Is the Boxster the unloved stepchild?

[thstone]

Its surprising that Porsche hasn't followed BMW down the path of maximizing the sales of each model through model proliferation.

For example, the 5-series is available as a Sedan, Estate, and GT. Three engines are offered across these models along with an option for all wheel drive. And of course, there is the M option. Similar configurations are available for all of the major BMW models (1, 3, 5, and 7).

BMW has shown that this proliferation of models results in higher total sales. Sure, there might be a few low end 7-series sales cannibilized by high end 5-series buyers but overall the company has demonstrated that its earns more sales in total.

Porsche takes this approach for the 911 (Carerra, CarerraS, convertible, 4, Turbo, and GT-3) but surprisingly not for the Boxster or Cayman. Some might say that they are leaving a lot of potential sales on the table.

If I were running Porsche (insert a lot of laughter here!), I would merge the Boxster and Cayman into one car model (as the convertible or coupe options) and then proliferate the model line as discussed above. I would have the upper end of the Boxster/Cayman line overlap the lower one-third of the Carerra line. This way, any Boxster/Cayman sales that came at the expense of Carerra sales would be about the same revenue.