Hi Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
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smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
Dotanukie:
Very simple -- we have ride height and impact standards that are expensive to meet. Also, Clean Air legislation requires significant and expensive development to engines.
So you'll need to either fit an exisitng US-spec engine (like they did in the Lotus) or you make an engine for just one small production car. Ask Honda why they are stopping the production of the S2000 this year?
Also, the American market is very tough on small cars, because we are a horsepower society. It is near impossible to sell a new car with under 120HP in America now.
Mickey,
I feel your pain. We need to keep in mind, though, that marketing-driven business is a good thing IF you have good marketers. I think that GM and Ford gave marketing guys a bad name, mostly because they never quite understood how to brand-manage in the way that traditional marketing-driven companies (like P&G) have done.
As a guy who got a degree in marketing and worked in the corporate world before becoming a writer, I understand that BMW can't use us as the target for an entry-level two seater. Most of us are too old, or too finicky to buy a Miata competitor. Sure, a number of us might buy a new Triumph, but consider that only 660,000 (approximately) sporting Triumphs were made (TR2-8, Spit, Stag, GT6.) That's just too small a population (even throwing in 600,000 MGA and MGB owners and the small group of Healey owners.)
BMW has talked about bringing out a 1-series sports roadster, and BMW has more to gain with its own name, than to have the issues of trying to maintain another separate brand name.
But personally, I'd love to see a new TR! I just don't think it makes sense, given BMW's positioning and the fact it already owns the Healey name, which has a better and higher-end recognition among non british car owners.
Very simple -- we have ride height and impact standards that are expensive to meet. Also, Clean Air legislation requires significant and expensive development to engines.
So you'll need to either fit an exisitng US-spec engine (like they did in the Lotus) or you make an engine for just one small production car. Ask Honda why they are stopping the production of the S2000 this year?
Also, the American market is very tough on small cars, because we are a horsepower society. It is near impossible to sell a new car with under 120HP in America now.
Mickey,
I feel your pain. We need to keep in mind, though, that marketing-driven business is a good thing IF you have good marketers. I think that GM and Ford gave marketing guys a bad name, mostly because they never quite understood how to brand-manage in the way that traditional marketing-driven companies (like P&G) have done.
As a guy who got a degree in marketing and worked in the corporate world before becoming a writer, I understand that BMW can't use us as the target for an entry-level two seater. Most of us are too old, or too finicky to buy a Miata competitor. Sure, a number of us might buy a new Triumph, but consider that only 660,000 (approximately) sporting Triumphs were made (TR2-8, Spit, Stag, GT6.) That's just too small a population (even throwing in 600,000 MGA and MGB owners and the small group of Healey owners.)
BMW has talked about bringing out a 1-series sports roadster, and BMW has more to gain with its own name, than to have the issues of trying to maintain another separate brand name.
But personally, I'd love to see a new TR! I just don't think it makes sense, given BMW's positioning and the fact it already owns the Healey name, which has a better and higher-end recognition among non british car owners.
