There's A Hole In The Porsche Lineup… Really!

by Edward Niedermeyer

Published: July 13th, 2011

there s a hole in the porsche lineup really

It’s every manufacturer’s worst nightmare:

Between the top 911 model [the $245k GT2 RS] and the 918 Spyder [projected price point: $845k], there’s a price range that we’re not serving, but where other manufacturers are selling one or another product. We’re currently examining what options can be derived from this… [and] there already are initial ideas that look very promising on paper. It makes fundamental economic sense to serve demand that exists in the marketplace in a wise way

Poor Porsche sales boss Bernhard Maier. I mean, how does someone sleep at night knowing there’s demand in the $250k-$850k price range that you’re not exploiting? After all, Porsche currently offers nearly 30 “models” with base MSRPs between $80k and $200k. That, on average, comes to a different “model” every $4,000. So, according to the “fundamental economic sense” that Porsche applies to the $80k-$200k market, this new “hole” in the lineup should “be served in a wise way” by no fewer than 150 new vehicles. [via Automotive News Europe [sub]]

#Branding #Enthusiasm #FutureVehicles #Marketing #NewCars #Planning #Platforms

Edward Niedermeyer

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8 of 15 comments

Stuki on Jul 13, 2011

What Maier's saying is not as crazy as it might at first seem. The profit potential in that segment is huge, and the segment itself is not shrinking like most others. The guys shopping for >$ than 911Gt2 cars are the ones who are getting all those billions in "stimulus", "quantitative easing" and whatever vernacular for robbery is fashionable these days. The guys who are struggling to buy regular 911s increasingly can't, since they are the ones being robbed. Until generations of public school indoctrinated progressive drones, taught to shut up and do as their "expert" overlords say, wake up (fat chance), it's not like this is about to change. Bitcoin type anonymous currencies and a serious increase in, or at least increased geographic concentration of, privately owned and quick to be utilized IEDs being the only other possible avenue out.

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- DanDotDan on Jul 13, 2011
  
  Thanks for hijacking the thread with a bunch of unrelated crap.
  
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- M 1 on Jul 13, 2011
  
  "The guys who are struggling to buy regular 911s are idiots." Fixed that for you.
  
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- Stuki on Jul 13, 2011
  
  @DanDotDan What is so "unrelated" about pointing out exactly why Maier's missive makes too much sense to simply make fun of? Cars aren't sold in a vacuum. When "rich guys", making $80-200,00/year, are being increasingly robbed to pay for too big to fail guys, making $500,000 and up/year, that will result in a shift in the mix of Porsches that can be sold. Away from the kind of cars the $80-200,000 crowd would normally buy, and towards the kind the $500,000+ crowd buys. The exact same underlying development is the reason homes all over America are getting cheaper, except for in the Hamptons and a few similarly tony neighborhoods.
  
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- Stuki on Jul 13, 2011
  
  @M 1 Hey, I did just that back in the day..... It was an old "clunker", but still....... Pretty snazzy for a college ride. More seriously, much of 911 sales have traditionally gone to people finally "rewarding" themselves; say after the kids' college is paid for, the kids have moved out etc. Not to bailout beneficiaries. Which is, interestingly, probably part of the reason why "real enthusiasts" tend to look at the cars and their drivers the way you allude to, as the cars are rarely driven to their potential. But regardless, those are the guys actually buying the darned things, hence the ones that matter to Porsche's sales chief.
  
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Panzerfaust on Jul 13, 2011

Models? Iterations might be a more appropriate name.

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Hogie roll on Jul 13, 2011

Turbo cayman, boom.

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ChesterChi on Jul 14, 2011

I'm still waiting for the Cayman Targa, Cayman convertible and the 2-door Panamera.

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