Doug DeMuro: evaluation

Transcript context

…Totally. On the back of all this success, James Dean, Steve McQueen, and all this, as you would imagine, Porsches start to become quite popular in America. I don't think Ferdinand and Ferry envisioned like, we're going to sell cars in America. This wasn't part of the business plan. But in 1954, Porsche sells 588 cars in the US, which was 40% of their entire production for the year. That 40% basically stays constant and goes way up for a while in the 70s and 80s, but it never dips below that. America is a huge market for Porsches. It's amazing to think that 588 cars was 40% of Porsche production. I agree with you, by the way, about your point that they didn't really have America in the business plan. One thing to provide some context, it's important to keep in mind, the number of sports cars startups happening in Europe at this time was significant, most of which listeners viewers will never really heard of because they all died. These came out, they showed up, they raced a little, they sold some cars, they fail. There were tons of these. There was no concept that Porsche would be more successful than any of them. Obviously, the family hoped it would, and it became that way. But so many families hope theirs would, too, and they all failed. Somehow, Porsche grew, grew, and grew. Part of it was the incredible success of the cars. A big part of it, too, was the royalty on the Beetles. That's a nice steady source of cash flow that you can invest in your operation.…

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