BMWBLOG visited the Porsche display at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show during the press days. What follows is a brief summary of what we saw and what Porsche’s up to. What I find most ironic in all of this is how Porsche and BMW are now true market competitors their lineups now directly compete for some of the same customers.
Porsche still sells crazy expensive autos but also has moved down market where as BMW has moved up market with some models breaking into six figures (US prices) and Porsche’s lowest base price is $48,800.
2012 was a very, very big year for Porsche and started with customer deliveries of the seventh generation 911, internal code 991. To date, Porsche has released the Carrera, Carrera S, Carrera 4, Carrera 4S and the Targas.
Model overkill? Nope according to Porsche because, the 911 Turbo, Turbo S and 911 GT3, GT3RS, the most anticipated models, are still yet to be unveiled. In 2012 Porsche also started selling a whole new Boxster and then at the end of November, Porsche unveiled the all new Cayman at the LA Auto Show.
Porsche sold more in 2012 than ever, at 141,075 vehicles which represented an 18.7% increase over 2011. 35,043 of those went to US customers. Porsche sales are roughly 10% of BMW’s US numbers and both marks are thriving with ever increasing sales numbers. Now that Porsche has been assimilated by VW, I expect these sales numbers to grow. Porsche will get access to more platforms and can share production lines with VW like they do with the Boxster sharing the line with VW Golf Convertibles. What does Porsche have up their sleeve, look for a new Macan SUV based on the Audi Q5 according to published reports by Car and Driver.
Porsche’s biggest seller? The Cayenne which moved 74,763 examples or just over half of all Porsche sales. Crazy huh? The further “boost” the Cayenne sales, Porsche unveiled the 550 hp/553 lb-ft Cayenne Turbo S which bolts 0-60 in 4.3 seconds. Just in case you need that extra 50 hp over the Cayenne Turbo so you can attempt to answer just how much power you need to go faster in the snow. Look for a US Base price of, gulp, $146,000 I could have spent hours fawning over the Cayenne Turbo S’s engine a 550 hp and 553 lb-ft jewel.
The Cayenne Turbo S needs a see-through engine hood. The red interior was a bit much for me, though I think it was the color, because the Cayenne’s I’ve driven in the past have had a full black interior and looked stunning.
Though Porsche didn’t have a formal press conference like they did last year, Porsche did bring their star power to the Detroit Auto Show. I spotted CEO, Matthias Müller, other board members as well as racing legend Hurley Haywood as well as Porsche racer Patrick Long.
The Carrera 4 video by Porsche that they provided in the press materials is amazing. It made me want to quit my day job and live in Europe diving one of these year round.
Where’s the overlap between BMW and Porsche? It’s something BMWBLOG is keeping an eye on and gives us some excellent material for comparisons. Here’s a BMWBLOG comparison of the Z4 35is against the Porsche Boxster S. BMW just announced their updated their Z4 at the Detroit Auto Show.
BMWBLIOG recently compared the X5 diesel to the Porsche Cayenne Diesel, US Specs. We will have to revisit this comparison when BMW releases the much anticipated new X5 at the end of this year. Looking back here’s our first BMW/Porsche Comparison which is between the two iconic German Sportscars the M3 and the 911.
Another interesting comparison will be the BMW M6 Gran Coupe versus the Porsche Panemara. To be a fair comparison, we’ll have to wait to see how BMW prices the beautiful M6 Gran Coupe so we can see which of the Panamera model it’s priced closest to.
