I just saw this article on eGMCarTech and it seemed a little questionable. No doubt that Porsche wants to increase sales, but Porsche has seemed to be managing supply in order to maintain demand, thus maintaining price by reducing discounts. I'm not sure the 991 will sell at the rates that these numbers show...

Which may mean 991 discounts and 997s holding their values...a good thing all around.

http://www.egmcartech.com/2011/09/12/porsche-aims-to-double-sales-of-911/

Sources within Porsche management say that the company plans on selling 40,000 units a year of the latest 2012 911 sports coupe over the model’s lifecycle. That figure is double when compared to that of 2010.

Last year, Porsche sold 20,000 units of the 911, its flagship model.

If Porsche does end up selling more than 40,000 units of the new 2012 911 Carrera – that will make it the ‘most successful 911 of all time.’

The 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera will hit dealerships in Europe in Dec. and in the United States in March 2012.

 

Typical modern (read Harvard MBA)business model. Aim for a random number of sales because you deserve profit. How about this idea? Build the best car in the world at a great price and you will sell plenty of them to make profit. Build your business with passion and the profits will come.

 

Some comments:

• The 20,000 units sold in 2010 may be a significantly lower level than average number of annual sales for the 997, due to the anticipation of the new model coming out. What was the average annual sales volume for the 997 over its life cycle? Does anyone have those numbers?
• Porsche has definitely stepped up advertising with its Every Day ad campaign. I have seen the advertisements on TV 4 or 5 times on channels as diverse as the Food Network and Sci Channel. I rarely watch TV, so that made it even more surprising to me. But they were all during the same week in early August. Has anyone else noticed the commercials?
  
• Discounts would increase demand as price is the theoretical tangent between the supply and demand curve. Nissan came out with the GTR in 2009 at $69,850 and the 2011 now MSRPs for $89,950. Offering discounts would not be beneficial to the price of used models as the used models have to compete against the new models.
• Let's hope it is from advertising and the 20,000 units is not that far off from the average annual volume of the 997 and not through discounts. Public companies put out with targets that they truly believe are achievable, for liability reasons (shareholder suits), for stock performance reasons and maybe more importantly for bonus and career length reasons for management. Performance based stock option awards go down when you miss your goals. The value of the options owned go down when the company does not meet what it tells the market.

 

It doesn't really matter if you build a car with a flux capacitor. If the car costs over $100k, you just aren't going to sell very many of them. Rich people aren't just going to drop out of the sky.

 

Speaking of advertising, check out this link to the videos for Porsche's My Daily Magic Campaign. MAYBE. IF advertising is effective in drawing attention, that will be beneficial maintaining prices after the 991's. Either way,some really good videos in there.

http://mydailymagic.com/

 

Very true. I think if anything, there will be less "rich" people do to the whole recession here in the US. I believe it is only to get worst before it gets better, which is a challenge for porsche. I think Porsche is expecting a spike in sales due to China because it sure ain't gonna happen here in the states.

How did you arrive at this conclusion? Can you please explain your logic because you kind of lost me. Thanks in advanced.

Spot on. +1 Rep point for you.

 

My basic thinking is that oversupply of 991s will force dealers to discount earlier in the product cycle that normal. My assumption is that poor 991 sales will have a side affect of greater 997 values.

Of course, If considerable 991 discounts occur, that might do the opposite to 997 values as well...

Only time will tell.

 

Thanks for the explanation. I was thinking the exact thing, but I wanted to see if maybe there was something I wasn't noticing or didn't pick up on.

However, there is one major assumption here. Are US dealers going to order a lot of 991s in this recession? Idk. I hope they do cause that will mean fat discounts for my wallet if they don't sell well, especially on the lime gold ones.

(btw this is my 100th post! Whoa!!! haha.)

 

LOL! I actually want to see what the Lime Gold looks like in person.

Maybe Germany can lend the money to Greece to buy the cars and in turn boost the German economy with more bad paper. And when they eventually agree to a zero coupon 30 year balloon on the debt, nobody will call it a default!

 

In 2010 they were still holding 2009 leftovers which were overproduced to the point that they practically had to give them away . So they cut production into a stronger economy (2010) only to double production in current market times ?

I think they are missing the boat .

Plus they raised the price . Ten years ago a nicely equipped 996 cost 80K and now a 991 will run 120K with nice options . That's a huge jump over time.
I don't see the same proportional climb in many other cars .

I don't think the 991S is exclusive enough to attract an exotic car shopper and it prices out a lot of shoppers. I also don't think the Turbo if priced at 200+K will attract previous Turbo owners who got accustomed to 130 -165K .

 

I'm discount driven.... Discount the car enough and I'll be right in to buy another car... In 2009 a nicely equiped Porsche was around 100K(sticker).. if you're telling me that the 991 car is going to cost me 120K(sticker)... I'm thinking I'm in trouble...

 

I don't know what it tells us (if anything), but my local dealer has a good supply of 911s (including a leftover new 2010), but can't keep the Cayenne or Panamera in stock.

Also, I don't see how they can double the sales of the 911 just because they want to. Maybe they expect the novelty of a new model to make a difference, but doubling sales seems like a stretch. Plus, the economy appears to be slowing down again ...

 

So those are worldwide numbers? Anyone have the annual sales volume numbers for the 977 by year? Must be broken out in IR presentations...

 

The configurator is already up on the Porsche website . A car with some of the peformance upgrades like PDCC and PDK and a few other goodies optioned up to 122K pretty effortlesssly . That's still less than a current GtS but back in 2007 those prices bought a Turbo.

 

Wow pretty impressive - Porsche has got it right!