Sobre los porschetos de 4 puertas

[Porschete]

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pi ... w1icCFh_Dg

Porsche Flirts With the Heresy of Adding Two Doors: Doron Levin
July 18 (Bloomberg) -- Porsche AG is preparing once more to test the boundaries of its storied brand, while trying to maintain a flow of earnings that's the envy of larger rivals.

The company, whose name resonates for a cult of owners who think little on earth could be as wonderful as their Porsche sports cars, three years ago expanded into the market for sport- utility vehicles. It now may be considering a four-door car.

Many predicted that the Cayenne SUV, introduced at the end of 2002, would flop or alienate the German automaker's longtime customers, many of whom balked at seeing the Porsche badge on anything but a sports or race car.

Since then, worldwide production of the Cayenne has reached about 100,000, about a third more than the company's original forecast, Porsche spokesman Michael Baumann said.

U.S. Cayenne sales through June were 6,575, down 24 percent from a year earlier, in a slide that sometimes occurs in the third year of a vehicle's production run. Overall U.S. sales were 16,126, up 2.7 percent.

The Stuttgart-based automaker now is in the final stage of a project to determine whether it will build a four-door car to compete with, say, the $65,000 Mercedes CLS500. Along with the Cayenne and the 911 sports coupe, Porsche builds the Boxster roadster.

Porsche `Emboldened'

``The sales of Cayenne have emboldened Porsche,'' said Joe DeMatio, senior editor of Automobile magazine, who was invited to a European preview of a car that Porsche has developed called the Cayman S, a version of the Boxster with a steel roof. ``I suspect they will do some sort of four-door car, maybe something that could be a crossover,'' or a vehicle that combines elements of a car and a sport-utility vehicle.

The Cayman S, named after a type of alligator found in South America, can reach a top speed of 171 miles per hour and goes on sale in January for about $60,000.

Baumann only would say that the company is investigating the feasibility of a fourth model line, will complete its work this summer, and may have more to say at the 61st International Motor Show in Frankfurt in early September. The German magazine Der Spiegel on July 2 said Porsche is planning a four-door sports coupe it will call Panamera that will sell for about 100,000 euros ($120,000).

Smallest, Most Profitable

Porsche, one of the world's smallest carmakers, also is Europe's most profitable. Its profit margin -- net income as a percentage of sales -- has averaged almost 10 percent the past three years. Its common stock is closely held; its preferred shares have risen 94 percent over the past two years.

Of the 31 equity analysts who follow Porsche's preferred shares, 14 recommend ``buy,'' 10 ``hold'' and seven ``sell.'' The stock's dividend yield is 0.61 percent.

In its latest fiscal year, Porsche's net sales of 3.65 billion euros was about 4.1 percent that of Volkswagen AG, Germany's biggest automaker.

VW's profit margin, by contrast, has averaged a bit more than 1.6 percent over the past three years.

Prior to the decision to build Cayenne, Porsche executives engaged in discussions with dealers, enthusiast clubs and die-hard owners -- particularly in the U.S., its largest market --to discern viewpoints on an SUV.

Pros and Cons

What emerged from the talks was a mixture of pros and cons, spiced with some sympathy for the automaker's difficulty generating enough capital to support research and development. The profit from a small number of pricey sports cars just doesn't cover costs as in years past. And the costs keep rising.

``In the short term (a four-door coupe) doesn't appeal to me,'' said Mike Dushane of Ann Arbor, Michigan, who sold his 2002 Boxster S a few weeks ago. ``If it allows the company to make more money, remain independent and make more sports cars, then it's fine.''

Dushane and others have urged Porsche to return to its roots by entering more races, as it did in the 1950s and gained fame in Europe as the David to the Goliaths named Ferrari and Mercedes. Accordingly, the automaker is stepping up its racing program in the U.S. and entering a prototype racer in the American LeMans Series to be run in Atlanta on Oct. 1.

Baumann said that the success of Cayenne has helped justify opening new Porsche dealerships across the Middle East and Asia, notably in China and India. ``Without the Cayenne, we wouldn't have had a strategy to grow in these markets,'' he said.

As with the Cayenne, the trick for Porsche will be to convince motorists that the pedigree on anything with four doors is authentic.



To contact the writer of this column:
Doron Levin in Southfield, Michigan, at dlevin5@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: July 18, 2005 00:01 EDT

[hellion]

Creo que no tengo mucho mas que añadir al tema. Esta claro que Porsche es una sociedad mercantil como otra cualquiera que no vive del aire. Destacar el volumen de ventas del Cayenne que ha superado en un tercio las previsiones de la propia marca aparte del desarrollo que ha supuesto tanto economico como de expansión para Porsche.
Ahora bien, A que espera Porsche a entrar en la F-1? Porque permite que Ferrari se lleve todo el centro de atención?
Esta claro que el Panamera atraera nuevos clientes a la marca y esto contribuira a hacer mas caja y a hacer a la marca mas grande si cabe.

[porschistaviajero]

Cuando mas alto se sube, mas dura puede ser la caida.

[Finisterrae944]

Mas vale dar pasos cortos y firmes que largos y tropezar