While I was in London last year I kept seeing examples of a great
little car I hadn't seen before. A Nissan Figaro - cute as hell.
Turned out Nissan had made them for just two years in the early '90's,
10,000 per year, (based on a Micra chassis & engine) and they were so
popular in Japan that they were sold by lottery! I kept seeing them
because there was a clever dealer a couple of suburbs over who was
importing them and refurbishing them - because of Japanese
regulations, I assume that it's just too difficult to keep one going
there, or too expensive.
5-7 thousand pounds for a fifteen year old small car is extreme in the
UK but he's getting it without too much trouble. You can only wonder
why they don't continue with something that is so successful. I think
of them as rather like what an original Beetle would have been if the
Italians had made it.
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 11/03/2010, at 12:05 AM, ClassicVW@xxxxxxx wrote:
> I'd never pay that for a 3Ti and yours (and mine) 4Ti in most
> respects gets
> the same job done but one thing you're overlooking is the law of
> supply
> and demand. I was involved a bit in VW's research in the 90s into
> whether
> they should market the "New Beetle". (I was wholeheartedly for it)
> I also saw
> firsthand after it's sales introduction people running around who just
> "HAD TO" get one for their wife or kid approach new owners and
> offer them
> $5,000 over list price if they'd sell theirs to them. Same thing
> several years
> back with the Toyota Prius. They were so wildly popular that Toyota
> could
> have priced it $5,000 higher and still sold a similar amount. But
> price
> gouging is illegal so the best they could do is price a used one
> that was on
> the lot and could actually be bought that day higher than a new one
> that the
> buyer would have to wait 3 months for delivery.
--
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