Why are concept cars never produced for mass production?

Question

I saw a Honda commercial featuring a concept car, and I thought many would go out to buy it, but it's not available. What's the story?

Answer 1

All of the previous answers are pretty much correct. But sometimes, "concept" cars are future production cars that are camofloged to hide the final product.

Occasionally, actual production ideas are shown as concept cars i.e. original Viper,Prowler, Chevy's convertable PU. When Bill Mitchel at GM had the Sting Ray race car designed for racing, it wasn't but a year until the tail end of the production Corvette matched the race car. And by '63, the production Sting Ray was born (although modified for the street) but almost a direct copy.

Answer 2

Concepts are the companies way of showing new ideas that they are working on. They want to get a feel of what people think about it. Some of the ideas may make production, others may still be impractical to produce at this time. You may not see the car in production, but sooner or later, you will see some of the ideas or some of the styling on the street.

Answer 3

If it was for sale it would just be a car, not a concept car. Right? Concept cars are made to experiment with ideas that the design department had. Some of them may be good enough to produce, and others are just for fun.

When companies try to manufacture a concept car without changing anything, they usually can't. They usually have to make a few compromises due to safety, practicality, and constructability.

For instance, a lot of concept cars have roofs so low a normal person couldn't fit in them. That's just for looks.

Answer 4

It all depends upon public reaction. Some concept vehicles have made it into production albeit some parts. Sometimes various components and or styling cues have made it into production cars if it is decided that this vehicle is not financially marketable. Other times it's just engineering showing off.