[MR2] Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ

[David Hillman]

Don writes...
> My 1992 Turbo sticker was $26K and it was well optioned but I think most 
> Turbos were.  That's why I used the $25K number.  I also assumed 
> inflstion at 3% for 22 years (which I think is a little low) to come up 
> with the $50K 2012 equivalent price.  The point is that the MR2T in 1990 
> was a much more expensive car in its time than the FR-S/BRZ are now.  As 
> James notes, it was in the price range of a Corvette.  But in 1990,
> 200 hp and a sub 6 second 0-60(If you believed Toyota) was pretty damn 
> good.

    Don, you are comparing the price of a loaded MR2 Turbo with the 
estimated base sticker price of the Scion/Subaru.  Real prices don't even 
exist yet, and obviously a fully-loaded Scion/Subaru is going to be quite 
a bit more than $25k.  Base price probably won't even come in that low.

    Then you used an incorrect inflation adjustment, to make it even worse.

    Basically, your comparison isn't worth the paper it wasn't printed on. 
Sorry.

    Like I said before, base sticker on a '91 Turbo was $18,228.  With 
inflation, that's $31.5k now.  Probably a few grand more than a base 
Scion/Subaru will run you, but definitely in the same class.  For your 
roughly $25k, Subaru will be selling you a car with a horribly unreliable 
engine ( many thousands of in-warranty head gasket failures on flat Subaru 
engines, including two that I owned ) that makes less torque than an S2000 
(!) and will understeer like a dead pig ( Subarus with strut front-ends 
have been designed for ridiculous amounts of understeer for at least a 
decade, to the point where relocating suspension pickup points is a 
common modification ).

    That's not impressive progress, to me.  YMMV.

--
  David Hillman