EuroCarNut

Here’s my monthly update of Porsche sales. (What a sick hobby – the business side of auto manufacturing). Anyways, here it is:

It looks like Porsche is still on pace to reach their sales goal of 12,500 Cayennes in the US in the first 12 months. Porsche has released sales number for the month of June and they are up 27% from June of last year and 15.6% for the year as a whole. As a matter of fact, this is the 2nd best June in PCNA history. Care to guess as to which car got them there? Here is how the numbers break down:

911 - 790 total cars sold this June vs. 1,020 cars sold June of 2002. That’s a decline of 22.5%. For the year, there have been 4,752 cars sold vs. 5,969 cars sold last year – a decline of 20.4% on the year.

Boxster – 520 total cars sold this June vs. 1,114 cars sold June of 2002. That’s a decline of a whopping 53.3%. For the year, the Boxster is down 36.5% with 3,467 cars sold so far this year vs. 5,458 cars sold as of this time last year.

Cayenne – 1,401 total cars sold for the month of June. That’s an increase of 13 unit over last month, which is almost negligible. However, looking at total Cayenne sales over the first 3.5 months (4,996), it extrapolates out to selling 17,129 cars for the first 12 months, or about 4,600 cars above their goal of 12,500 cars.

One thing I have noticed over the last month regarding Cayenne sales is that I’ve noticed the inventory of Cayennes at the 2 big Porsche dealers in Dallas to be dwindling down quite a bit. After the first month or so, Park Place had almost 20+ Cayennes sitting there on the lot. However, in the last 30 days, it looks like they have maybe no more than 10 Cayennes in inventory at any given time, and a lot of the cars that are coming in are pre-sold as they are starting to fill a lot of the orders that they received in March and April. Boardwalk’s inventory has also thinned some from what I can tell. I’m also starting to get a little more marque recognition, so I think that the general public is starting to realize that this car exists (at least in my part of town).

Hopefully Porsche will stick to there guns in only importing 12,500 Cayennes for the first 12 months and thus creating the demand buzz that they had wished for at launch.

ESKPORT

Karl,

Thanks for the monthly updates. There's a small dealer near me in Dover, NH and he must have at least 8 "S" in stock, but no Turbos. I haven't seen one move in more than a month.

Eric

PogueMoHone

Since all the Cayennes were supposedly sold to the dealers, does the sales figure represent the volume shipped to dealers in the month.

If so, I wonder how many the dealers sold on to actual customers in the most recent month.

I can tell you from observation, and search, that Cayenne sales are increasing and well optioned cars are harder and harder to find.

I had the thought that maybe Porsche deliberately made some of the more popular options unavailable just to help dealers move cars in inventory. New car fever is tough to resist.

It would be a clever strategy, and we know Porsche is not stupid.

EuroCarNut

The number that Porsche releases each month is the actual number of cars sold and delivered to customers for that month and has no relation to what the dealer orders, buys, or is allocated from the manufacturer in that month.

That whole "we are sold out for the year" stuff was just PCNA letting you know that the manufacturer has made sure that all the cars that they are building for the US will end up on a dealer's lot somewhere and that PCNA corporate will not be stuck with any unwanted inventory at port or at their headquaters in Atlanta. They made sure the dealers bought the whole year's production. Now it looks like the dealers, as a whole, will be able to move all the units and actually create a shortage, that's predicated upon sales keeping up the current pace.

Carrera GT

These numbers are consistent with previous reports from Porsche. I guess it's just the way it's going to be until the economy kicks up.
I noticed the "acres" of Cayennes at the largest of the local dealers has reduced.
The acres of Boxsters and Carreras seem to be suffering "lot rot." A pity really. The Boxster S is arguably one of the finest cars in history, without qualification, but the buyers want the novelty and the "first kid on the block" I guess. Personally, I wish Porsche would build a car for more than three or four years without changing the body lines. Bravo Boxster! '97 to '03 and all but unchanged. Bravo.
And what awaits the Cayenne -- thankless saviour of Porsche revenues and stock price, the maligned work horse of the breed -- will it go even one year without changes?

88clbsport

Although not a lot of auction results for the 2004, some are changing hands. I am seeing them in the mid 50's and they actually seem to be lower here in So Cal. Due to my recently formed business I think I am going to put myself back in the hunt for the Cayenne and take advantage of the tax break.

Are people getting a lot of MSRP on '04's that have purchased?