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RMc @ Jan 31st 2008 12:46PM
"As Bob Lutz likes to often remind us, Americans don't want to pay big money for premium small cars."
Yep, and all of those $25k Minis are proof of this, huh? I'd hardly call Mini's record in the US a failure. Does VW have trouble selling GTIs? Is the Honda Civic Si loosing money for Honda (okay, a civic is a bit bigger than this Renault...)
Automakers, just give us some decent small cars that aren't stripped down gutless afterthoughts and you'll see that Lutz is completely wrong (as usual.)
John P. @ Jan 31st 2008 12:59PM
I'm going to have to agree with you on this for the most part. I really like this thing and wish people could buy them here.
Isn't Mazda and/or Ford planning on selling a car in this class here soon though? Hopefully not too watered down "gutless afterthoughts" like you say.
psarhjinian @ Jan 31st 2008 1:22PM
Ford is supposedly bringing over the next-gen Fiesta/Verve, though there's no saying whether they'll gut it. Given that the Yaris is competely gutted of features when it arrives in North America (the Fit less so) it might not be suprising.
Now, that said, Honda sells every Fit they can make and it's not far off the Twingo's ability, so there's some demand here. The problem is that French cars, well, if you take everything commonly said about VW or Mercedes' reliability and imagine it about ~30% worse, you're in Renault territory.
TwinTurbo3000GT @ Jan 31st 2008 1:30PM
i disagree. I think the mini's success was because it was trendy and "in". The civic and GTI aren't really small cars. The Fit would classify...but the pricetag is too low to make an accurate comparison.
on another note, what's with the fake venting on the front corners? looks like something off of a cheap toy.
nagmashot @ Jan 31st 2008 1:43PM
the Rneault Twingo GT 100hp cost 12,400Euro in Germany inclusiv tax.. this 133hp version will be around 14,000Euro inclusive tax... tranfered in US price this would be ~$12,500
Euro price turned into $ minus 10% that is the rule to get the idea what euro cars cost in the US..
example BMW 335i Coupe
Germany 45,000Euro
USA $40,800
45,000 - 10% = 40,500 Euro sticker replaced by $ there you have the price.. works pretty good plus minus some $
calebe @ Jan 31st 2008 2:14PM
Boozo bob only thinks about high profit high number sales. Mini sells about 6 to 8 thousand cars a month. Bob only cares about cars that sell 20 thousand a month. In his eyes GM already has it's token small car in the Aveo. He probably gritted his teeth when giving any thought to Saturn getting the Corsa.