911 in top 12 most profitable cars..
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/autos/1111/gallery.most_profitable_cars/11.html
--
"Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out."
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/autos/1111/gallery.most_profitable_cars/11.html
"Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out."
Dec 2, 2011 9:31:06 PM
Indeed. I've known this for awhile. One of my mentors was a 20 year veteran of Land Rover and told me Porsche has some of the best and deepest profit margins in the mass market automotive business.
The 1st Gen Boxster literally saved the company from the financial ruins it found itself in the 90's. It gave them the profit they needed to sustain operations and get refocused while delivering greater margins than the 911 at a lower price point.
dr.j:
Gross profits of 75% on the Turbo would be pretty amazing if true, but maybe it's possible, didn't Wiedeking say a few years ago that a 911 C2 and Boxster cost the same amount to build?
Contribution margin from the next Turbo built on the line might be 75%, but what about something closer to net profits? One needs to subtract the amortized model-specific development costs over and above the base model figures to see how much net margin a Turbo contributes over the life of the model.
The Turbo might share in the basic platform development costs, but it has lots of extra model-specific engineering cost that has to be expensed over a much smaller production volume compared to the bread-and-butter cars. Exactly how much more engineering per vehicle is deducted from the gross margin to arrive at a semblance of net is probably beyond the scope of the reporters' insight. But I'll wager the gross minus amortized model-specific costs is much less than 75%.
--
Mike
2005 Carrera GT + 2008 Tesla Roadster +2010 Panamera Turbo + 2001 BMW Z8 + 1972 BMW 3.0 CSi +2009 Bentley Arnage T