Porsche Changes
Measuring recent sales, Porsche is no longer a sportscar company that also sells SUVs, it's an SUV company that also sells sportscars.
So far this year, Canadians have purchased twice as many units of the Cayenne SUV from the German company as Boxsters and 911s combined. After the first two months of the year, Porsche North America reported that it sold 21 Boxsters and 45 911s in Canada (that's 66 cars in total), versus 133 Cayennes.
The same trend is evident in the U.S., since our American cousins have purchased 844 Porsche sportscars so far in 2004, versus 1,374 SUVs.
Unfortunately for Porsche, this is not all added volume, as the sales numbers for the company's famous sportscars have collapsed since the arrival of the Cayenne about a year ago. At first, the company ascribed this change to the novelty of the SUV, but now it looks as if a fundamental change has settled in for the firm from the Stuttgart region of Germany.
In the first two months of 2003, Canadians bought 118 sportscars, while Americans bought 1,345. So car sales dropped by about 40 percent with the arrival of the SUV in both countries and seem to be staying at that level.
This could of course change with the launch of the new 911 model (codenamed the 997) next year following its debut at this September's Paris auto show, but who knows.
Who also knows what will happen if the company launches the four-door sedan that it's expected to offer next?
With regard to that new 911, details are of course sketchy this early in the game, but spy shots show that the general shape will be retained but there will be noticeable changes to the look. Specifically, round headlights will return and there'll be bigger taillights.
The big news involves the growth of the flat-six engine to 3.8 litres and a requisite increase in horsepower and torque, but that's not really a surprise for Porsche. Certainly it's not as big a surprise as it becoming an SUV company.