayne Non-DSM]

All right i've been having a recurring argument with a friend of mine constantly.


He claims the reason the Mazda stopped putting out an american RX-7 in 1995 was that Chevrolet paid them Billions of dollars to do it since the RX-7 outperformed the vette


I tried counter arguing that it was low sales that they stopped importing the RX-7.

can anyone give me a website that would end this arguement one way or another. (he refuses to tell me where his sources are.)

 

[NosLaser]

You are correct, your friend is an idiot. He won't give you his sources because they are located in his ass. I guess they also paid off Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Toyota too huh? The RX-7 disappeared right around the same time as the 300ZX TT, 3000GT VR4 (which actually lasted a bit longer) and the Toyota Supra TT.

Regards,

 

[KRAZYKOREAN]

Some people don't know but the Dodge Viper was originally a Mistubishi production car...meaning it was going to have a mitsu name...

 

[90LaserTurbo89k]

RX-7 = 1995
300ZX = 1996
Supra = 1998
3000GT = 1999
Corvette = shitty things never die!!!!!

:laugh:

 

[Johnny Bravo]

The reason Mazda stopped importing the FD into the US was due to dwindling sales and the rising prices of the cars (due to a poor dollar/yen exchange rate at the time). The 3rd gen RX-7 falls in a very specific and small niche market which at the time was getting smaller and smaller. The same thing happened to Nissan when they stopped importing the Z32 300ZX the following year, Toyota & the MKIV Supra in '98, and Mitsubishi and the 3000GT in '99. The new car market in the US just didn't have enough demand for such specialized cars as the RX-7. Chevy had absolutely nothing to do with this happening...especially since Ford owns a controlling portion of Mazda and they sure as hell wouldn't let Chevy do such a thing. Tell your buddy to double check his sources next time.

Oh, and you can also check over on www.rx7club.com HUGE forum with about 30,000 members I think (I don't go there too much anymore since I don't have my RX-7 any longer).

 

[jpolizo]

Don't forget that even the turbo eclipse disappeared in 2000. Mitsubishi said that they estimated only 5% of the cars sold would be turbocharged and that was too small a market to continue. I suppose the US consumer just got too into SUVs or somesuch.

 

[Enraged78]

Originally posted by Johnny Bravo
Chevy had absolutely nothing to do with this happening...especially since Ford owns a controlling portion of Mazda and they sure as hell wouldn't let Chevy do such a thing. Tell your buddy to double check his sources next time.

True, but Ford didn't acquire Mazda until 1999. When Mazda came back on the rebound, Ford prevented the RX-8 from being released sooner than it was. I believe the quote was " Ford brass reportedly told Mazda engineers that rotaries and rear-wheel drive sports cars don't make sense in today's marketplace". I find that quote amusing as hell, especially from a company that thought that the Excursion made sense in ANY marketplace.

Matt.

 

[nutshot]

Excursion? Name one Ford car that leads its class in resale, longevity, consumer confidence, low recalls, LBS/HP and fun to drive. I have yet to see an American car that can justify it's cost compared to an import in the same or often lower class. RX-7's did not sell, but neither did Galant's, SVX's, 323 GTX's or Capri's; and each of the previous can hand a Vette it's own ass in the same model year...

 

[BD1]

Originally posted by nutshot
Excursion? Name one Ford car that leads its class in resale, longevity, consumer confidence, low recalls, LBS/HP and fun to drive. I have yet to see an American car that can justify it's cost compared to an import in the same or often lower class. RX-7's did not sell, but neither did Galant's, SVX's, 323 GTX's or Capri's; and each of the previous can hand a Vette it's own ass in the same model year...

F150


...yea I still post here

 

[nutshot]

F150's are cars? I always tried to make the distinction between trucks and cars a wee more exagerated...

 

[BD1]

Originally posted by nutshot
F150's are cars? I always tried to make the distinction between trucks and cars a wee more exagerated...

Ok, fine..Taurus. Just admit that you were wrong. You said Excursion, so I assumed it was autos in general, no need to get technical.

 

[nutshot]

The taurus leads it's class in what? Not to be a jerk, but the 1st gen taurus has quite possibly the weakest drivetrain in the latter half of the 80's, and the next 2 generations were plagued by both recalls and low customer satisfaction, not to mention resale equalled only by Hyundai. Why should I admit that I am wrong?

 

[EvolvingGST]

hahaha it has to do with the mid 90s... minivans and sedans took over the lines... thats why stuff started disappearing here... Now sports cars are coming back, thats why the Sti and 350z and rx8 and supras and Evo oh my^^;; well hopefully they will make a come back.

 

[MyEclipse5]

i like cars

 

[BQuicksilver]

Nutshot is a little confused, there are plenty of domestics that do very well in their segments. Drop the imports are always superior rhetoric.

Back to the topic:
You're right, GM didn't pay off Mazda. Heck, of the C4's major competition (3000gt, Supra, RX-7, 300zx) the 3000gt was the only one to put a dent in Corvette sales. At one point (95?) it outsold the C4, but those numbers included the slower NA versions of all these cars (obviously RX-7 didn't have a weak version), and since GM was unwilling to make a slower vette it's kinda skewed to make such a comparison.

Another reason the RX-7 died is because there wasn't a wimpy version of it, which is what helped the other 3 survive. The car was very small, tough to work on, unreliable, costly, and uncompromising. Damn cool car, but that's not a formula to make money.

As someone mentioned, the Yen was a poor trade with the doller, thus making the imports VERY pricey, thus hurting RX-7 sales.

Yet another reason the RX-7 died is that OBD2 was required in (96 or 97..i forget), but that would require MAJOR chages in an already unprofitable car.

Guys, any way you cut it the Corvette has always been the top dog in the high-end mass produced sports car segment. It was from 1953 though the early 90's, when the imports saw that GM was nearly bankrupt and couldn't upgrade the C4 by 1993 as GM planned...so they all decided to take a stab at GM's aging C4...and it worked pretty well until GM recovered and came forward with the C5, thus ending the import's profitability and performance advantage here.

Which is the last reason the RX-7 died. They knew a 100% new Corvette would dominate the market segment. The other imports soon followed suit for the same reasons.

Take these reasons to your friend.

 

[Wayne Non-DSM]

Thanks for all your help.


whether or not he'll admit he's wrong is a diff story


(same kid that swore up and down that Ferrari Testarosa's only came in Red, till i showed him in person a white one for sale at a car lot)

he still didn't even admit he was wrong.

 

[Misundaztood]

I had this guy come into 7-11 the other day & somehow we got to talking about cars(probably because he asked about my Eclipse out front). Well, he claimed they were putting a new Dodge Ram into production that's going to have the Viper's V10 & run 10s right off the showroom floor. I just nodded....

Sorry...little off-topic. Just thought you might want to hear about another idiot roaming god's green earth.

 

[tsiracer18]

I have heard that Dodge is planning on putting the Viper's V10 in a dodge truck but i don't think it will run 10's of the showroom floor

 

[drewgray]

They are gonna make the srt-10 ram

 

[djpast]

there are already commercails out for that ram

 

[eclipsed95]

Originally posted by nutshot
The taurus leads it's class in what? Not to be a jerk, but the 1st gen taurus has quite possibly the weakest drivetrain in the latter half of the 80's, and the next 2 generations were plagued by both recalls and low customer satisfaction, not to mention resale equalled only by Hyundai. Why should I admit that I am wrong?

I agreed with all you said but the Hyundai resale part. Ford's dropped way off! The f-150 is their saving grace. As a car salesman, the only companies that can brag much about holding great resale are Honda, VW or Toyota. Everything else loses value about the same in relation to MSRP to resale value. Especially with the overflow of 0%APR and huge rebates.

Anyway, about the original post, your friend is crazy! The corvette has it's niche in the car business and wouldn't have to buy out another car, whether you like them or not.

My 2cents

 

[herostar]

did anyone ever notice how a newer vette kinda looks like an rx7... the newer rounded vettes at least. They've got the front brake vent, same proportions, pop-ups, etc... look some time, maybe I'm just crazy but at least I think they look a little similar

 

[Misundaztood]

Originally posted by tsiracer18
I have heard that Dodge is planning on putting the Viper's V10 in a dodge truck but i don't think it will run 10's of the showroom floor

Oh, I wouldn't doubt it. it's just this clown was swearing up & down that it was going to run 10s stock. He was like, "Just with a few mods you'd run 8s. It's gonna kick ass!".
Yeah, I'm going to have to get me one of them.

 

[Defiant]

In case anyone remembers talking about the RX-7 in this thread, they priced themselves out of the market. As did the Z and the Supra.

 

[BQuicksilver]

Originally posted by Defiant
In case anyone remembers talking about the RX-7 in this thread, they priced themselves out of the market. As did the Z and the Supra.

Yes, amongst the many other reasons I listed above.

Many have noticed the front is set up similar between RX-7 and C5, but the rest is quite different. They don't even look that similar side-by-side since the vette is a lot wider.