LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Porsche Automobil Holdings said car sales in the year to July 31 fell 24% to 75,200 units, while revenue fell 12% to 6.6 billion euros. "Although the next few months will remain difficult, we are moderately optimistic for calendar 2010," said Michael Macht, chief executive

 

yeah...sounds about right.

 

That's why there are smoking hot deals!!! I paid $55K for my $104K stickered '06 Carrera 4S.

Never would've gotten that deal even 1 or 2 years ago.

 

2 years ago would be 2007. Of course you couldn't buy a 104K 1 year old car for 55K, right? No matter how bad things could ever be.

I must be missing something?

 

Wonder how far off 911 sales are in that number? Bet they have suffered the most.

 

Wonder why unit volume is down twice as much as revenue. Has the mix radically changed? Have prices increased that much (given the good deals over recent months, hardly seems likely)?

 

I speculate that the biggest adjustment period will be if Porsche cuts 2010 production and the 12-20 percent deals vanish .
Sales have gotten accustomed to sellimg cars and buyers are getting the warm fuzzys on getting 10/15/20 grand off on a car.

The sales folks have forgotten how quiet it gets and the buyers forgot the days of "4 percent off MSRP " .
I feel that sales are on the losing end of coping. The buyer can simply walk away and feel sad about not having the car but glad that he has the money saved.

Porsche did a great job with CPO .
In my opinion there is tremendous room for improvement in leasing .

 

Right! a 3 year old car in 07 would not have been 50% less... they were more like 70% of MSRP. The value on these has somewhat collapsed as of late. I had been watching the prices for a few years before I found the exact car I wanted at 'low' price.

 

Not sure where this assumption of production cuts is coming from as I've not seen anything directly from Porsche or stock analysts. Unless there are layoffs in Germany, which are very difficult - almost impossible, how do you reduce production while maintaining a stable workforce?

 

Easy - you just keep to pay people to not show up at work.

 

I was told by at least three dealers that their allocations for 2010 are significantly down, I certainly realize that may not be the most reliable source.

Another factor I haven't heard mentioned for a while is the weak US$ to Euro exchange rate.

 

It may be funny, but it is no joke. Actually, you pay people to show up, but not to work. Production slows, you encourage sabaticals, long vacations, beer fest lunches, etc. I think the Germans already have 6 weeks of vacation...

Controlling the model launch will help them to stablize prices, but the increased profits will be made on many fewer vehicles. Funny my '07 was the first delivered in PA - in September. 2010's won't be out until Nov. or Dec. That is really late.

 

Makes sense. Keeping a limited inventory maintains value as too many vehicles flooding the market in these tough times would be a cause deep discounts. Something Porsche would best avoid to maintain their luxury status and value.

 

This is not far from likely. I ran an R&D team in Germany and the Work Councils are very powerful and dictate what can be done with all aspects of employee management. This may be the only thing they can do.

 

I checked the YTD sales numbers as of August 31st 2009, here is the breakdown:

All 911's -> Down 23.5%
All Cayennes -> Down 34.5%
All Boxster/Cayman -> Down 49.5%