STG

http://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-234B-...e-intelligence

Rocket_boy

No problem here,....IMO they design and make great cars I want to drive. Reliability at least for me has been stellar across three new ones. (and hopefully a 4th!) At least the high price I'm paying gets spread around a bit,....keep all the employees happy from the assembly line up. We always have the option to not buy them.

Penn4S

Good to see a company sharing with employees when times are good. I have no problem with this.

coxswain

Sorry to hijack this thread. But the same WSJ page shows this article about the profit margins of German automakers. Porsche surpasses all others with a huge lead.

Interestingly, Mercedes' margin is increasing, while BMW's margin is decreasing. I guess BMW has been losing their mojo.

http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intel...s-and-porsche/


Does this also mean that P-cars are vastly overpriced than Mercedeses or BMWs?

Rocket_boy

I'm never really happy with the price I pay for Porsches, but until someone comes out with a cheaper total package I would enjoy owning and driving as much,.....I guess there really is no substitute.

fastdiablo

that pretty much sums it up.

daddyscar

I wonder if BMW margins are getting hurt from the i3. None of of the other manufacturers are making an electric car in the same volume as the i3. The back lot at Sonnen BMW has had at least a dozen sitting there all year but they are very common on the road. I like the design and would consider one if it had five instead of four seats.

NoGaBiker

BMW sold a boatload more vehicles in the USA in 2014 than Mercedes did, according to the European Car Sales Stats in the current Panorama. I was surprised by this. IIRC, BMW was 3rd behind VAG and FCA, and MB was 8th. Don't know how that stacks up worldwide though. But it could be that BMWs margins are down because they're doing things to sell 30% more cars than MB is doing.

STG

BMW #1 in luxury car sales. Record year for luxury cars. As goes the stock market!

http://www.wsj.com/articles/bmw-sell...014-1420793763

Quadcammer

really sales statistics are bull****. Its a race to bottom on lease prices with incentives out the ***.

It also leads to junk like the CLA.

I'd prefer less sales and some efforts at protecting margin. Porsche does this pretty well.

drcollie

I think this is great news and applaud Porsche for doing this (and parent company VW AG for allowing it). A bonus to all employees boosts morale, shows their product is what people want to buy, and means the people that make and design the vehicles will be motivated to continue to improve the product. A healthy company means a better product for consumers over the long haul. A Porsche is not for everyone, nor is it affordable for many, but for those that can afford it - we are willing to pay a premium for a superior product, and its pretty damn good car.

John 996 TT Cab

First, these bonuses to employees are old news. Been going on for a while and I suspect actually part of the Union contract.
When measuring profitability of a company you need to know what makes that up. What we don't know and won't ever be able to find out is what % of the overall profit (which is was is used to make these comparisons) actually comes from Weissach and it's engineering revenue (very significant), from its other operations and even what comes from the myriad of dealers and country wide distribution operations (think PCNA, it's a wholly owned subsidiary!)