Clearly, the quarterly sales figures for any major company in the U.S. will be affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Porsche is no different. Not surprisingly, the company saw a significant drop in its quarterly sales reporting. PCNA’s reported sales figures are below.

Certainly, we can surmise that January and February sales are hiding the extent of the decline in March, in the quarterly figures. It is hard to imagine that many people were buying cars in March.

In that regard, it might be instructive to simply remove the month form our mind, and simply view the figures as January and February sales figures. Once you make that mental leap, a couple patterns become clear, taking into account the lack of a full three months of normal sales.

First, sales of 911s held up fairly well in the first couple months held up well. Reviewing the year-over-year trend, we see that the company sold 2,590 911s, compared to 2,894 during the first quarter of 2019. After recognizing that there were likely few sales in March, these figures look pretty good for the first two months of 2020.

Sales of the 718 took a hit. It is unclear what might be going on there. But, the real message relates to the Taycan. Sales of the new car seem low. While this is disappointing, we have to recognize that the car is fairly new. Remember, the 912 outsold the 911 when they were first released. It takes time to build a legacy.