Below is an article from this week's Wall Street Journal written by Joseph B. White at joseph.white@wsj.com
Women-Drivers.com DEALER SPOTLIGHT Porsche of Fairfield and dealer owner, Mr. John Resnick, are showcased below:
Hey, Joe, how bad is the economy? It's so bad, Porsche AG is offering five-year, 1.9% loans on 911s for Christmas!
That's right. This year's round of holiday luxury-car deals got off to an early start, and Porsche has one of the more eye-popping offers, advertised under the slogan "The Unforgettable Finish."
Luxury-car fans know that December has become the time to shop for deals from brands that try very hard the rest of the year to avoid appearing distressed by little things like the worst economic slump in a generation or two.
Best Luxury-Car Holiday Deals
This year's round of holiday luxury-car deals got off to an early start, including some eye-popping offers from Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Lexus and Infiniti. Here are details
This year's deals may not be as generous as some of those offered last year in the depths of the Wall Street and housing-market panics, according to data from Edmunds.com, the Internet auto-shopping site. But you'd have to be living in a cave not to notice that the big luxury brands are flashing some very direct propositions—in contrast to the subtle persuasion of better years gone by.
BMW AG's U.S. sales arm kicked off its holiday sales push before Thanksgiving. Normally, BMW waits until the Thanksgiving weekend to start the December clearance. This year, BMW is offering a "holiday finance credit of up to $2,500" on most of its models, including the popular 3 Series but excluding the high-performance M Series and diesel models. There are also lease deals and discounts on option packages, says Wayne Orchowski, vice president of the Eastern Region for BMW's U.S. sales operation.
"What's really out there is value rationalization," Mr. Orchowski says. "There are people in the market, but to be politically correct, the water cooler talk isn't 'I went out this weekend to buy an M5.' It's 'I got a great deal, I got a diesel, I got free maintenance.' "
Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz has some of the standout holiday advertisements among the luxury crowd. I'm partial to the one where a certain white-bearded fellow is seen walking around a Mercedes factory as if it were a workshop at the North Pole. Among the Mercedes offers is a 1.9% loan for up to 36 months on a C300 sedan.
Volkswagen AG's Audi isn't letting its German rivals have a party all by themselves. It's promoting its "Season of Audi Event" with offers such as a $569-a-month lease on the Audi A6 and a $659-a-month lease on the big $50,075 Q7 sport-utility vehicle. That Q7 deal requires no security deposit—a seasonal gift from Audi to make you feel better about the $3,783 in key and lease fees you do have to put down to get the keys (not including taxes and other fees).
Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus, which owns the "December to Remember" slogan, is offering lease specials such as a 36-month, $469-per-month deal on the brand's best-selling model, the RX sport-utility.
Nissan Motor Co.'s Infiniti brand is pushing zero-percent financing offers on leftover 2009 G sedans. The catch: That teaser rate is good only for a 36-month loan. (There is also a $349-a-month, 39-month lease deal.)
All of these offers come with the usual disclaimers. Your credit needs to be good. The precise deals vary by dealer and region of the country. The decision on whether to take a cut-rate lease, a low finance rate, or just negotiate to buy with cash is a personal one that people successful enough to afford a $50,000 vehicle understand how to weigh.
Surveying the packages done up by the major luxury brands this season, the unusual Porsche deal is the one you'd probably want to unwrap first. At Porsche of Fairfield, a dealership in Connecticut, General Sales Manager John Resnick says the unusual low-rate financing offer is good for 2009 model 911s, Boxsters and Caymans. If you want a 2010 sports car, the company is offering 2.9% financing deals and cut-rate leases.
Porsche's new Boxster Spyder
"It's been successful for us," Mr. Resnick says. A 1.9% financing offer on the Porsche Cayenne SUV was so successful, Porsche cut it off Nov. 30, he says.
Porsche rarely offers advertised discounts, let alone cut-rate loan offers similar to those promoted by Detroit's struggling mass-market auto makers. But these are tough times. Let's face it, when unemployment going to 10% is good news, buying a Porsche is the ultimate deferrable purchase. Porsche offered 1.9% loans earlier this year, and is offering them again for the same reason: to clear an oversupply of cars. Porsche had 81 days' supply of its sports cars at the end of November. That translates to 3,518 cars. Porsche dealers had 1,577 Cayennes left to sell at the end of November, after a promotion that spurred sales that month.
Mr. Resnick said his dealership has kept its inventories tighter than most. As of late last week, he had one 2009 model 911 left, an "aqua blue metallic" roadster. Going into 2010, Mr. Resnick says, Porsche has told its U.S. dealers to expect fewer cars.
"Porsche has turned off the spigot of supply," he says. "The allocation is very small to the U.S. They are going to other parts of the world." A Porsche spokesman says the company adjusts allocations "all the time" but has no plans to cut shipments to the U.S.
Drive Your Bargain,
Anne
