[M3 Adjuster]

Originally Posted by farns2345

Not to challenge this, but I agree w the general statement that roadsters are dead or at least have been dying a slow death for many years. The sales numbers back the statement. How many roadsters do you see on the road on a daily basis? Sure the boxsters 'sell' but the numbers aren't great. Porsche doesn't sell the volume of cars that BMW or Merc does. As for the Miata it's the cheapest fun convertible you can buy and they recently released a new generation so that would explain the recent sales explosion.

Don't get me wrong it would be great if car manufacturers could continue to produce all kinds of models to satisfy all buyers, but at the end of the day businesses have to do what makes sense and maximizes profit. It's the same reason why they're getting rid of the manuals.

Manuals are actually still staying in certain markets despite manufacturers saying that DCT is preferred.

While indeed the market may have changes, just as often in many cases manufacturers are also attempting to dictate to the market just as much as they are trying to " meet customer demand ".

If BMW did a better job at predicting the market as opoosed to telling the market what it wants, they would have brought an X7 to market sooner , brought a small sedan to the US Market and also brought out an 8 series sooner than now.

Instead we've heard that " there isn't a market for those models " for about 7-10 years and now suddenly they are playing catch up and coming to market with all three.

Same is true for the toaster.

Just because BMW killed their own sales of the z4 by making it heavy , overpriced , and no M version ... and then leave it to languish in the market place for an extra long run.. doesn't mean that a next generation roadster can't be profitable or that the market for roadsters has dried up. Just like Mazda ... a fresh design or new idea can revive the category..