"(At M-B or even Audi there are at LEAST 3,000 engineers that work on the electronics/gizmo's. At Porsche you get the feeling that some guy named "Alexander" who only show's up to work on Tuesday's say's "da, da, is ok, send it out")"


This is very reminiscent of the Top Gear episode with James May describing the electronics of the Quatroportte v. Panamera & Rapide.....

 

Most of the issues in this thread wouldn't bother me much....but these are just plain silly for a car of this level.

 

why does the stereo always start up when the car stars up??????

 

YES!!!

I KNOW!!! It drives me CRAZY that the stereo is FULL ON every time I start my car!

Having said that, I still passionately LOVE my 4S! It's a small price to pay...and heck, what's so bad about Metallica blasting out in the morning...

 

Dont worry, there are 3000 Audi engineers thinking where the Porsche buttons should be. In my audi the cruise control is exactly the opposite than the Porsche, but the stalk and buttons are the same. In audi, however speed is regulated up and down, Porsche front and back. The audio selection and volume controls are exactly opposite, and the lower button on the right stalk that causes Porsche to clean headlamps, is a view changing button for the trip computer in the audi. As I dive both cars daily, it drives me crazy sometimes. I tried to change something and volume goes up. Try to add speed, but actually turn the cruise control off.

 

guess i'm just not that picky, 'cause most of these things stated don't bug me.

the only two cents i would add is for Porsche to include SOME of the options as standard, instead of nickel n dime time on the consumer for every little option.

 

I agree. Especially since some of these things are "pilot errors" and the solution has been explained.

I'll even rationalize the nickel and dime disappointment you see in making some things optional instead of standard. A car's price not only pays for the raw materials, advertising and salaries of all the people involved in the development, investment and manufacturing of the car but also for the factory and machinery used in that process. So it is to the manufacturer's advantage to spread that cost to as many vehicles as possible. In other words, the more cars you make, the smaller amount each car has to have added to its price to pay for the factory. And the cheaper the car, the more people who can afford it and thus the cascade effect makes more cars sellable (and cheaper).

You'll never get those features for free even if they are standard. The standard price will just go up. Now look at all the threads here where people are deciding what options are worth springing for. Many of these people would be priced out of the market if all the options were unavoidable. And that would mean fewer cars sold so all would have to go up just to pay for the factory.

 

I agree, for the most part, but ... there are costs associated with making things optional, costs associated with blanks where there should be buttons, stalks on some cars, not on others ... plates or blanks where speakers might go if someone chooses an optional stereo system, etc. At some point, I imagine it would be cheaper for the manufacturer to just include certain things if a vast majority of buyers select that option, rather than having to accommodate whether or not to include it. Understandably, the base price may go up slightly, but by the same token, if 95% of buyers of a $100k luxury car opt for the rear window shade, it should just be standard, even if the price were to adjust by a few bucks.

For some of these options, it would seem that the cost of making them optional probably outweighs the revenue from those who select them.

 

Of course you're right. And I'm sure that they thought of all those things, weighed them in their decision-making analysis and decided on the course they took. Public feedback also figures into it and if you recall, charging for floor mats went away only recently. The big difference in standard vs. optional equipment is now showing up on the 991. Navigation on 911's used to be standard only in the Turbo (where it would have been a 90+% option) and is now standard on the lower models. On the 2010 Panamera universal audio connection was an option that was standardized on later models because it was so popular. This ties in exactly with what you said above.

 

I think Audi does a good job of packaging options by having different trim levels (premium, premium plus, prestige) where each trim level costs more but includes more options, seemingly taking into account the options people most often purchase. That way, it feels less like you are being nickled and dimed, even though you are paying more in base price.

I'm not a p-car owner, so here's a question to those who are: how close are the real world prices to the configurator? When it comes time to plunk down the cash, are there option packages that are bundled together thus reducing the configured price or are the configurator prices pretty accurate (notwithstanding any discount you might negotiate)?

 

I read it somewhere that Porsche's profit margin is among the highest in the automotive world, on their high end models the profit is over 75%, where as 5% is the norm for other conventional car makers. I am sure Porsche can afford to include more standard items. Other makers are still making money by including these items and selling for a lot less. Even Mercedes have a lot more standard features and their optional items are much cheaper. For example, parking sensors come standard on many MB models, and it only costs about $400 to add a backup camera, on Porsche, parking sensors with backup camera cost almost $2000. And I bet both MB and Porsche use similar sensor and camera parts.

 

Why cant the adaptive cruise control remember my setting, it always automatically selects distance 3. In Volvo it remembers.

 

I am sure that Porsche knows how to make a nice profit on their cars and options, but IMO your figure of 75% is a bit wild and implausible... Was that a typo??

 

I've read similar accounts and I remember seeing a documentary saying the margins were in the 70+ percentile because they basically have no inventory on hand. They only order products to complete a purchase order. So technically it's easy to have large margins like that. Makes them very attractive to banks. Lots of small startups employ this same tactic and Porsche still runs its business like a small company because it is a small business.

 

I think he meant to say there margin was 25%.