Porsche makes everyone look good by tanking 74% in sales.

Porsche has been hit hard by declining sales, particularly in the United States. The company just released its U.S. sales figures for November: 1378 units, down 48 percent compared to the same month last year. The previous months were no better: minus 50 percent in October, minus 45 percent in September, and minus 45 percent in August.

At minus 74 percent last month, the Boxster and Cayman models were the worst performers, although that’s largely due to an imminent model changeover. Face-lifted models were unveiled at the L.A. auto show and will hit the market next March. The Cayenne was down 43 percent and even 911 sales took a 38-percent dive despite a complete overhaul with new engines and transmissions this summer. "Sales jumped briefly after the launch, but at the moment, even the 911 is hit by receding sales," said a company spokesman.

Porsche will halt its 911 production lines in Stuttgart for eight days, and there will be an additional three holidays for employees next year. As a result, production will be curtailed by nearly 1800 units. Porsche's Leipzig plant continues as usual, though, as it is ramping up for production of the Panamera four-door, which will be built beginning next spring. Porsche wouldn't confirm that its target of 20,000 units annually still stands. "We will react flexibly," Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking said last month.

Finnish manufacturer Valmet may suffer, too. Porsche contracts with it for assembly of the Boxster and Cayman, and the company will profit from the imminent launch. But if 911 sales don't jump, we expect Porsche's main plant in Stuttgart to take back a sizable portion of Boxster production. Because of tooling, the Cayman is the only model that cannot be moved from Valmet. Porsche will pull the plug on Valmet by 2012 altogether, as the next-generation Boxster and Cayman will be built at a Magna Steyr plant in Austria.

While VW and Audi have been able to weather the crisis far better than other carmakers in Europe, they too are expected to reduce production in 2009. VW already has dismissed a number of temporary workers.

LETS hope they saved those 28grand per vehicle markup to good use.

njsidekick3 - 12/5/2008 3:21:05 PM

0 Boost

LMAO!!!!

t_sotello - 12/5/2008 3:10:03 PM

+2 Boost

ITS A GOOD THING THEY MAKE $24,000 DOLLAR PROFIT ON EACH CAR!

VISO - 12/5/2008 3:27:57 PM

-3 Boost

Good thing they have VAG.

vettetothecore - 12/5/2008 3:38:11 PM

-1 Boost

lolz i been readin all the arguments. facts are facts but badgewhore was who i expected to spend his life digging bad finance reports bout a bad world economy so basically another way of bashing porsche. lol ur so bias and its hilarious. ur a turd and u got no life. all premium brands are hurtin so wake up and smell the f'n coffee. btw what a biased title. if it was a nissan you wouldnt write about losses and you f'n know it lol.

gt-r and zr1 all the way. no typical econobox chevy or nissan is worth defending.

bmwdrvr - 12/5/2008 4:41:15 PM

+2 Boost

its not any worse than a VW based porshce suv,that to me is alot worse than the panemera

t_bone - 12/5/2008 8:39:21 PM

+1 Boost

^ +1 on that. On the other hand, two wrongs don't make a right.

100octane - 12/7/2008 7:55:42 AM

+1 Boost

on the other hand minus multiplied with minus results in plus.

as stupid as the vw platform suv may sound, it was a success most car companies can only dream of

scorpio - 12/5/2008 7:41:07 PM

+4 Boost

now that's funny.

Denali - 12/5/2008 6:49:21 PM

0 Boost

LMAO @ Porsche again and again

lessoctane - 12/6/2008 2:38:32 PM

+2 Boost

74%! Is Germany talking about bailing them out?!

I've compiled all the sales statistics you've published over the last few days into a post here (with reference's to your site of course):

http://lessoctane.com/posts/the_recession_hits_car_sales

Thanks for making all these stats available!