Quote:
Originally Posted by DGthe3
I don't think the problem is cost (at least not explicitly), but practicality. From a manufacturing standpoint, if the body has stamped steel panels of a normal depth, it won't matter too much how the car is shaped, it should work out to about the same cost. It might be a little more expensive, but not substantially worse.
To make a FWD compact look like a mid-engined exotic you will right away end up losing 2 doors and your back seats. That cuts out a massive portion of the potential buyers market. You'd be lucky to sell 15k units a year, even if it came in at 20 grand. So since the volume would be incredibly low, the price would have to go up in order to make up the investment made into the car. Which in turn lowers the projected volume ...
Unless it piggy-backs on a more conventional car, sharing a platform with something sold in a much higher volume. However, if you do that you end up working around what are known as 'hard points'. These dictate where things like the doors, windshield, and roof need to be. Because of this, any attempt at making an exotic body on a conventional car would look about as awkward as the Aztek did when they used a minivan platform for what was supposed to be a sporty looking crossover (thought the term 'crossover' hadn't been invented then).
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i see. thanks for the answer, i figured as much but wanted to see if there were any other reasons. Its funny how so many people dream of exotic cars but even if they were affordable, not enough people would actually buy them to even make that possible. Thanks!