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Old 11-22-2005, 05:38 AM   #9
limoncello
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: South Carolina
Posts: 435
Car pricing is a funny thing. It's also variable, in the sense that a given car might sell for $42,000 one week and the same car sell for $46,000 the next week. Just depends on who wants it.

See the attached sales figures for US autos for September (bottom after text). Couple of thoughts - notice who the low volume leader is? Porsche. A remarkable car, and I love driving the Box more than anything I've ever owned. But the small market size introduces flux into the pricing - a car is only worth what someone is willing to pay at some given moment.

Toyota Corolla? Very stable pricing because of the volume of cars sold. A commodity if you will. Take a 2004 Corolla with XXXX miles to auction and you can predict within 50-75 dollars what it will bring. And there is less spread between wholesale and retail prices. It's a commodity.

Porsches? Bigger spread between wholesale and retail. They may move quickly, and they may not - especially a yellow car since 50% of the Porsche buyers want silver. The low volume market can be a tricky place, but Porsche has obviously figured out how to dwell, and thrive, there. Even in well managed strategies, though, occassionally one slips through the cracks (the 2004 yellow car). And it's a bargain for some lucky buyer in the right place at the right time. Doesn't mean by any stretch that the overall economics of Boxsters has changed at all - it hasn't (the sky is not falling). Just a isolated quirk in a low volume system.

And back to the original post - yes, someone should jump on it.

http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosinsider/0410/03/autos-291173.htm
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