A northeastern dealer perspective on Cayenne sales trends

Direct from the northeastern front

Dear





001



,

I am also a top insider at a top ten Porsche dealership and agree with everything west coast Porsche guy has to say.   The only thing he failed to address was THE MAJOR MISTAKE OF LAUNCHING A CAR AS A 2003 MODEL ON MARCH 15TH (e tu brute, beware the ides of march), and subsequently releasing 2004 models in April.  These 2003s had the same MSRP as the 2004, but a 4 point lower lease residual.  In addition, as west coast Porsche guy points out, most of these 2003 non-retail





Cayenne





’s were poorly colored and equipped. The ONLY way to sell a 2003 vs. a 2004 is to deeply discount it.  Having to deeply discount a brand new, highly anticipated product at launch can do nothing but tarnish the image of this fine product.  Not wanting to pass on deals in our market, which is overloaded with dealers who have to sell out of their market and to brokers so as to not back up with inventory, we sold many 2003 at large discounts.  So many, in fact, that we have bought some inventory from some smaller dealers whose markets could not support the volume of "pool cars" they received.

The lack of air suspension should not have affected sales as much as it did, but all the auto magazine articles praised it so much in their reviews, that people felt stupid if they bought one without, when in fact it was not available on "S" for the first three months of production, and is really unnecessary unless the customer is a true off-roader (and costs over $3,000.00).  The lack of larger wheels also affect initial sales.  Porsche of all companies should understand how important big wheels are, especially in the





US





.

As the initial glut of inventory and 2003s goes away and dealers have to rely on their ongoing allocation, I fully expect inventories to stay under 60 days, and pricing will stabilize.

We have had more initial warranty repairs than we would have liked, but nothing major or out of line with other new product launches. We are also in a major northeastern city where road conditions are the worst in the country, and anything that can brake usually does.

Lastly, everyone who has test drove the





Cayenne





has bought one and everyone who has

bought one LOVES IT.

Unlike Mr.$12.5m BMW dealer, I think your website is great and I recommend it to all of my clients.  However, your editorial posture occasionally comes off very "anti-dealer" and never seems to tell about good dealers, which I'm sure you agree are many.  But we are car dealers, and we've come to expect being abused by the press - it comes with the territory.  We sell over 1,000 high line, luxury, and exotic automobiles each year and most of our customers would be pleased to share with anyone how satisfied they are with our store.

Keep up the good work.