Quote:
Originally Posted by swamp2
I disagree with this completely. Did you see my post #114 in this thread?
BMWs margin on the M3 will certainly be less in the US than other countries but that will not affect the fact that their margin will be higher than their average margin becasue the M3 is a lower volume, higer end, speciality car. There average margin is quite respectable as well. BMW will make $1B or so PROFIT on the M3 over its life span whereas Nissan will likely LOSE $15M - $30M PER YEAR on the GT-R if sold at the quoted US price.
In the future these losses will be recouped through other sales based on reputation, prestige, etc. as well as reuse of GT-R like technology on other lines. |
I don't understand where you get the margin numbers for the GT-R. I understand that the development costs have to be spread out to all the cars produced but other than that disadvantage I think that you are guessing at everything else.
I tend to feel that just based on the pricing...
The GT-R is being sold at essentially the same price in all the markets... ignoring taxes that is. While the M3 will likely be sold at a significant discount in the US versus the rest of the world. That tells me that BMW's profit margin in the US will be slim to none and that Nissan feels that they can sell the car at the same price everywhere and still make money. Eventhough they COULD sell it $10K higher and still sell all that they can make.
The prior Skyline GT-R were not sold at a loss, why should this one be?
Also, I still think you are off handedly disregarding the 40% depreciation of the Yen versus the Euro and the 5-10% depreciation of the Nissan worker's salaries in Yen. That is a significant drop in production costs.
There is a reason the Japanese automakers made such a huge profit this year. The cost of production has been dropping due to the above factors and the price they are selling the cars have stayed the same.
But who knows what will happen with the currency market? I keep waiting for the Euro to drop / crash so that I can pick up another Benz on the cheap. (MB Japan gives military discounts off of the Euro MSRP)