@Sacto Mitch posted:A quick Google for 2020 US P-car sales shows 911, Boxster, and Cayman numbers combined about 12,000 'units'. (In corporate speak, they're all just 'units'.)
All other P-branded vehicles for 2020 - 44,000 units. Compared to the little, two-door cars, that's a lot of units.
@Sacto Mitch posted:Our local Porshee dealer hasn't had any 911's, Boxsters, or Caymans in stock for months. None. Unobtainium.
A bunch of Pecans and Cajuns maybe, or whatever they call those things, but nothing that looks like it would be any fun to drive.
So which is it then? Are people not buying sports cars because they want a minivan with with a 700 hp motor, or because there aren't any actual sports cars available to buy?
... or is it perhaps because when they ARE available to buy, they cost more than a vehicle 3x their size (and in terms of cost to manufacture, ship, store, and own - size matters).
The Boxster was the last Porsche attempt to democratize actual sports car driving, and it was a runaway success that saved the company. In the rush to explain away the dilution of the brand with rebadged Audi crossovers, all of the autojournalist parrots like to point out how many more SUVs are sold than actual fun cars, and how it keeps Porsche afloat. It wasn't always so. I wonder why we assume this is the case now?
@Sacto Mitch posted:I wonder if the marketing types don't think they have to keep making the sports cars to keep up the brand image so they can keep on selling what's now the company's bread and butter.
I think that this (^) statement may be closer to the truth than I want to admit, and it would go a long way towards explaining why Porsche sports cars all cost 6 figures. Halo-cars (Ford GT, Acura NSX, C8 'vette, 911/Cayman/Boxster) are said to exist to give street cred to the high-margin boxes manufacturers really want to build and sell. A quick look at what BMW has become tells me more than I probably want to know. Pretty much all car manufacturers (excluding Ferrari and oddly, Dodge) are just updated versions of "malaise era GM" now. It doesn't mean that it's the only way to sell cars. Wall Street is not always right.
@Sacto Mitch posted:We should probably face facts and admit that pimply-faced adolescents no longer dream of the two-seater speed machines we lusted after. We are a nearly extinct species that no longer gets invited to focus groups.
I don't know. I keep hearing that... but the small sample focus group survey I conduct every time I drive my car literally anywhere indicates that a lot more people dream about "two-seater speed machines" than the marketing types are willing to admit.
The fact that a pan-based speedster just sold on BaT for $78K tells me that there's a lot more pent-up demand for a real and elemental driving experience than any C-suite Übermensch or Madison Avenue autojournalist weenie is willing to admit.
It's ironic and droll that this "genuine" driving experience is now for sale pretty exclusively in "fake" cars.