Quote:
JimFlat6 said:
Comrade nberry

I have had dealings with Porsche in the US since they were the Porsche-Audi Group in the 70's. At the executive level, Porsche has always had a tradition of dictating to their US dealers what will be, will be!

In the late '80s Porsche was going to eliminate all of their franchised dealers(!)(they still don't like the American car dealer system)and replace them with just 2 Factory owned delivery centers in the US. The lawsuits started and they reversed their decision.

Porsche management definitely has a command "you will take this and shut up" mindset. They really do not listen to their USA dealers. If you knew of some of their stranger product plans in the 90's you would be rolling on the floor in comic spasms. With that as background,currently they are doing pretty good financially!

To say that they are wreaking havoc on their customer base is bombastic. Porsche is not some altruistic organization that builds cars. Its a small German company with icon status and big egos. They look at the overall picture of production, marketing and financial costs. They do whats best for them and offer customers what management decides. so take it or leave it!

Their current financial statements show that they know what they are doing. If you have data to prove they don't please share it.



Do you deny that Boxster sales are down over 30%?

Do you deny that 911 sales are down over 20%?

Do you deny that the CGT though a wondeful car is having difficulty selling the 1500 cars they propose to sell?

Do you deny that the GT2 was a marketing disaster?

Do you deny that approximately 50% of the profit in the financial statement is due to currency hedging?

Do you deny that resale values in of the 996/987 are abysmal?

If I was the CEO facing the above facts about my company I think I would be worried.

I realize Porsche knows what it is doing. That is why they are headed in SUV, sedan and who knows what other market. I suspect long ago they concluded they would milk the 911 as long as they had visionless 911 loyalist buying it. They are very good at what they do..exploiting their ardent base.

Finally the one time they deigned to do something radical 987/996 it was a terrific success story. But they began to believe their own propaganda and started over producing causing damage to the marque and owners value.

The only reason Porsche is not in bigger trouble is because for now they do not have a worthy competitor in their market niche which also explains their arrogance.