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The 90s had it's share of FWD sporty coupes. Ford had the Probe, Mazda had the MX-6, Chrysler had the Cirrus/Sebring, Dodge had the Avenger, Mitsubishi had the Eclipse, and Nissan had the RWD 240SX. After seeing a Calibra overseas, I wondered why didn't GM bring it here to USA?
Doubt anyone can say why;they just decide not to offer it in US same as they don't offer some US modesl in Europe. I don't think it any secret that car taste differ in US and Europe.Your examples seem to prove the point.
GM’s track record of importing their European models is not very good. The las time GM rebadged Opel and called it Saturn didn’t end well. I don’t know what to make of “Buick- Opel” either.
I would assume it was engineered only for the European market, and as such even if a small market was recognized for a similar type of car in the US, the fact the car was not engineered to meet US Federal standards (Safety, crash, etc), would have prohibited it's import. Also, as has been the case with many Fords, Opel's, etc engineered for Europe, they would cost far more in the US than Americans would want to pay for that size/type/class vehicle in the US, which kills any business case for bringing them over.
In 1990 GM had a full palate of vehicles including Lumina, Cavalier, and Beretta models from Chevrolet. Not to mention the Camaro and Corvette that really don't compare. Buick offered the Century, Regal, Skylark, and LeSabre in coupe form. Pontiac had the LeMans, Grand Am and Grand Prix as well as the Firebird and Trans Am models. Then you also had the brand new Saturn coming out that the company spent a ton of money on developing.
The production and cost of importing another competing model would have been prohibitive and based on previous experiments with Euro models, a high risk in the US market.
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