I applaud your attitude toward using GA to assist you in gathering
information rather than coming to us with the expectation that we will
do your homework! Below I've posted some links that I hope will help
get you started. These links will take you to articles which describe
general trends only; I have not been able to find actual statistics on
the size of the sports car market in the US; I hope another Researcher
will be able to help you with that.
Here are some articles that discuss sports car trends in the 1990s:
Denver Business Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/1997/09/08/focus1.html
Cincinnati Post
http://www.cincypost.com/business/1999/cars083199.html
From USA Today
http://www.industryfigure.com/berkeley/Porsche/external/USAToday30Apr97.htm
Recently there has been a decline in the sales of sports cars in the
US, which resulted in GM discontinuing production of the Camaro:
New Hampshire Auto Finder
http://www.nh.com/FTP/nhautofinder/news/keane031002.htm
Asunder Press
http://www.asunderpress.com/news/chevycamaro.htm
Here's an article from 2000 about the popularity of "roadsters":
Polk Automotive Intelligence
http://www.polk.com/news/releases/2000_0822.asp
Another article from 2000, concerning who is buying sports cars in the
US:
Polk Automotive Intelligence
http://www.polk.com/news/releases/2000_0113.asp
This may be useful:
"Luxury Sport Cars
Although the average price of a new vehicle has declined in 2002,
prices of some models have increased. Luxury sport car prices have
risen more than 5%. This jump is due in large part to the substantial
rise in the price of the Mercedes-Benz SL Series when the all-new
version was launched in February-March. Actual transaction prices of
the new SL are running about 18% over the prices of the prior version.
In January, the old SL model sat on dealers’ lots for more than four
months, but the new model now moves in about one month, according to
Power Information Network data. This segment accounts for only about a
0.25 percent of the total new-vehicle market and has just five
models...
Sporty Cars
Prices of sporty cars have risen 3.14%, led by the Tiburon, which was
redesigned early this year. Mustang, GTI, Firebird and Camaro prices
have risen as well. Demand for these models tends to increase as the
calendar year progresses toward the warmer months of spring and
summer."
JD Power and Associates
http://www.jdpa.com/businessservices/automotive/publications/powerreport/200209/0902_01b.htm
I hope some of this will be helpful. Good luck with your project! |
