My Mustang II, should come in right around 70K
Assuming your labor is worth zero, right? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
I just don't get the price of these new LSA aircraft, and feel like yourself, they are over priced for what you get out of the box.
But that's the main point of LSA - "out of the box". No assembly required, and it's not a 30-40 year old airframe. I agree that $100k is a lot of money, but it's still way cheaper than any other
new airplane.
Granted, us experienced plane owners know that
used planes with equivalent capability can be had for a lot less, but it took a lot of education to reach that point. I suspect a lot of potential airplane owners shied away from the daunting task of due diligence on a decades-old design. For them, "brand-new" carries a lot of comfort.
Also, these planes (like ours) can be financed. Picking a long-term (20-year) loan at 6% on $100k yields a $717 monthly payment. Steep, yes, but more affordable than dropping $100 large all at once. Put 20% down and the payments drop to $574/month.
I think Cessna has long-term smarts in mind for this Cessna 158. First off, get the new pilots started in Cessna and they'll stay with the brand. And it's not just the owners who buy one. It's all the pilots who train in one owned by a flight-school, all the instructors who teach in one, all the A&P's who work on one. If all you have heard is "Cessna", then that's where you'll look when looking to buy, whether it's for yourself, your flight-school, your charter-op, your corporate flight department....
This will also 'legitimize' the whole LSA industry, just like IBM did for 'personal computers' when they introduced their original PC. With Cessna in the market, LSAs will be considered 'real' airplanes as opposed to fully-faired ultralights. Rotax will become a mainstream powerplant. LSA instruction will become more plentiful. I believe there's a lot of people on the sidelines, watching and waiting to see how the LSA industry pans out. If a 'real' airplane company like Cessna (instead of all these "funny-sounding furrin' comp'ny's") produces an LSA, well, then it's probably something worth looking into. Worth offering instruction, rental, maintenance, sales.
I, for one, remain bullish on the LSA industry. I do suspect that in 5 to 10 years time a lot of the current companies will no longer be around. As the industry matures the bit players will fall by the wayside, and only those companies with good designs and resources will still be around. But the overall industry will be quite strong, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a Cessna 158 pull up to Clinton 2010.
