Hi
There has been some considerable debate on most 911 forums recently about the forthcoming facelift, its timing and the issue of how much power DFI will introduce accross the range. A lot of people are hoping that DFI will bring around +25BHP across the range. My thoughts are that I think it will be far less, more like10-15BHP as too much power increase will hurt residuals and therefore new car sales to an extent - precisely the thing Porsche would be looking to increase as a result of any such change.
Thought I would post my thoughts here comment :
The cars (TT not included) all have around 30BHP between them to distinguish the models in performance terms currently. To add 25BHP will mean that a current carrera S will suddenly be no faster than a new DFI carrera, and so on. This will hurt residuals across the whole range. If residuals are hurt then many customers will be very dissapointed - Porsche have a reputation in having strong residuals, wiping the cost difference of a whole model off the lineup would have disasterous effects on used values, which would of course have an impact upon new car sales. As well off as somebody needs to be to afford a porsche, many people myself included, buy a porsche not only for the performance and brand but also knowing its a relativly safe place to put your money - in terms of cars at this price.
For instance, why would anybody pay for a used carrera S when they could have a brand new carrera with the same power? Therefore all pre-DFI shape cars will loose around £6k-8k (UK prices) overnight. I do not believe Porsche would be silly enough to overlook the huge impact upon the used car market and therefore the likely impact on future sales.
Lets assume its 25BHP and look at the figures and compare. (All prices used here are UK rounded to the nearest £1,000)
Model............Pre DFI.....With DFI..........Price
Carrera.............325...........350...........£59,000
Carrera S..........355...........380...........£66,000
Carrera S X51....381...........406...........£74,000
GT3..................415...........440...........£80,000
Now lets look at prices compared by power before and after DFI.
BHP Range...Pre DFI.......With DFI.....Instant Depreciation
325............£59,000...........n/a...............n/a
350-355......£66,000.......£59,000..........£7,000
380-381......£74,000.......£66,000..........£8,000
406-415......£80,000.......£74,000..........£6,000
Do you see what Im getting at???? 25BHP is too much, it moves each car into the band above and therefore damages used values which in turn will damage brand values and therfore new car sales.
For this reason I believe porsche would not be silly enough to allow DFI to up power by more than 10-15BHP max. This range would keep customers happy and not move up each model into the range of the previous model above it and trigger the used price crash. If the DFI technology does naturally add more than that then I would expect Porsche to remap and limit the upgrade back down to 10-15BHP.
There has been some considerable debate on most 911 forums recently about the forthcoming facelift, its timing and the issue of how much power DFI will introduce accross the range. A lot of people are hoping that DFI will bring around +25BHP across the range. My thoughts are that I think it will be far less, more like10-15BHP as too much power increase will hurt residuals and therefore new car sales to an extent - precisely the thing Porsche would be looking to increase as a result of any such change.
Thought I would post my thoughts here comment :
The cars (TT not included) all have around 30BHP between them to distinguish the models in performance terms currently. To add 25BHP will mean that a current carrera S will suddenly be no faster than a new DFI carrera, and so on. This will hurt residuals across the whole range. If residuals are hurt then many customers will be very dissapointed - Porsche have a reputation in having strong residuals, wiping the cost difference of a whole model off the lineup would have disasterous effects on used values, which would of course have an impact upon new car sales. As well off as somebody needs to be to afford a porsche, many people myself included, buy a porsche not only for the performance and brand but also knowing its a relativly safe place to put your money - in terms of cars at this price.
For instance, why would anybody pay for a used carrera S when they could have a brand new carrera with the same power? Therefore all pre-DFI shape cars will loose around £6k-8k (UK prices) overnight. I do not believe Porsche would be silly enough to overlook the huge impact upon the used car market and therefore the likely impact on future sales.
Lets assume its 25BHP and look at the figures and compare. (All prices used here are UK rounded to the nearest £1,000)
Model............Pre DFI.....With DFI..........Price
Carrera.............325...........350...........£59,000
Carrera S..........355...........380...........£66,000
Carrera S X51....381...........406...........£74,000
GT3..................415...........440...........£80,000
Now lets look at prices compared by power before and after DFI.
BHP Range...Pre DFI.......With DFI.....Instant Depreciation
325............£59,000...........n/a...............n/a
350-355......£66,000.......£59,000..........£7,000
380-381......£74,000.......£66,000..........£8,000
406-415......£80,000.......£74,000..........£6,000
Do you see what Im getting at???? 25BHP is too much, it moves each car into the band above and therefore damages used values which in turn will damage brand values and therfore new car sales.
For this reason I believe porsche would not be silly enough to allow DFI to up power by more than 10-15BHP max. This range would keep customers happy and not move up each model into the range of the previous model above it and trigger the used price crash. If the DFI technology does naturally add more than that then I would expect Porsche to remap and limit the upgrade back down to 10-15BHP.
