Archimedes

ADM has no impact on dealers or really on the customer base either. What does have an impact is simply the lack of cars to satisfy demand. I've said it before, if Porsche priced the .2 GT3 $20-30k higher, they would still sell every single one. Price is not the frustrating issue. Not being able to simply walk down to your local dealer and spec a car is the issue.

Craigy

The auto dealer business is inherently short-sighted. It's all about the instant profit, the instant sale, make money today even if it means it will cost you tomorrow. That's just the nature of the beast. A lot of this is simply driven by the individual greed of a dealer but a lot of blame goes to the manufacturer as well for how they structure their incentives and just the dealer-manufacturer system altogether.

Punching cars as sold when they're still sitting on the lot is a great example of this. Yeah you meet whatever quota or volume incentive for last quarter, but now you're starting the next quarter a few cars behind with warrantys ticking that you'll be forced to heavily discount. LIFO inventory is another. Dealer gets to drastically cut its tax bill on this sale, but eventually all you have left on the books is a bunch of 1996 Buick Skylarks worth peanuts. Shoot yourself in the foot tomorrow to enjoy more cash today. Every day.

ADM even on a handful of cars (even just one car) is more money in the dealer's pocket, more money in the sales manager's pocket, more money in the salesman's pocket. Plain and simple. They don't care if they burn one bridge or a thousand.

And then even if they've burned a bridge, by contract and by law, they're the only game in town, and they know you'll be back. And if you never come back, well they just don't think that far in advance to care.

PantsFire

Big dealer, small dealer, ADM's don't create loyalty and if there's another financial crash they're going to need loyal customers to keep them in business. But I don't really blame dealers I blame Porsche, they're the guys running the show, they've created the bizarre loyalty program by not having a proper order list.

Personally: I'm torn, we have a good relationship with our sales assistants but I've been told I have no chance of a GT3 which has soured it some, at the same time my wife wants to replace her Macan with something greener, and I want a new daily, we could buy two Porsche's but neither of us are completely sold on our possible purchases. A guarantee of the 992 GT3 might swing it for me, but that seems unlikely, and if it's a turbo I might not want it.

evilfij

I think being told “no way” creates more animosity than $25k ADM. at least with ADM you have a choice.

And if there is a crash, I will be right there low balling. That is how the market works.

Archimedes

Agree 100%. Market is market. You either pay it or you don't. The collective of everyone's actions sets the market price, not a piece of paper that says MSRP.

I can see complaints about access to cars, but not on pricing. It is what it is and nobody is compelling you to buy. Sucks though if someone is willing to pay a premium and still can't get an allocation to spec a car themselves.

evilfij

That person just did not try.

SToronto

US is different from Canada in some regards.

Curious to know what you mean by not trying?

OldGuy

This is how my small dealer in Boise handled me. I found out through a contact at Porsche about the 2018 4L GT3 before the dealer did. I told them about it and I was FIRST on the list. They didn't even know about it. 4 weeks later I got an email from my sales guy telling me he was excited to offer me the GT3 at $25,000 over. AND they wanted my 50th THEN like right NOW!
They had called the AutoGallery in Los Angeles to get the correct Market value. I politely declined.
What I didnt understand is WHY a dealership in Boise would call LOS ANGELES to get a price on anything?
There will be a day when Porsche Fresno is the biggest dealership in California. Where you have an enthusiast owner
instead of an owner who counts "Units"

evilfij

In the US if you want or wanted a configurable allocation, all you had to do was a call a few dealers and one would give you one with a fairly modest ADM all things considered.

Sure, Canada and the UK may be different, but there are very few things that can’t be bought in my experience.