Re: 11/2016 German Boxster sales

[www.prnewswire.com]


Box/Cay/911 sales for November all down compared to same month 2015.

Macan sales push number to record; CPO sales up 15% for November.

It seems that those turbos just can't move the Boxster / Cayman as fast as the "old" NA models here in North America.

I know I've said this before, but I think Porsche would be smart in offering a version (maybe GTS) with an NA flat six.

Two things that have been mentioned here (I think you brought both to our attention)

1. A 718 Boxster GTS has been spotted being tested
2. The Europeans have discovered that small turbo charged engines aren't getting any better gas mileage than larger NA ones.

Hopefully, it doesn't take Porsche 10 years to figure this one out like it did with Cayman / Boxster pricing.

Just came across the figures for German sports car sales. No surprises here.

November 2015 Boxster sales 192
November 2016 781 Boxster sales 86

More bad news on 718 sales.
Guenter--do you know if sales for the 718 have been down in Germany--like in NA--since the intro date?

German car sales numbers aren't as readily available as they seem to be in NA. Here's what I found by doing some searching of previous articles in Auto Motor Und Sport.

Boxster sales by month in Germany.
Month / 2015 / 2016
July / 272 / 279
Aug. / 154 / 117
Sept. / 168 / 151
Oct. / 197 / 113
Nov. / 192 / 86

Quote
Guenter in Ontario
German car sales numbers aren't as readily available as they seem to be in NA. Here's what I found by doing some searching of previous articles in Auto Motor Und Sport.

Boxster sales by month in Germany.
Month / 2015 / 2016
July / 272 / 279
Aug. / 154 / 117
Sept. / 168 / 151
Oct. / 197 / 113
Nov. / 192 / 86

Wow--that's a huge drop, especially in the home market where performance cars can be driven as they were designed to the on public roads (autobahns).
Roughly a 25% drop by my count, and similar to what has been reported by PCNA in the Aug-Nov sales periods:

Month/ 2015 / 2016
Aug / 771 / 474
Sep / 612 / 421
Oct / 588 / 477
Nov / 588 / 457

I see a trend here..

Quote
MikenOH

I see a trend here..

To state the obvious, different types of vehicles are designed for different purposes. Trucks and vans are mainly used to haul stuff. SUV's are the "in" vehicles - tall station wagons. Cars are used to get us from here to there.

Sports cars are designed to give us excitement and enjoyment during the experience of driving. I think that Chris Harris probably summed it up best. The 982 Boxster is still the best car in its category. It just doesn't provide you with the same level of excitement that the 981 does. People see it as a let down. Not what they expect of a Porsche.

So the trend doesn't surprise me.

Before we attribute the relatively poor Boxster sales to the less fulfilling 718 (a reasonable inference nonetheless), I think we'd have to know what the trend has been for sports cars in the same price (and performance?) range.

Maybe sales of ALL $80k sports cars are down. Maybe $35k Miata's are flying out of the showroom.

Back to Gman's point about the importance of a sports car being exciting to drive, the comments of this journalist regarding the new v. older Acura NSX are interesting.

[www.theglobeandmail.com]


(Incidentally, from what I've read, the new NSX does everything right, technically speaking.)