StressedDave wrote:Silk wrote:IMO, the only people who seem to want a "sportier" car are "enthusiasts" and motoring journalists (who also tend to be enthusiasts). Thanks goodness the manufacturers are starting to listen to the majority of buyers who couldn't give a flying fig about "handling" and "feedback".
They may not believe they give a flying fig about them, but they actually sell a lot of cars on the result. The original Ford Focus was a huge gamble from Ford - they hoped the customer would like a responsive car and that the extra sales generated would offset the development and manufacturing costs of the multi-link rear suspension. Surprisingly the customers preferred that level of response and bought them in bigger droves than expected.
As a trial, they did the same to the Ka (not so much the manufacturing but the tuning) and sold lots of that model. Took them a long time to kill it off...
I'm going to go out on a limb here (for a change
) and suggest that the buying public are extremely gullible. A manufacturer designs a car that ticks certain boxes for the reviewers and, before you know it, everyone has to have a car that handles well, whether they understand what it means or not. For what it's worth, I think the Ford Focus is a very nice car - the current shape doesn't look as good to me as the previous one, but there you go. It's practical, comfy and easy to drive. I'm guessing that probably had just as much of an influence over how well it has sold that the fact it got good reviews because of its handling.
I think I'll leave things there as this thread seems to have drifted off in the direction of 911s and the like, and my jaw is aching from all the yawning.