Porsche about to venture into budget sportsters?

[roman]

So What!

[Frank]

That would definetly be a mess.There is no way that that will ever happen.That is like Rolls Royce making a $50,000 sedan,it will just never happen.....

[MNBoxster]

Hi,

I think it would be great if more people could enjoy the Porsche Driving Experience!

Those expressing concerns about a Low-Budget Porsche, IMHO, are exactly echoing the sentiments of the 911 Crowd when the 914 and the Boxster were first announced. The Boxster or the 914 do not appear to have Tarnished the Marque in the least, in fact, again IMHO, they raised it.

Any notion that a Multi-National Mass Producer of approx. 80k Vehicles annually is somehow a Boutique Automaker also strikes me as Off-the-Mark - a dated, Romantic, notion. I say "Bring it On!!"...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

[Ronzi]

Perfectlap wrote:
"...have all the 914 banned from events. THEY ALWAYS BREAK DOWN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE EVENT!
spill oil all over the racing line ..."

Back when I had the 914 I took it to a PCA auto-x class in the spring of the year.
One of the exercises was 3-lap skid pad, theoretically done so you could learn some throttle steering, etc.
Three laps around a skid pad was no big deal for the dry sump 911s, but with my wet sump 914, the oil all sloshed to one side, up and out I don't remember where exactly. When I got done with the run, it deposited about half the sump contents onto the pavement in a big puddle.
In a couple years running that car, it never failed on course. But I still remember that puddle.

[Perfectlap]

considering its main competitiors, Porsche builing 35,000 North American cars is definitely a boutique automaker. I mean Honda probably sold that many S2000's in California, Florida, and New York alone.

Compared to Maserati or Lamborghini sure Porsche is producing allot of cars. But Porsche isn't competing for sales with those guys really.

[Frank]

Very well put Jim.That definetly leaves a different perspective.I still don't think it is likely but overall it could be good for Porsche.

[Brucelee]

"Bruce,
I believe that VW had come up with a nice kick ass roadster from a concept car they had shown in Europe. Why would you thnk that the would use a rebadge Boxster? Porsche doing that would be killing the Boxster marque as I see it. Pretty stupid and lame"

Never overestimate the mangement of a car manufacturer. It has been done before and likely will be again.

Porsche MAY sidestep this mishap and they may not.

[natecooper]

It wouldn't suprise me. I mean since '93 Wendelin Wiedeking has turned the company around by doing things that many purists think were bad moves (Boxster, Cayenne). Purely from a business point of view he is obviously trying to grow the company, recently he quoted that he wants to sell over 100,000 cars per year within the next few years. A lower model Boxster sure could help this. The thing that confuses me, from what I've read, they are already making the worst margins on the Boxster compared to anything else in their line up. This means they would need to bring costs WAY down on the price of production. Hell, I'm not opposed to owning a 914 as my daily driver with my Boxster in the garage.