Mr. Adair

Bull****. He was on a list for 24 months and is spending as much on a car as a house and he get's his deposit mailed back to him with no explanation and it's a clerical error? What a clown show. No car in the world is worth compromising your ethics. Go elsewhere. If they can't get you a car so be it, but that's not how you deal with informing the customer. I've been through that same scenario. There was a great conversation, an apology and "I'd like to leave you on the list" and I will keep you posted. Then he would swing his monitor around around and show me the list. I understood there where other circumstances involved in passing me over and I was ok with that because I knew why and who the customer was. All we ask for is transparency.

nuvolari612

Glad to read this - computers do not generate checks that require a signature and clearance quite a few steps before a check is mailed out.

I was talking to them about a nice car they have for sale seeing this thread they can find another buyer which they will but trouble going is double trouble going out!

Archimedes

Agree, a phone call ahead of the check would have been nice, but the whole 'I've been on a list for two years' stuff is nonsense. Anyone who hasn't been living under a rock knows that how long you've been on a list means almost nothing in regards to getting a GT car. That might suck, but it's nothing new and shouldn't be news to anyone who's been paying attention. If only it was that easy, we'd all have no trouble getting any GT car we want.

pitt911

this whole thing is getting disgusting from what ever angle you look at it.
for example if the car is demanding 50 k above sticker
Dealer sell at MSRP .... owner of dealership is mad because he left 50 k on the table
Dealer sells for 50 k above MSRP .. Customer is mad because he/she paid extra 50 k for the car
Porsche limit production: not all customers get a car so they are mad , but the car holds value and does not depreciate
Porsche produces a lot .... every customer get a car, but the car depreciates to 100 k in 2 years. So customer goes to trade in car, trade in value is 100 k on a 200 k car, customer is mad .Ask Maclaren owners
not sure which solution is the best
but my vote goes for over production. At least every customer gets a car and knows ahead of time that it will depreciate like every other car we buy for the love of the car. I bought my E63 AMG knowing that the car will lose 1/2 its value in 2-3 years. Still bought the car because it is a great car ...
problem solved !!

JPMD

FORENN

Mr. Adair

I don't want to sound too naive but I actually believed my SA when we would mutually look at the list. He had multiple lists for multiple models. He always had a good idea how many allocations he was getting. People would change cars, fall off the list etc. and we often discussed this list (monthly) on movement. I remember him saying "I will be honest about allocation quantities and who they are going to, if we come up short we will have to wait another model year. I was a first time GT car buyer at that time. Mind you this is in Mpls MN, not a high volume dealer (although for the dealer size they would normally get 6-10 new GT cars per model. It's just not that hard for these dealers to be transparent. In the end they get the cars sold anyway and don't get a crappy reputation. What's odd about this deal is the customer didn't seem to have any inkling this was coming? So somebody wasn't communicating. You can't give these guys an inch. I was in the store every 2 weeks checking. Doesn't hurt I became friends with my SA, but that is part of this process right? Again, seems to come down to good people who's word means something...

oceancarrera

The dealer was completely stupid. You have a buyer with money and you treat them like as described on this thread? Even a well crafted B.S. story might keep that buyer in good standing with your dealership. Maybe they do so well there that they don't care. That has to be what's going on...not for long. That's the problem with these highend new car dealerships. The next dealership with Porsche's could be 30 to 50 miles away The BMW store near me is 30 miles away from the next one and so on.

Perimeter

Unbelieveably arrogant dealer@!
They could not have concocted a more rude method to give you the bad news - heck I could not imagine a reason not to call a customer in the middle of a deal to announce a change - there is NO excuse, just poor sales team bad moves and tarnishing the good Porsche name.

Archimedes

Without knowing exactly what was said and or put in writing at the time of deposit, there's no way to draw any conclusions. I've offered deposits on multiple cars to multiple dealers and they all told me they would be happy to take them but it wouldn't guarantee me a car. Including my local dealer from which I've bought multiple cars. If a deposit check arrived in the mail I would just assume that I didn't get an allocation. Would be a little perturbed about the lack of a phone call, but I wouldn't start bad mouthing the dealer. Deposits are not contracts. They're expressions of interest. Nothing more.

Oldmxnut

^^ This .. its not rocket science. Customer service in the good times pays off when in the tough times. At some stage the Porsche bubble is going to burst. Everyone has them .. then what ??

evilfij

NateOZ

The Porsche Passport program could be a very interesting solution. Make it $4,000 and include the GT3, $5,000/mth and you get the GT3 RS and GT2 RS. I would happily pay to not have to deal with dealers anymore and get to switch cars whenever I want. It's what I do anyway, so just takes out the hassle completely and gets it delivered to my house.

As for the Porsche bubble bursting - the HAGI-Porsche index of rare porsches just dropped 5.56% for January and has been dropping every month since October. Looks like it is at least in a correction right now.

robmypro

Anatomy of a GT car purchase:

1. Buyer contacts multiple dealers 2-3 years in advance, before the car is even announced.
2. They have a lovely conversation with the SA, ending in something along the lines of “We’ll take your deposit, and you will definitely get a car at MSRP.” Almost always this is not in writing.
3. Rumors of an announcement start circulating, and the dealer gets bombed with calls from their best customers inquiring about the car.
4. These customers want the car, and word from the top comes down. “Give Mr. Jones a car.”
5. GT car in question is announced, and everyone who put a deposit down starts calling to confirm their order.
6. The SA tells them they are not sure how many allocations they will get. But please be patient.
7. Two weeks later a “computer glitch” results in a refund checks being sent out.
8. A few hours later posts of XYZ Dealer Sucks starts showing up on RL.
9. Within 24 hours the dealer notifies the upset soon to be former customer that something will be worked out.
10. Promises are made for a future car, and this one is put in writing.

Did i miss anything?

Modena 1

Yes. The fact that people think they can score a winning lottery ticket by even starting with number 1

You ain't getting a car if you have no revenue history. If that was the case I will give a deposit of $5k for every gt car for the next 10 years. Any takers???

To the OP, I'm sorry but if you were my friend I would have told you to not hold your breathe/ hedge you bet. Now it's on them if they string you along, but what do you expect them to do, imagine if there was some crazy manufacturer pumping out product like candy and they weren't sure when the music was going to stop so didn't want to make anyone mad prematurely? Imagine if a lot of the demand was because of the perceived appreciation? Imagine if there was a recession?