Couple questions about Porsche...

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by Ronzi

Porsche already had the Cabriolet available for the wind-in-the-hair 911 folks, and sold that at something like a $10k PREMIUM over the price of the 911 coupe.
How could they possibly justify the price of a 911 Cab if they sold a Box with the same engine and the same, or better, performance at a price $20k LESS than the 911 coupe? They would have destroyed the market for the Cab, a model which accounts for over half the 911 sales in the US. Big, big loss in sales dollars.
The obvious answer is to hobble the bottom-of-the-line Boxster with an undersized (2.5 liter), underpowered (201hp at intro.) engine so that it would be no threat to the 911.
Their only mistake, marketing-wise, was that they made the early Boxster and the first-gen 996 Carrera TOO similar. From the front the only difference was the narrow air intake slit in the middle of the 996 bumper. It really ticked-off the 911 folks to have their $80k Carrera Cab mistaken for a $45k Boxster.

who said the Cab and the Boxster had to poised against each other? This is narrow minded marketing. Porsche needed to think outside the "box".

This coming up with a new name is the pivotal point that I think was a mistake. The price of Boxster is significantly higher than anything else in its class. Was true back then and still is today. With the splash that the Boxster made at the 1993 Auto shows, those well off enough to pay above MSRP Boxster back in 1997 and 1996 weren't buying Boxsters because they were less expensive! They were buying them because of the "gotta have it factor' of the roadster styling. See below





Porsche could have unveiled a futurisitc Carrera Roadster instead of unveiling a "Boxster". And to sweeten the deal they could have offered smaller engines in the Carrera Roadster for the more economically minded much like the Cayenne has a base model with a completely different/less powerful engine. The first Boxsters weren't hitting the pavement until 1996 in Europe, and the revamped 911 996's weren't unveiled until 1999. Some six years after the Boxster concept!! This in normal in the auto industry but Porsche as a company was in the dumps...six years for a kick in the 911 pants was too long.
Had they introduced the Carrera Roadster the 911 resurgence coulld have taken place much sooner.
Cayenne sales have been absolutely stellar, having a cheap option with this car didn't hurt sales. It brought in more buyers without the need to come with an "X3 type" SUV. Porsche compared to BMW is a boutique car maker and their average New car buyer has an income well into the six figure territory. This number has not come down in any signifcant way in all the time the 'cheap' Boxster has been sold.

Now to address the Cab vs. Boxster inter-brand competition delimmea in the sales department, Porsche could have made the price range wider for Carreras to include a Carrera Roadster at low end like the base Cayenne and a plush GT with the all important backseat like the Cab at the high end and in doing so preserved that $20K mark up for Cabs you alluded to. Like the Cayenne ranging from $50K to $120K the Carrera roadsters could have done the same with Roadster vs Cab. And like the Cayenne, greater Carrera sales OVERALL would have resulted in this type of marketing.

By putting a different name on the Carrera roadster in the form of "Boxster", it put Porsche in a situation where they HAD to design an all new less powerful engine and could NEVER put in equal Carrera power, even after a decade! This was absolutely unecessary.... And notably a mid engined Carrera Roadster could have solved a long simmering problem in the racing department by subltly opening the door for a mid engined hard top Carrera, which is something the GT2/GT3 performance driving crowd have always wanted and are willing to pay dollar$ for. And that would have only benefited Porsche racing who may get beaten by the mid engined F430's this year in FIA GT now that the series have gone to an all sprint race schedule with the exception of LeMans. The 911 have always done well in endurance races over Ferrari because of enine reliability. Now that the FIA GT races are short, engine placement is going to a much bigger factor. If a change in the engine Placement of Carreras occurs, it will be *after* they got beat. Instead they could have been pre-emptive without much fan fare since a mid engine Carrera (begun with our Carrera Roadster) was already long part of the product line up...theoretically.

[Ronzi]

I frankly don't understand how having two Carrera lines, one rear-engine and one mid-engine would have done anything but cannibalize sales from the 911.
The whole point of the Boxster exercise was to expand the product line into a market for which they had no existing product and thus gain new customers, not to split sales between two models.
I do, however, agree with you that the Cayman is Porsche's ace-in-the-hole in GT racing. You could also be right that any Cayman-derived racer might show up as some kind of 911 variant, just to keep the 911 on the top of the heap.

[Perfectlap]

Carrera already has at least two lines if you will. The 997s and the 997 GTs.

Probably 10? different Carreras in all. What other sports car has so many variations?
Adding another variation in the form of a two seater Carrera wouldn't have been a stretch at all. Cayennes differing in price from $50-$120K has worked well for Porsche, I don't see how it wouldn't have worked for Carreras.
The wide range of choices 3.2 -3.8 motors, mid engine or rear engine, two seats or "four" seats, rear wheel drive or awd, Turbo or NA, hard top or soft, plush or RS...all these options could have been kept within the Carrera line without missing a beat. Someone who wants a Cab just isn't interested in a two seater I really don't see any cannibalization there. The same buyer that wants a two seater is probably also someone who wants certain handling characteristics that you aren't getting with a heavy, less rigid Cab. Those are just two different buyers. If the Boxster were never made I would probably driving an S2000 and not a 911 Cab.

Knowing that you could get into a NEW 911 for a mere $50K would have definitely brought more buyers a time in the mid 90's when they sold less than 1000 Carreras in North America.

[Darkhamr]

I agree with PL, but at this point in history I'd think they might as well produce a limited race version of the Cayman with the larger engine option and just not allow a/c, or other power options to discourage it from being bought for the street.