Running The Numbers - Porsche Makes An Incredible Average Of $17,250 On Every Vehicle Sold

Obviously - it makes it harder to justify being in the Mass Market entry level auto business where cars are often sold at a loss. If it were not for corporate average fuel economy requirements - I would bet that many manufacturers would do like GM did at least in some cases with Opel- and jettison its money losing cars.

Porsche's massive profit per vehicle is due to two factors:

1) The higher average price per vehicle sold.

2) The cost savings it receives due to being part of Volkswagen Auto Group.

Porsche doesn't sell $35K cars so it only produces higher-priced, lower volume, higher margin cars compared to Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi.

Porsche shares a lot of platforms, R&D etc. with other Volkswagen Auto Group brands such as Audi. For example, the Porsche Macan and Audi Q5 are built on the same platform as are the Porsche Cayenne and Audi Q7.

Aspy11: -1

...so do you see Bentleys and Lamborghinis as "basically VWs" also?

$17.2K is only half of the story. You do realize that dealer profit is separate from manufacturer profit right? Then inevitably deductions come from the gross profit to reduce the net profit as much as possible.

There are several reasons why Porsche now equips Caymans and Boxsters with 4 cylinder turbo engines and one of those reasons is to try to shift U.S. buyers up to the more profitable 6 cylinder 991 cars. With the presence and strength of the Macan, Porsche may feel they don't need a sub 100K sports car. Whereas the sale of 718 Boxsters and Caymans worldwide have increased, in the US, they've decreased. In many countries the smaller engine avoids tax based on displacement. In the U.S., this isn't an issue, and the idea of a 4 cylinder Porsche that (well-equipped) sells for nearly 90K will have folks looking at new or lightly used 991's.

I think most people believe that anyone spending $90k on a Boxster is nuts. Way more value in a lightly used 911 or 911S. But considering the infamous options list on Porsche cars, the per unit profit margin is not a big surprise. Dash vents trimmed in leather? Right this way....$$$$

And the dealers are making well over $10K and every sale

Huge emphasis on "well over" and more like a lot more. Dealer invoices these days are usually NOT the cost of the car to the dealer by the way.