Interesting Porsche news

This could prove interesting.

FRANKFURT -- German sportscarmaker Porsche could revive the classic two-seater race car 550 Spyder that would be cheaper than the Boxster, CEO Matthias Mueller told a German newspaper.

"I can imagine that such a modern version of the famous 'James Dean' Porsche would be well-received by our customers," daily Handelsblatt cited Mueller as saying in an interview published on Thursday.

Mueller said any new version would not be a retro model. "A small open top two-seater would be good for us," he said.

Mueller told Automotive News Europe earlier this year that Porsche is assessing whether to launch a small midengine sports car as part of the company's product expansion plans as it seeks to boost annual global sales to more than 200,000 units by 2018, up from 97,000 in 2010

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110721/ANE/110729981/1496#ixzz1SkWJ0L1F

hmm... cheaper than the Boxster? I would imagine it would use some VW Turbo inline 4 engine to keep costs down.

That would be awesome. I cannot imagine that it wouldn't sell like hotcakes.

jimbob_racing wrote: That would be awesome. I cannot imagine that it would sell like hotcakes.

FYP.

Plenty of choices available in 2 seat fun cars. No single one sells more than 20k annually, worldwide.

Pretending that you'll sell 100k is under the influence.

I can't imagine what Porsche would make in an open-top 2-seater that would be cheaper than a Boxter but still worthy of slapping Porsche badges on, nor why they would think that could coexist with the Boxter.

I'd rather see VAG scrap the FF New Beetle and replace it with a similarly priced, similarly powered RR New Beetle and give people a poor-man's 911.

If they come with an air cooled twincam 4 like the original Carrera, I want one.

alfadriver wrote:

jimbob_racing wrote: That would be awesome. I cannot imagine that it would sell like hotcakes.

FYP. Plenty of choices available in 2 seat fun cars. No single one sells more than 20k annually, worldwide. Pretending that you'll sell 100k is under the influence.

Dunno what the 2010 numbers are, but Mazda made 900,000 Miatas over 22 years. That's about 41,000 per year. Granted, demand has dropped off in the last couple of years like it has for all convertibles, but I'm pretty sure it's still selling over 20k per year.

100k a year is pretty optimistic, though.

Waiting on Maroon92's response.

Seems strange. It would be too cheap to be a real Porsche to the diehards, especially with a VW engine. Then, if they make it perform it could challenge the Boxster. Did they not look back into their own past and see what happened when the 914 came to be.

That being said, I'd be interested to see what they come up with. Boxsters have never appealed to me and modern 911's I can appraciate, but in no way lust after. As fine as they are, I haven't really been attracted to a P car since the 80's. (Disclaimer: If someone were to give me a GT3 I would not complain one bit, but I can never see buying one.)

alfadriver wrote:

jimbob_racing wrote: That would be awesome. I cannot imagine that it would sell like hotcakes.

FYP. Plenty of choices available in 2 seat fun cars. No single one sells more than 20k annually, worldwide. Pretending that you'll sell 100k is under the influence.

I don't think they're looking to sell 100k of this car alone. The article mentions growing their total sales volume through product expansion. Sounds like there are other products on the drawing board in addition to this particular car.

I'm confused as to Porsche's overall plan. Something on Jalopnik (I think) was making mention that they have a smallish 2-door SUV in the pipes, as well.

ReverendDexter wrote: I'm confused as to Porsche's overall plan. Something on Jalopnik (I think) was making mention that they have a smallish 2-door SUV in the pipes, as well.

Might be something based on the Tiguan platform.

I thought the Tiguan and Cayenne platform were the same?

Porsche hot hatch?

And in other news, a Porsche Scirroco?

Keith wrote:

alfadriver wrote:

jimbob_racing wrote: That would be awesome. I cannot imagine that it would sell like hotcakes.

FYP. Plenty of choices available in 2 seat fun cars. No single one sells more than 20k annually, worldwide. Pretending that you'll sell 100k is under the influence.

Dunno what the 2010 numbers are, but Mazda made 900,000 Miatas over 22 years. That's about 41,000 per year. Granted, demand has dropped off in the last couple of years like it has for all convertibles, but I'm pretty sure it's still selling over 20k per year. 100k a year is pretty optimistic, though.

Last I saw, the Miata was currently well under 20k worldwide. Sure, it had great years. But it's gotten to it's steady state sales.

And this new Pcar has to be in a similar price point to even be close in sales. Let alone expanding all P cars to meet 100k additional.

Unless they make a small SUV/CUV with a 4 cyl that will sell in large numbers....

I think Porsche is a bit confused as to what marketing direction (other than green, and more variants of the 911) it should take.

A two seater cheaper than the Caymen with a Porsche badge. No. Never going to happen. The last thing Porsche wants is to be known as builder of "cheap cars, too." They've been there, done that 912, 914, and it's come back to bite them. I DO see them expanding their for-hire engineering/design division.

jstein77 wrote: I thought the Tiguan and Cayenne platform were the same?

That would be the Tuareg, not the Tiguan. (Tiguan is a crossover based on the Golf/Jetta platform)

As long as smaller and cheaper also equals SIGNIFICANTLY LIGHTER. That would be interesting. I am talking <2600 #s. Otherwise, why bother? Other than to sell cars to people who want a Porsche for the badge.

This has been discussed for a while, mostly because platform sharing with a VW roadster keeps costs down. If VW has a really fun little convertible, and Porsche has a version with twice the horsepower, then everyone wins. Like Tuareg V6 and Cayenne Turbo. They are talking about a Diesel for VW IIRC.

DukeOfUndersteer wrote: Waiting on Maroon92's response.

Whatever it is, I will probably hate it. (That's the response you were looking for, right?)

Actually, it sounds like a winner to me. If Porsche can come in to the 30 - 40,000 dollar market, I think they could potentially sell a BUNCH of them.

I could see it packing the Golf R / Audi TT RS 2.0T with about 300 horsepower.

Should be a ton of fun, and the tuners (Revo?) could have some fun with it.

In reply to Maroon92:

yep. We can get a TON of power out of the new TSI stuff as well as the new TDI stuff.

Maroon92 wrote:

DukeOfUndersteer wrote: Waiting on Maroon92's response.

Actually, it sounds like a winner to me. If Porsche can come in to the 30 - 40,000 dollar market, I think they could potentially sell a BUNCH of them. I could see it packing the Golf R / Audi TT RS 2.0T with about 300 horsepower. Should be a ton of fun, and the tuners (Revo?) could have some fun with it.

I'd recommend coming out with a price on the low-end of $30-$40K mark. Even the Porsche cachet may not be enough if the price level is significantly higher than an MX5's. The same recommendation holds true for any other new platforms the company hopes to introduce.

If Porsche plans to double production in the next eight years, they have have the expertise to engineer some creative parts-bin products. None of that means anything if the pricing is too high, though.

Porsche will NOT lower it's brand to compete on price with the MX-5. They will always try to keep that cache. The Boxster is significantly higher in price than its mainstream competition...Doesn't seem to matter.

So, Boxters are not in the $30,000-40,000 price range already? Wow. Seems to me a Boxster is a $25-30k car at best. I'm scared to google them to see what they sell for.

Considering that BMW had some success with the MINI, one presumes that Porsche could pull off a similar move. The biggest issue is diluting the brand with a cheap car, which BMW largely avoided by creating a new marque.