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Originally Posted by drob23
I wonder though how much economies of scale really factor into it when we're talking about such a "halo" or niche product. Seems like business cases might not be as simple as whether or not they make money, but rather how it affects the brand image overall.
A good example would be the C7 corvette, which I'm sure was pretty difficult to keep afloat during GM's bankruptcy ordeal - I'm assuming that car in particular does not make them a lot of money (hell, they sell those for like 60k with performance that rival high end P's). Although maybe this example is ill-posed, since they use the engines/technologies on so many different vehicles. But the fact still stands that this car is probably more important to the image of GM rather than strictly C7 sales numbers.
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Good point, the Nissan GTR is a car that stands out. Nissan were nearly broke, yet they developed the GTR. Started selling at low money and have managed to up the price year on year to pretty profitable levels (assuming they weren't making a loss on the first year models). That car (with Renaults help) has seemed to rejuvenate Nissan.