Why is a new NSX so pricey?

  • Thread starter Thread starter sicbeing
  • 28 comments
  • 1,339 views
sicbeing

sicbeing

Messages
1,103
Messages
Cribanox
NSX is one of my favorite looking cars out of Honda. While I was learning about cars during the past year or two, I always looked at NSX's as my dream car. Now that I look at how much one costs for what it gives back, I just don't see it being worth it.

Acura.com shows the car at 89,000 US Dollars MSRP. I'm not sure how well it drives or how fast it goes. It says the Horsepower is 290 @ 7100 rpms (Manual) and only 252 HP @ 6600 rpms (Automatic SAE). It seems like it has to climb an awful lot to go anywhere, and even your turbocharged 4 cyl EVO or STi gets the same if not more HP.

Maybe there is something I'm not seeing, but does anyone know why the NSX is about 10,000 more than a Z06 Corvette?
 
back in the late 80's the greatest formula one driver off all time who was then racing for honda started a project with honda to build and develop the NSX. Anyhoo senna sadly died in a crash and the nsx got realesed in 1990 or 91 I believe and back then it was dscibed as the best handling car in the world and well it was worth its high price tag. Then over time other cars got more powerful for cheaper and the nsx just stayed the same untill a uipdate of the car in 2001 or somewhere around that time. Not alot of power but sure is quick around a track and can beat cars that has a extra 100bhp under the bonnet.
 
yeah, the nsx was technological marvel when it came out. all auminum chassis, the premiere of vtec, a lot of other feets i cant name off my head right now. but yeah it has been aging like fine wine while other cars come and go
 
Well a friend of mine works for Honda and every now and then he gets to take a car home for the night. About two months ago he brought home an NSX, just the standard model not the Type-R. He took me out in it and I was amazed, the way it delivers its power and just the noise of the thing is worth the money! The handling was beautiful very precisely balanced and I also found it very easy to drive, it was no harder than my wife’s focus. The fit and finish of the interior was to a very high standard, no squeaks or rattles and even though it "only" has 290hp it does a lot with it! After driving one I personally think that the car is worth that kind of money but I can understand why some people wouldn’t, I guess it just comes to how much you want one in the end.
 
Ah, well thanks for the replies, I guess I'll just have to drive one... someday :lol: . By the way, I say "only" 290 HP because of the price tag and how high it has to rev before it gets there. On paper it seemed to me like it has as much power as a STi or etc.
 
There is no justifiable reason for the cars obscene price. In comparison, all of the japanese twin-turbo cars from the early 90's are as quick, or quicker in every aspect of performance, and they sold for 1/2 the price.

I think it's one of the best looking cars on this planet. It's just not worth the money when comparing it to other cars in that price range.
 
Young_Warrior
back in the late 80's the greatest formula one driver off all time who was then racing for honda started a project with honda to build and develop the NSX. Anyhoo senna sadly died in a crash and the nsx got realesed in 1990 or 91
Click to expand...

Senna never started the project, he only had minimal input into the car (a bit like Schumacher and the Enzo). The NSX was launched in 1990, 4 years before Senna was killed.

A couple of interesting reads:

 
Young_Warrior
quicker in straight line. Around corners its beat all its japense rivals.
Click to expand...
That is not even close to being true.

I cannot count the number of times I have seen the NSX get its ass beat in Best Motoring, Option, and other japanese videos. Tuned / stock, race track and touge. Look at the quickest street car times for Tsukuba..

The "it's the best handling japanse car" line needs to be put to sleep.
 
When introduced into the world in 1990 around March or so at a auto show, it was the introduction of many new things already stated.

It was a while later when a test was done between Honda's new comer, and Ferrari's 348.
Impressively and surprisingly, it beat the 348 which at the time, Ferrari was still thought of as the ultimate car manufacturer then.

Ferrari struck back in a small challenge between the NSX and F355. The F355 won it from what I remember but just barely.

After the 348's defeat, the NSX became the "Ferrari of Japan" and definately could go with the best. But due to only big improvement which was still small, in 2001, the NSX lost its touch.

The NSX-R carried on the Ferrari defeat and can be consider a challenger for the 360 Modena and Challenge Stradale. However, the NSX-R's competitions against the 360CS didn't seem to be taken as a great victory as the original NSX against the 348.

The NSX brought new things and changed many, but sadly was hardly improved upon. Introduced in 1990 and selling from about $55,000 to $65,000 give or take, the price went up on the Acura model, but the performance hardly did.

It was more Buck than Bang than 1990's More bang for buck. But even due to such a high price, it did incredibly well for 15 year old car.

Future models have been planned with a V-10, but the NSX name has not yet be decided upon for any concepts nor have any replacements been talked about much.

Its a car you have to understand to greatly appreciate it with its cost.
 
The Ferrari 348 is a turd.

The GMC Syclone pickup from 1991 beat it in a Car & Driver comparison. A truck costing $100,000 less.
laugh7ew.gif


I do understand the car, probably better than anyone here. Compare the vehicle to other cars costing $90,000+ and you might understand why so few are sold every year.
 
Boost Lee
The Ferrari 348 is a turd.

The GMC Syclone pickup from 1991 beat it in a Car & Driver comparison. A truck costing $100,000 less.
laugh7ew.gif


I do understand the car, probably better than anyone here. Compare the vehicle to other cars costing $90,000+ and you might understand why so few are sold every year.
Click to expand...

:lol:

The 348, like the 355 and 360, was never intended to be blisteringly quick in a straight line (0-100mph in 15.3 seconds says more than I ever could), rather to be a good package in terms of straight line performance and handling. Ok, so losing to a truck is pretty terrible, but picking a 348 to race was a bit cheeky for that article.
 
Boost Lee
The Ferrari 348 is a turd.

The GMC Syclone pickup from 1991 beat it in a Car & Driver comparison. A truck costing $100,000 less.
laugh7ew.gif


I do understand the car, probably better than anyone here. Compare the vehicle to other cars costing $90,000+ and you might understand why so few are sold every year.
Click to expand...
That's a great article; I love reading older C&D.
 
Boost Lee
That is not even close to being true.

I cannot count the number of times I have seen the NSX get its ass beat in Best Motoring, Option, and other japanese videos. Tuned / stock, race track and touge. Look at the quickest street car times for Tsukuba..

The "it's the best handling japanse car" line needs to be put to sleep.
Click to expand...

I have seen more than enough Best MOTORing video :lol:, and majority of them involves NSXs, GTR, Evo, STi. And to tell you the truth, many of the time the NSX wins the battle over the rest. There are time where the NSX was defeated by GTR, Evo, STi - but more than half of the time the NSX is always the victor. I'm not talking about the NSX-R either.

The NSX-R is basically the fastest NSX made so far. It was said to be (and still is) the fastest Japanese car at the moment. Best Motoring reviewers call it the Japanese Super Car because well it's the quickest out of all Japanese production car. Keiichi Tsuchiya, Gan-San, Hattori, and many others - all seem to think it is the fastest Japanese car.

Recently - it was compared to a F430, Gallardo, and Porsche Club GT3 - on the latest Best MOTORing international video. It wasn't that impressive - because the lack of power compared to the rest - but they chose the NSX-R to represent for Japan.

Anyways - NSX-R I feel is the fastest NSX (and maybe even Japanese sport car) so far.

The only stock Japanese production car that I know of - that ran 7'56.xxx at the Ring.
 
It's defenitely a 'love it or hate it' kind of car.
I like the NSX for reasons my friend can't understand. My friend hates the NSX because of the numbers (or lack of).
I've driven a '99 NSX
I can't comment on how the car is at the limits... but I enjoyed the drive. I thought it was smooth and easy going. The power steering has a nice balance of ease and feel (though, I wish it was more like an Elise where it's all feel). I ran through the gears and reached around 120mph... and it felt absolutely calm and stable. 120mph felt like 80mph.

Would I buy one new? Probably not. It's easy to find good deals on used NSX around the US. And this is probably what hurts the new NSX market the most. Why spend 90K on a new NSX and when you can pick up an older model from as low as 35K?
The nice thing about an NSX is that it's Honda made. So servicing isn't as pricey and it's reliable. Early 90s NSX are still out on the roads today.

If I had 90K to spend, would I buy new? Nah. I'd dig around and find an '00 or older model. I simply don't like the new headlights :)
 
NSX-R
Relax, there won't be any new NSXs for a looong time... So price-conscious crowd can chill for years.
Click to expand...
If you didn't knew, Honda officially said that they stopped builing the NSX..
 
There have definitely been times in BMI videos when the NSX shined. Namely when Gan San runs people off the road, someone has a mechanical failure, the tires on competing cars were of a lesser compound, or when the other drivers are absolutely worthless. I especially love when they stick japanese drivers not use to LHD vehicles like the Ferrari/Lamborghini/Porsche, and then pull pathetic times.

It might sound like bull****, then again you can check it out for yourself in the videos.

Sure it holds a record at the ring. I guess that means it's worth $50,000 - $60,000 more than the other japanese sports cars. 👎
 
Boost Lee
There have definitely been times in BMI videos when the NSX shined. Namely when Gan San runs people off the road, someone has a mechanical failure, the tires on competing cars were of a lesser compound, or when the other drivers are absolutely worthless. I especially love when they stick japanese drivers not use to LHD vehicles like the Ferrari/Lamborghini/Porsche, and then pull pathetic times.

It might sound like bull****, then again you can check it out for yourself in the videos.

Sure it holds a record at the ring. I guess that means it's worth $50,000 - $60,000 more than the other japanese sports cars. 👎
Click to expand...

I agree on almost everything you said... :lol: Gan San does drive overly aggresive - and many other drivers are not up to his level. That's true - but there is no denying in how fast the NSX-R is. I know its overly expensive - and shouldn't even be compared to Evos and STi. There is a huge different in price level - and the performance is about the same. I do agree NSX are overly priced for what they give in terms of performance - there's no denying it.

But I have yet to see a video of the NSX-R losing to any JAPANESE sport cars. I heard of one - where an Evolution beats it but I never saw the video myself. Also just a random fact - the NSX-R started in last position - despite the Evolution having AWD (stated on a forum that I read it on).

Look at time records on tracks like Tsukuba and Fuji. There is no denying that the NSX-R is the one of the quickest, if not the quickest Japanese sports car - and it is clearly seen in tracks like Fuji.

Anyways - I agree with you though. The NSX is overpriced - end of the story.
 
Is it just me, or did Honda stubbornly stick with the underpowered naturally aspirated V-6? When I was a kid, Honda car called "City" was really popular. Sport model had the turbo charged engine, and it had a cult following in Japan. Strangely, that's the last turbo I can remember on Honda cars. Since the 90's, it's all v-tech and no more turbo. Was there a reason why Honda stopped using turbo chargers? Same goes with V-8s. Since the mid 90's, people waited for the V-8 to arrive for the Legend/RL and NSX. That never happened either, and you can imagine how much business that cost Honda/Acura. :rolleyes:

Honda is one of my favorite automakers, and I have no doubt in my mind NSX is one of the finest sports cars in our automotive history. I could never understand their philosophy to keep those two big guns underpowered for over 10 years though. :grumpy:
 
I got both good and bad news. Good news first - and this will put a smile on your face - the new NSX (or the successor) will have a V10. That's going to be a lot of power - I think... But here comes the bad news... It's going to literally cost you your arms and legs.
 
That's a good question..

I know that Comptech / RealTime Racings NSX eventually had to use a supercharger in the GT series in order to be competitive.. Honda themselves twin-turbocharged their GT1 NSX for the '95 LeMans race.. And most private individuals looking for more power usually go with a Vortech/Comptech/Gruppe M supercharger.

I don't think they were worried about cost, I think they were just overly confident.

Don't poke the penguin.
 
Assumably, Honda didn't give NSX more power because of those reasons:

1)Gent's agreement ended a little too late for any changes like super/turbo-charging.
2)NSX never made any sufficient amount of profit, so why waste more money on it when the market is already saturated?
3)NSX's Vtec is too good for turbo. Yes you will get far more horsepower and torque, but the refinement of NSX's NA Vtec free-revving personality is going to be smudged.
4)They were going to end the production anyways, why not save the money to make the next gen better?
 
a6m5
Is it just me, or did Honda stubbornly stick with the underpowered naturally aspirated V-6? When I was a kid, Honda car called "City" was really popular. Sport model had the turbo charged engine, and it had a cult following in Japan. Strangely, that's the last turbo I can remember on Honda cars. Since the 90's, it's all v-tech and no more turbo. Was there a reason why Honda stopped using turbo chargers? Same goes with V-8s. Since the mid 90's, people waited for the V-8 to arrive for the Legend/RL and NSX. That never happened either, and you can imagine how much business that cost Honda/Acura. :rolleyes:

Honda is one of my favorite automakers, and I have no doubt in my mind NSX is one of the finest sports cars in our automotive history. I could never understand their philosophy to keep those two big guns underpowered for over 10 years though. :grumpy:
Click to expand...

i believe their company philosphy changed around that time to more practicality and environment friendly cars and adopted vtec as its pinnacle technology (also first in the industry). the standard nsx was a very liveable docile car for its category but when pushed itll reward.
 

Latest Posts

Back