PogueMoHone

But you forget:

The Euro was introduced at $1.17, so that is the real baseline. Now it is $1.34, around 14% increase, depending how you compute the number. Over a number of years it is relatively easy, for a Professional Organization, to manage the small magnitude change.

We are all entitled to our own opinions, but not our own facts.

Nordschleife

Recently PAG has made more money out of operations in the FX market than it has out of cars, the exact percentage is disputed by some analysts, but all agree that it is extremely significant. For several years the price of cars in the US market has been artificially low, supported by hedging and currency swaps. Eventually, PAG will run out of ways of combatting long term deviations in foreign exchange rates.

If PAG are only going to sell 200 GT2s, and nobody knows that, they will sell as many as the market will take, then a premium price is a good idea.

In the mean time PAG is working hard to keep 911 prices competitive. Without the contribution made by hedging, they would be losing market share to the likes of Aston Martin, for example. As it is, the price in the US is almost USD 30,000 than the pre-tax price in Germany, at current exchange rates.

I doubt that anybody at PAG will lose any sleep over the number of GT2s that are sold in the US, London bankers, Russians, people in the Gulf and the Chinese are queuing up for the car, at 'premium' prices.

R+C

Nordschleife

I don't forget the circumstances surrounding the Euro's introduction, at an artificially high value inJ an 1999, for political rather than economic reasons. It fell precipitously for almost two years following its introduction. The long term future for the Euro, if it has one, and that is by no means certain, is much closer to parity with the dollar. There are no other car manufacturers who are as dependent upon money market and foreign exchange operations as PAG, at some stage, the bankers will be expecting to have some significant wins.

Remember that the points of origin for almost all series of data are 'artificial' and the Euro was more 'manufactured' than most. Had the US dollar not been even more over valued, its relative decline would not have been so pronounced.

R+C

PogueMoHone

[QUOTE=...Remember that the points of origin for almost all series of data are 'artificial' and the Euro was more 'manufactured' than most....
R+C[/QUOTE]

So, by extension of your argument all data points (since they individually can be considered a point of origin) are artificial. We will keep that in mind!

Nordschleife

Not at at all - the start point is arbitrary. So if the Euro had started at a point when the basket of currencies which goes to make up the Euro had been low, as opposed to artificially high, then the performance of the Euro and the Dollar aginst the Euro would look rather different in tetrospect. The Ecu and the ERM were discarded as part of the peculiar steps that were taken to get all the various economies into some kind of step and to balance the books (including bringing much of the Italian black economy into the official GDP figures) prior to launching the Euro.

As you well know, extending other people's arguments is fraught with error.

Whilst the Euro at $0.85 was not sustainable, nor is it at $1.38. However, whilst mindless money pours into the US from East Asia and is spend on current consumption and shoring up sub-prime debt, the currency is going to remain around present levels, and that means new Porsche cars will be expensive whilst they are made in Europe.

Some European monetarists forsee some countries chosing to leave the Euro, which might temporarily reduce the price of Pcars, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

R+C

PogueMoHone

Exactly my point, and any discussion regarding a $.8 Euro versus a $1.34 Euro does not hold up to economic scrutiny with regard to Porshe's pricing power and decisions. It makes the comparison artificial.

SciFrog

997GT2 is the same price as the 996GT2, it is cheap then...

Sun Ra

1] it's f.g hideous with that new TT body
2] it's fast, but unless you run to NE NV, where you gonna use it?
3] i'm right there at 150 just like last time... it will be interesting to plot the market price/time next 2 years
4] 200 buys a perfect black stradale, why waste it on something this ugly?

PogueMoHone

Ah!

Watt, I think the Scuderia just took a chunk out of that $200K, but it might be a little while before the Stradale owners admit it.

Is that Scuderia supercharged?? (that BAR guage????)...510 HP and with a little low end grunt it will obsolete the Stradale faster than the GT2 price decline.

Oh, I also think it just took a chunk out of the greedy Porsche Dealers plans as well. I hope they Inventory all the GT2 cars hoping to sell them over MSRP, it will precipitate the price decline.

RufMD

The BAR gauge is oil pressure. I think the looks of the Scuderia will keep the Stradale strong...great car, will perform like crazy, but the Stradale will always be the more beautiful car. I thought the 430 rear end couldn't get uglier, I was wrong...this incarnation on the Scuderia is hideous. With only 358 US examples, the Stradale should stay relatively strong...all limited production, special edition Ferraris do.

Sun Ra

agreed. the scuderiA IS UGLY based on the 430, and it's a diifferent market at 350-400k market. the strad is timeless. Colm, chasing performance endlessly makes little sense in today's world, but if it's ugly.... i choose beauty over incremental speed I can't use daily anyway, the beauty I can use.

lone wolf

Can someone please clue me in to what they mean in that 1st sentence in the press release, about revolutionary design? this 997 gt2 is the same 911 they've been making forever!! the muffler is titanium, i guesss that counts///////////// love porsche!

FredC

complete new take on air ingestion and launch control would do it.