I must have bought over 20 Porsches from them in the last 15 years, plus sent them customers that have bought at least four cars totaling over 1/2 million dollars (not counting my own purchases). The most recent purchase was a 2014 Porsche 911 GT3 I took delivery last July. In fact, I still have my Panamera GTS that I bought from them almost 3 years ago. Needless to say, I have been a loyal customer and referred them lots of business. My salesman for most of my purchases was Mike O'Donnell, and throughout the years, I have sent him and the General Manager Ron Servidio gift baskets during holidays throughout the year, and took Mike to lunch when he visited California.

I had my name down for the 2016 Porsche 911 GT3RS since about 4 years ago. My name was always the first one on the list, as verified by both of them and I have proof from email correspondences. Well, as soon as Ron left the company for a different dealership, Mike and the new management took a 180 degree turn and demanded a $10,000 non-refundable deposit and a 10% premium over MSRP.

I have since relayed all the messages and email to Porsche Cars of North America. They have responded by telling me that they frown on such practices and will investigate and let me know the next step.

Business loyalty is a practice that I value, and I am sorry to have ever referred anyone to buy a car there. If I cannot trust a company to perform as promised, then I will take all my businesses as well as my company's and friends' business elsewhere.

Needless to say, I am never buying a car from them again, and will tell everyone to stay clear of this place.

 

Sucks. Sorry to hear.

 

How is it that a deposit can be nonrefundable? Any lawyers in here that can confirm this?

 

Sounds like they blew it. What a shame. In this day and age every single Mom and Pop should be aware that social media is this new invention with almost enough power to move mountains. Not to sound blasphemous but you know what I mean.

 

horrible practice...

Good to see PCNA get involved.

 

Sorry to hear that they went this way - sadly I think it's the new reality on limited run cars on the RS. Need to keep buying high profit cars to keep allocations alive and deposits don't mean a whole lot anymore. The PCNA dealer franchise agreement really doesn't provide them with an ability to influence dealer behavior. Worst they can do is threaten reduced future allocations, but they're in the business of selling cars. Look at how many of the late run PTS GT3 builds ended up with dealers already charging over MSRP for many GT3s and these were "reward" allocations.

I think it matters less than what people think, sure it might drive a little bit of business away but location and convenience is still key for the average consumer. Have a look at Champion Porsche's average review on yelp and dealerrater, yet they're massive in terms of volume.

 

PCNA won't do anything, because they can't... Didn't help with my GT3 debacle with Rusnak.... They 'tried'. They asked the dealer to not markup. The dealer then called me pissed that I complained about them and still did nothing...

 

PCNA is limp and impotent.

All they will do is a slap on the wrist or, at most, ding them on allocations in the future.

 

In case my dealer is reading this; I'd throw in all their windows.
No cars would be harmed.

Disgusting.

 

Gross. Bastards

 

Shame on you, Bert Smith!

 

Did you "cc" the dealership (Ron's replacement) in your letter to PCNA? How about sending letters to the local Better Business Bureau, local/state Division of Consumer Protection, all with "cc's" to the dealership? After all, isn't that what these agencies are there for? Chances are zero to none PCNA will do anything about this so you might as well get them "noticed" here and elsewhere.

Who cares if the dealership gets pissed off about your complaining - you're not going to do business with them anyway.

 

I've said it before, In the last 6 weeks I have spoken to a dozen dealers trying to find and buy the right 991 GT3 I can honestly say I have had one good experience. The others where arrogant, semi rude and and acted like they could care less. I'm a cash paying buyer and ready to purchase. Most didn't even get far enough into the conversation to find out I was simply waiting for someone to be effing civil much less throw me the slightest bone. I have been bait and switched, told I had to give money over the phone etc. and I'm not even mentioning the way they talked to me. I am a sales rep and have over 100 accounts and sell $400 GORE-TEX jackets and I could never get away with acting like that and these guys are asking for 150K from us. Porsche is on a roll right now and these dealers hold all the cards and are all on both coasts in the Porsche hotbeds. I'm probably more sensitive than most as it's my first foray into a high end car but it has been a less than enjoyable experience. I think the Porsche shopping experience is worse than buying my work vehicles from Honda.

Sorry to go off topic...

 

Not surprised.

 

Governed by state law, so varies by state. E.g., Idaho can do it, California can't.