Here we go again. Yes, if you can afford a new Porsche, you want choices. Even if it means spending the price of a new Mazda 6 on leather options for a Panamera. Volkswagen is OK with it, because it makes them a lot of money.
According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Porsche rakes in $23,000 on every new car it sells. That's better than anyone else in the vast VW Group, including Bentley. Even when factoring in Lamborghini, Audi only pulled in $5,200 per car, which is still a margin of 10%.
It's interesting that, even as the lineup has expanded over the years and there are more pre-arranged packages than ever on new Porsches sold in the U.S., the company is still able to rake in a lot of profit. Then again, we go and test something like a Cayenne GTS that has stuff like $1,100 satellite radio along with $41,000 in other options.
What will be more interesting to see though is how the new Porsche Macan swings this equation. Sure, it has a wide range of engines and trim that will swing prices quite high. But it's also charged with significantly increasing Porsche sales.
And many things in the Macan can probably be covered in leather, too.
Photo: Porsche