I don't know how German cars stay in business
 

Maybe it's high profits.....

At the end of last week, Porsche announced that it had its most successful fiscal year ever. The German automaker attributed its success to a six-percent increase in production compared to last year—that's 237,778 vehicles sold worldwide—13 percent more employees, and an operating profit of $4.1 billion—an increase from 15.8 percent in 2015 to 17.4 percent. According to Bloomberg, Porsche rakes in $17,250 of net profit on every car it sells, which is considerably higher than the $5,000 that both Mercedes-Benz and BMW make on every one of their cars.

They make very good vehicles. We love our X3 and 228ix. BMW makes approximately 5K profit per vehicle. They are offering 40 new or refined vehicles this year and next.

I wonder if porsche hasn't done a good job of

1. marketing the brand image
2. and constraining supply like diamonds so that they aren't having to do rebates etc to clear the lots.

simple law of supply and demand. but you have to be careful to be sure the cars live up to the reputation.
don't do a Cadillac of the 70's and 80-'s and just make large luxobarges that performed like crap and fell apart.

Ray makes a good point. At least with Porsche, the quality is definitely there across the lineup. If one is to believe the various quality rankings that have been referenced here recently, Porsche is at or near the top when it comes to well engineered and well built vehicles. But there is no doubt the Porsche brand adds value too. Compare Porsche to stablemates VW and Audi.

Mercedes and BMW seem to be getting a lot of mileage out of their brands as well. The three-point star still carries a huge amount of cache with consumers. And the BMW brand continues to bask in glory of past legends, from the 2002 to the 20th century 3 and 5 series. Both companies still make some very good cars but only a few models can be said to be class-leaders.

Meanwhile, GM soldiers on under the weight of past product sins, even though some GM models are now among the best in the world.. GM and Ford can thank their lucky stars that America loves pickups and that the Germans (and the Japanese) have never been especially competitive in the U.S. full-size pickup truck market. (As good as the Tacoma may be, it is vastly outsold by the F150/250 and the 1500 series.) So that raises a question. Why haven't the Germans gone after the hugely profitable US pickup market? After all, they have certainly done well with their SUVs.

The introduction of the 2 series from BMW has gotten them back to the days of the 2002. This series has been recognized as one of the top vehicles from many consumer and auto critics. The 3 series are too sedan now even the M3. The 3- 2 series models(228i, M240 and M2) have been rated among the best small performance sedans in the world. The new M2 is being compared to the early M3 for balance, handling and reasonable pricing. I have a 228ix and Bill has a M235. The power from my 4 cyl. twin turbo is amazing, handles great and gets awesome mileage. It is one of their top sellers.

Ray, I have heard and read the same when it comes to the 2 series. It would be my run-away first choice if I was in the market for something in that segment. Maybe the 2 is a sign of better days ahead for BMW. Maybe the new Civic is a sign of better days ahead for Honda, too. Time will tell.

it would be amusing to see BMW do a Subaru and make an all-wheel drive super2 rally car.

Younger buyers and a few older ones are very attracted to the 2 series. It has been called the most significant car BMW has produced in many years. It brings out the boy racer in me. :burnrubr:

$17K per vehicle..wonder what it is for the 911?

They made up the $$ on service! :rolleyes: