What were the SVX's Competitors
 

I think Dodge had the Stealth which was about the same size but more glitzy. We looked at the Stealth but decided on the SVX and never regretted it.

The Dodge Stealth R/T Turbo, was one of the 2 DIRECT SVX competitors, the other being the Mitsubishi 3000GT. They were both AWD, and high performance. They were more sport, than luxury, and arguably much less refined, than the SVX. They also had an almost un-useable back seat.

Can't remember but I think the model you are talking about is the Talon right?

No, I would say that the Stealth and the 3000GT are the correct comparatives.

Both are 4WD coupes.

The Eagle Talon, Mitsu Eclipse, & Plymouth Laser were AWD as well, but the SVX was WAY out of thier league, in both price & performance. In stock form anyways.

Understood.

The Mitsubishi 3000GT was known as the GTO in Japan. I meant it was the correct market yardstick, because the SVX would have been designed with local [i.e. JDM ] competitors in mind.

Probably as the Mitsubishi was much more sporting and has vestigial real seats, the real and closest competitor would have been the Nissan ZX 300 in non turbo form.

The rest were either sportier or faster than the SVX.

not all of these were awd, the eclipse was awd as the GSX model, i think the newer talons were awd but i dont think they ever were, and i haven't seen an awd laser because i think there crap

The Talon TSi was AWD, I can't promise the Laser had an AWD model, as it was the "cheapie"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Talon

i thought the talon had an awd model but i am sure the laser didn't awd

I owned a Laser:o. I loved that little car. It was not AWD. The Eagle Talon, Mitsubishi Eclipse and Plymonth Laser all came off the same assembly line. The only difference were the options. My Laser had the Mitsubishi engine in it because they were all owned by the same company. The Eagle Talon was the only one of those three cars to have AWD.

I had 2 eclipses and a talon, one eclipse was awd. They were neat cars, but with the awd, without the weight, it doesn't make much difference, your still riding on top of snow/ice. My SVX I would go down windy roads covered in snow/ice and forcibly break traction in the rear end, but once i straitened the wheel, it always snaps right back to going strait. Flooring it from stop and spinning all tires, the car catches up quickly. I can't imagine conditions so bad as though I would involuntarily lose control of my car.

What were the SVX's Competitors
 

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/show...t=40815&page=3

When I was shopping for mine in '93 I test drove the Eagle Talon, Dodge Stealth, Infiniti J30 and Mazda 626 and RX-7.

mitsubishi 3000gt and dodge stealth

The Nissan 300ZX was also a close competitor even though it was only RWD.

The 3000GT and stealth are often sited as direct competitors, but in reality the SVX was after a completely different market segment. The SVX was meant to square off directly with the BMW 8 series and Porsche 928 of the same era. The 3000GT and Stealth comparison happens over and over again because of wet track runs Subaru set up to show how fast the SVX was. The had to wet down the track because either of those cars were faster on dry pavement.


Just a quick, interesting fact. If the Subaru SVX were for sale today, the list price would be about $54000.00 Assuming that they listed it for the same price as they did for the 93 Anniversary Editions in 92. Adjusted for inflation.

Thats a BMW price, not a Dodge price :p

I would like to recommend the book. "Where the Suckers Moon" It talks about the market the SVX was trying to enter, what subaru did wrong, and what the car did right. I think we would see a lot more of them if Subaru had badged them as Alcyone, and spun off the Alcyone badge as thier luxury/sport line, like Infinity and Lexus.


The SVX wasn't meant to be an early life rocket car, it was a refined sports coupe for successful 30-50 somethings who wanted to show off the fact that they had arrived.

One of the main problems was that Subaru had absolutely no experience with that market segment, and as a result, the advertising campaign was one of the most embarassing and unsuccessful flummoxes in recent history.


-Patrick