[daepp]

Great analysis.

I have heard for years that offering a low-priced entry level car will hurt rather than help our favorite marque. I have not liked hearing this, but many examples were given that seemed to me to back up this claim. I hope they were wrong and you are right!

With respect to an entry level Porsche, my thoughts go to their 09-11 offering. I would love for them to offer a kind-of-affordable, very stripped down car, good for everyday driving (esp if you're young) and also able to have fun with on the track. But my understanding of the Boxster Spyder is that, while it was available without air or audio, they almost all got the creature comforts.

Further, it wasn't all that much lighter than the Boxster.

To me, it would look like a cross between a bottom-of-the-line Lotus offering from the last decade, with styling cues linked to the 550. And weigh in at around 2000 - 2200 lbs. A quick check of the interwebs shows 8 cars in production right now under 2400lbs. With some of composites etc available now surely Porsche could do better than the (IIRC) 3000 lb Spyder, no? Is that even possible with 21st century German safety requirements? I don't know.

I'm curious what others think??