Porsche price cuts bite into BMW

BMW has revealed that wide-sweeping price cuts across the Porsche range are starting to bite in rival luxury sportscar showrooms.

The German car-maker says customers are now walking into BMW showrooms and demanding savings on high-end performance models that match those announced by Porsche last month.

“We have customers coming in and asking for lower prices, yes,” said BMW's head of sales operations management, BMW M Certification, new BMW model launch preparation, and production management special series Joerg Bartels.

However, Mr Bartels said BMW would not consider cutting prices across its product range in response to Porsche’s sweeping price cuts that slashed up to $36,000 from some models.

“If you do that, you hurt your customers,” he said.

Porsche has revealed that it wants to more than double sales in Australia as part of the brand’s ambitious growth plans worldwide. The cuts range from $5500 off an entry-level Boxster convertible up to $36,000 from a high-end 911 Carrera 4 Cabriolet.

Mr Bartels said BMW did not want to upset its customers come trade-in time, which is what making big cuts to showroom prices would do.

“I believe Porsche’s price cuts in Australia were the largest for anywhere in the world,” he said.

“You can’t cut prices that much and expect that it won’t hurt customers. When you set up finance it is set on catalogue prices, not transaction prices, so Porsche owners will find residual prices going down.”

Porsche sales to the end of May are already up more than 34 per cent compared with the first five months of last year, VFACTS data shows.

Porsche Australia expects its sales will more than double to about 2500 cars a year, with a big boost coming from the performance-honed Macan compact soft-roader, due early next year.

By comparison, BMW’s sales of high-end models such as the recently introduced 5 Series Gran Turismo, 6 Series sedan, coupe and convertible range, and the 7 Series are all growing strongly for the brand.

BMW’s sales for the year to the end of May were up by 14 per cent overall.