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Originally Posted by Willravel
I'm talking about the GTO they released a few years back (2001-2005?) only to stop releasing soon after, and yeah I remember that being the Monaro rebranded. The suspension was really, really bad, as was the handling (if you were to compare it to Audi, BMW, or Mercedes... or even lesser European brands).
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Well, compared to, say, an Acura, yeah, the suspension sucked. But as you said in a later post for an "American" car it was pretty damn impressive.
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I'm still surprised that MR2 sales dropped off like they did. Could it have been a lack of advertising?
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Well first off they changed it from this:
to this:
This was still on the early end of the "make everything look like a box that got attacked with a can opener" styling craze and they 1) hadn't gotten it right and 2) were still seen as ugly, especially by drivers of the 2nd gen MR2's like the first one I pictured.
Second, the insurance on a mid engined rear wheel drive convertible 2 seat sports car is freaking insane compared to the insurance on a 2+2 sports coupe.
And third, as I have sadly learned, parts for the MR2 tend to run the gamut from expensive to insane. For instance, the rear tires on a 2nd gen MR2 are used by two cars on the planet. The MR2, and the front wheels of the Countach. Guess how much I pay for rear tires every 15,000 miles.
It's a great car, but it's expensive to own, and unless you do some serious work to it, modern day sport sedans blow its doors off. An Acura TL (not even the speedy Type-S) is as fast as my MR2 turbo was stock, and I had to do a lot to the car to keep up with modern cars. There just isn't much room for the engine in the things, so it's very easy for the bigger cars to shove something powerful in there and run away from you.