But what if I want a faster horse?

That doesn’t explain why japanese manufacturers who used to make sports cars in the 90s don’t anymore.

It’s a mixture of enthusiasm and conspicuous consumption. Most enthusiasts love 90s japanese cars, but the average person sees an old mazda and recoils.

But put an old ferrari in front of anyone and they have a completely different reaction.

Miata, BRZ, Nissan Z, and GT-R? Toyota's GR86 is BRZ derived but still counts, though their Supra is a BMW. Honda's closest thing is the Civic Type R, but they're bringing back the Prelude soon. Mitsubishi are the odd one out, all they have is an SUV recycling the Eclipse's name.

There's no million dollar Japanese supercars competing against Lamborghinis and McLarens, but I wouldn't say they stopped making sports cars.

It's funny, really.

My girlfriend thinks my cheap modern shitbox is more expensive than my old 90's 4x4 truck.

Are you saying nobody will recognize old NSX as something special? R34?

> There's no million dollar Japanese supercars competing against Lamborghinis and McLarens

Well there was the NSX

I get where you're coming from, but describing the fastest production FWD car as the "closest thing" is really funny

Yeah I mean dedicated sports car models, rather than sportified versions of existing models

An NSX stands out, but anyone who doesn’t know what it is would just think it’s a ferrari.

GTRs absolutely do not stand out. They look like your your average sedan.

Stylish mid-engine cars like the NSX look exotic because they remind people of Ferraris and Lamborghinis.

The average person who doesn't know much about cars will think a second generation MR2 is more exotic than it is. Toyota probably wouldn't make their top three brand guesses. The R34 GT-R will thrill every car enthusiast (and probably everyone who had a Playstation around the turn of the millennium), but most people won't give it a second look.

It’s no Supra, but the FRS is a sporty little car that was marketed in a fairly affordable range. It’s also basically a BRZ. It’s a little sad that’s no longer an option.

The WRX has a turbocharged Boxer engine, manual gearbox or optional CVT, and all-wheel drive. It’s a sedan, but it does a 13.9 second quarter mile stock off the showroom floor. That’s not bad.

> It’s no Supra, but the FRS is a sporty little car that was marketed in a fairly affordable range. It’s also basically a BRZ. It’s a little sad that’s no longer an option.

The FRS/BRZ/GR86 are identical cars mechanically, Toyota owns Scion, so the FRS was replaced by the GT86 and later GR86 within the Toyota line-up when Toyota killed off the Scion brand in the US, and the FRS never existed outside the North American market, because Scion was a North American exclusive brand.

The BRZ/GR86 has a Subaru Boxer engine, with Toyota D4S Port+Direct Injection, using a Toyota ECU/ECM, Toyota/Aisin transmission, Toyota TCU/TCM, and Toyota infotainment (in some generations), but with a mostly Subaru designed chassis and nearly entirely Subaru suspension and post-transmission driveline, but the wheels and tires off a Prius (in the first generation), and a handful of things that were only created to be jointly used by the BRZ/GR86. Except no matter which part you pick on the car, it'll be marked "Subaru", including ironically the Toyota badge on the front of the GT86.

It's better to think of them as what they are, which is different branding for the same vehicle, that was jointly developed and manufactured.

Back in the 90s a Japanese sports car actually offered a noticeable performance advantage relative to regular passenger cars. The regular passenger cars generally had weak engines, terrible suspensions, slow shifting automatic transmissions, and little in the way of driver assistance features. Now any generic modern crossover SUV can be driven well beyond the legal speed limit on any public road without really approaching the vehicle's limits, so except for hard core enthusiasts who intend on tracking their cars there's just not much advantage to buying a sports car any more.

Right, they still exist, but now they’re budget sports cars, which isn’t really what I was talking about. A GR86 is cheaper than most SUVs. A miata is even cheaper. The civic type r is neat, but that’s not a sports car. That’s a performance model of a family car.

The comment I was replying to said that people buy porsches because they’re beautiful.

That’s not it, because the NSX is beautiful, the LFA is beautiful, the FD is beautiful, but nobody wants to spend 200K on a Toyota.

Cars are a signifier, and the viewer needs to understand that sign. Luxury car makers bank on that. Put an LFA and a Cayman next to each other and 9/10 people would think the Cayman is worth more.

The original commenters idea works for content, because content is not a signifier of money. Rich people can’t have more expensive media taste than you, so the enthusiasts set the pace.

But they can have a more expensive car, so no matter how awful a car a lamborghini is, nobody envies the Integra type R next to it.

Key word was, because nobody wants to spend 200K on a Honda no matter how many F1 drivers swear by it.

Didn't the US put in a trade agreement that crushed the Japanese economy by overvaluing its currency?

The Plaza Accord was 1985. And it wasn’t just between the US and Japan. iIf included France, Germany and the UK.

The Japanese economy continued to grow until the mid 1990s. I think the real culprit was low birth rate in the prior 20 years did not train the next generation of productive workers. China, South Korea most of Europe face similar issues