Porsche dealers feel the pain as sales dive

Green shoots there may be, but for Porsche dealers in the UK life remains hard.

With City traders out of work and looking flash regarded as out of place, the sports car business is struggling to stay ahead.

In the first nine months of the year, turnover from sales of the iconic brand were down 15% to �4.6 billion (£3.9 billion). Sales volumes fell 28% to 53,635 vehicles worldwide.

Porsche said in a statement: "None of the sales regions managed to escape the worldwide decline in automobile markets."

Porsche is also doing battle with a near £8 billion debt pile. Analysts say it needs to raise cash quickly, especially if it wants to fulfil its desire to increase its stake in Volkswagen.

It may sell a stake in itself to Qatari investors.

The company is controlled by the Porsche and Piech families.

Rivals are also seeing declines. Sales at Audi were down 6% in May, while BMW was off 18% in that month.