MJones

For those who are interested

docfink

With 911s pricey, it makes sense that their sales have dropped this year, considering the overall economy. Boxsters/Caymans still give that Porsche experience at a lower entry fee.

When the next 911 arrives in a couple of years, I'm sure it will initially take off too, but with prices as they are I can't expect crazy numbers like the Cayenne or Panamera.

alexb76

When I was in Germany, the head of Porsche Sport club told me that Porsche is NOT providing any Cayman for employee lease purchase anymore! They said the Cayman price is so close to 911, that the demand has fallen off the cliff! The numbers here show that exactly. While Boxster sales is coming back!

I will suspect a major shift in Boxster/Cayman line-up, with Cayman maybe on the way out, or to be replaced with either 1. lower priced Cayman (maybe lower than Boxster) 2. More specific performance drive, lighter car.

It just never made sense to me they wanted more money for Cayman than they did for Boxster?!

winkingchef

I'm always surprised at how few Caymans they sell.
It seems they did a better job giving the Boxster less of that "wanna-be 911" air.
Personally, I love the Cayman (wish I fit inside it better), but it seems my opinion is less popular.

[EDIT] To Alex's comment, I would suspect that the new 356 coupe version will come out first and achieve just that - a lower-priced hard top Porsche experience.

abe

Look at the numbes...overall is down. The reason the total is up is because Panasomething has taken away some shares from bmw/mercedes sedans....they can't claim sales is up because Panasomething didn't exist last year.
abe

alexb76

I also like Cayman, was considering one before testing a 911 (that sold me!) .

Problem is the price! Cabriolet cars are always more expensive across all brands. For some unknown reason they priced Cayman more when it was introduced, probably because it was newer at the time and had a better engine/faster. After they made both Boxster/Cayman engines the same, they should have adjusted the price... they're paying for it now. Cayman at $45K is a great way to get into Porsche line-up.

nyca

cut prices - the Euro isn't going to come back anytime soon, and Germany needs higher exports to help their economy.

CBejbl

Aren't numbers also down due to Porsche sending fewer cars to the States?

todd.

Bingo

nyca

They are going to run out of places to send the cars - the euro economies are hurting, japan is down, Dubai too. What areas are "booming" to take in more cars? China & Singapore is about it.

abe

...and why are they sending less cars? Do you think if they send more cars people would buy more cars? Its more like they are sending fewer cars because they know they can't sell them all! If there were a great demand they would send more cars. Last time I checked they were alot of P cars at the dealership. The CEO of Porsche decided they didn't want to sell as many cars any more and thus they are sending less cars to their number one customer, the US..does that make sense to anyone? What am I missing here...or is there a new supply/demand economics that I didn't learn about?
I wouldn't doubt that there are more 911 is Southern California than the entire country of China.

abe

tpenta

Well, there seem to be more 911s in my neighborhood than there are in China...

The economy is bad throughout the world. I wonder if that will impact quality and R&D dollars?

The other issue with the Cayenne is the whole Green move, where more and more people are thinking twice about buying a big SUV. I know someone who sold his E55 AMG to buy a Prius and it was not a financial move -- purely an ideological one.

-T

CamsPorsche

Yup here in Dubai you can't even go into the dealership and walk out with a 911. All that come in are on order basis so if you want one...expect to wait.

It doesn't surprise me that the Cayman is struggling. If you want a convertible well the obvious answer is a Boxster plus it puts you into near affordability range for most people. If you want a convertible with more performance then you step into the 911.

If you want a coupe you simply go with a 911 and you also receive the heritage and pedigree. I've never known anyone to want a Cayman...and I have alot of mates with 911's. Same story...most people I know test drove a Cayman (myself included) and opted for the 911. History, way better looks, and more functionality than the Cayman.

As for entry level into Porsche I've always wondered why they don't sell the base Carrera cheaper to get more people driving them and keep the S and 4S prices up where they are.

Pulling those numbers its interesting that on average for this month Porsche sold 17 911's per day.

alexb76

You can NEVER have an entry-level Porsche 911, just dillutes all 911s.

The logical choice for entry level Porsche is Cayman, and I suspect they will do something like that as no one's buying Caymans anymore as it's so close to 911's price.

As I said earlier, it just doesn't make any sense to have a Coupe more expensive than a Cabriolet with the same engine. The model range from low to high should look like this:

1. Cayman
2. Boxster
3. Cayman S
4. Boxster S
5. Carrera
6. Carrera 4
7. Carrera S
8. Carrera 4S
9. etc...