986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners - View Single Post

longislander1 · 11-30-2006, 06:13 PM

As I posted on PPBB, the Porsche spokesman's explanation is pure BS when you consider other cars in the market had much better October YTD sales figures. Honda S2000 was down around 18%, Mercedes SLK was down only 2.8% and Corvette was UP 17.7%. You can't explain a 42%+ drop by saying the sector was down around 15%.

With 200,000 Boxsters produced, this car is losing its exclusivity. It's gone mass market. As a result, you're getting a lot more first-time buyers (not Porsche purists, as in the past) who want the nameplate because it still has cache. They drive one for a while, say, "What's the big deal?" and then move on to another make. I would bet there are a lot of people who took a first-time chance on a Boxster, were underwhelmed (because they had different expectations), then went on to something like a Lexus SC430 or a Mercedes SLK and found they could be just as happy -- or happier. Unless you can appreciate the finer aspects of handling that you get with a Porsche, you might rather have more wood, leather, a much better stereo and a hardtop that you get with the Lexus -- not to mention the overall better service experience.

All I can say is that I find it hard to believe that my 987S has lost nearly a quarter of its value from MSRP in the 17 months that I've owned it. I had a bad sales experience, a difficult delivery situation (with PCNA not being that much help) and the one-year service from the dealer took four days (for 3.8 hours worth of work, and I'm still waiting four months to hear about my replacement windstop). Then I go to the forums and read about a pretty significant number of low-mileage engine failures, when I've never had a single failure in all the years I've owned a wide variety of other brands. When I put this all together and slap a $60K pricetag on it, I understand why I now have no loyalty to Porsche and probably won't buy another. Maybe I'm not alone and maybe that's the true reason behind the sales decline.

11-30-2006, 06:13 PM	#15
longislander1 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: New York Posts: 146	As I posted on PPBB, the Porsche spokesman's explanation is pure BS when you consider other cars in the market had much better October YTD sales figures. Honda S2000 was down around 18%, Mercedes SLK was down only 2.8% and Corvette was UP 17.7%. You can't explain a 42%+ drop by saying the sector was down around 15%. With 200,000 Boxsters produced, this car is losing its exclusivity. It's gone mass market. As a result, you're getting a lot more first-time buyers (not Porsche purists, as in the past) who want the nameplate because it still has cache. They drive one for a while, say, "What's the big deal?" and then move on to another make. I would bet there are a lot of people who took a first-time chance on a Boxster, were underwhelmed (because they had different expectations), then went on to something like a Lexus SC430 or a Mercedes SLK and found they could be just as happy -- or happier. Unless you can appreciate the finer aspects of handling that you get with a Porsche, you might rather have more wood, leather, a much better stereo and a hardtop that you get with the Lexus -- not to mention the overall better service experience. All I can say is that I find it hard to believe that my 987S has lost nearly a quarter of its value from MSRP in the 17 months that I've owned it. I had a bad sales experience, a difficult delivery situation (with PCNA not being that much help) and the one-year service from the dealer took four days (for 3.8 hours worth of work, and I'm still waiting four months to hear about my replacement windstop). Then I go to the forums and read about a pretty significant number of low-mileage engine failures, when I've never had a single failure in all the years I've owned a wide variety of other brands. When I put this all together and slap a $60K pricetag on it, I understand why I now have no loyalty to Porsche and probably won't buy another. Maybe I'm not alone and maybe that's the true reason behind the sales decline.