CAlexio

I agree with this and wonder why it's the case. Also in comparison to most ferraris except rare stuff like the TDF where they figured out that fat fronts with the right tuning can do wonders. but drive a 458 speciale or 675LT on track and wonder why you couldn't have a little more meat to keep the grip up and neutralize the handling a bit.

Manifold

Porsche has superb design expertise which enables them to create really special cars which rival exotics, but at a much lower price, and they want to capture as much of that value as they can in the form of profits. Scarcity, or the perception of it, helps keeps prices higher, which increases profit margins for both Porsche and dealers.

But that does need to be balanced against the risk of pissing too many people off, too much. These GT cars are the only consumer product I can think where, if I decide I want one, I'm not sure I can get one. So far, I've been able to get what I wanted, but it required patience and being one of my dealer's better non-VIP customers. If I had wanted an R, I doubt I could have gotten one.

CanadaRS

Interesting to note; that Whoopsy resides in Canada, bashes the US dealers while enjoying the VIP Porsche life as a given.
Originally Canada was not part of this sales pitch and dealers here will sell you a limited car without mark up if you maintain a good relationship with your dealership.
The VIP program was only launched in early 2013 after 918 sales were lagging way behind. Nobody knew it was coming.
I left a 918 deposit in 2011 and after getting a 4.0 I had my dealership refund it, since I was not convinced that the 918 was the car I wanted. The 4.0 I sold with a profit, in 2015 and yes I had the feeling that the 4.0 and the 918 were/would be too much of a garage queens for me.

nuvolari612

918 would not sold out so you aren't alone with your purchase thoughts but for the market change as many CGT owners were called and surprised to learn their CGT was worth and opted for the much easier to drive 918.

Porsche learned from the CGT - they may state whatever but they could not sell the CGT they were sitting at dealers with a factory msrp selling at a loss est cost 1m per unit makes sense lots of patents which could not be passed on like the 918 same goes for the GT3RS GT2RS R GT3 lot's of shared R&D.

It's obvious that there is an issue with 918 owners - common theme in every hard to obtain Porsche thread ends up with the 918 owners dealers and so on.

Best of luck on receiving a 2RS.

997rs4.0

Most of us have short memory. Not that many years ago you could walk in and buy a 997.2rs at discount. 918 was a hard sell. 996gt3rs was collecting dust in European showrooms. CGT was sold way under msrp.
There are good times and bad times. We will see bad times again. Right now the sky is clear and sun is shining.

Just spent a day on track with a very gifted driver that won at Lime Rock. He told me the gt2rs should only be sold to people with a racing license. That's how brutal the car is.
Not that the 991.2gt3 lacks hp. It's an amazing machine. And that sound.....

mass27

I agree.

tasman

I just hope when bad times come they have not pushed too many of us away with the shenanigans. I think dealers have short memories. My dealer (now ex dealer) certainly does. Not worth the stress as others have said

mass27

I don't think times will ever get as bad as they were 7-10 years ago in terms of luxury goods. Even if there are some "bad times", dealer's change GMs and owners. And their philosophy is typically - what have you done for me lately.

You and I both got burned by a long time, local dealership. I doubt these dealerships will ever change their philosophy - it's all (mostly) about money.

I agree it's not worth the stress.

Whoopsy

Yes it is very odd. Porsche don't really have a good answer either.

Outside of the 250 or so 918 owners left between Canada and the US, no one has a guaranteed GT2RS allocation as the PCNA and Porsche Canada are still waiting on Stuttgart to release allocation numbers to them.

The official book opens March 2018, that's when all the GT2RS orders can be entered into the system properly. Right now dealers are listening to demand and communicating back to Porsche.

Whoopsy

Porsche Canada is still without a official VIP program like the one with PCNA.

918 owners in Canada do get priority, there was only 30 of them to start with so very easy to keep track. The priority only last as long as the car isn't sold, and right now there is no more than 15 original owners left. For extremely limited car, like the Turbo S Exclusive Series and the 911R, Porsche Canada send out direct correspondence to offer the car to the 918 owners in ordering sequence. Which means not all the 918 owners gets a car. There was 26 911R that came I believe and 6 of the Turbo S Exclusive Series.

As for other non-limited cars, it's the dealer's job to pick and choose. 918 owners may or may not get priority. But most dealers still ask their 918 customers first.

With or without the 918, my dealer will still offer me first dib simply because of my long standing relationship with them, coming up 20 years.

As for US dealer bashing, why not? Most Porsche customers are simply fed up with them and because of how the US law are structured, PCNA can't control how they go about selling the cars. They are PCNA's customers, and the end users are customers of the dealers, dealers are just representatives of Porsche.

You guys all know how screwed up the dealers are with specialty cars, they have some allocations for the 918 owners and the rest they all basically sell to their biggest whales, customer relationship be damned, long term relationships means nothing to those greedy dealers.

ipse dixit

I think, in part, because they care more about what riff-raffs get in straight line speed than time around a track (which is why Ferrari will send in a pit crew from Maranello to tune a car with different tires before a magazine reviews it for track times).

997rs4.0

I agree, many dealers will pay the price when bad times come. Those that treat customers with dignity and respect in good times will be fine even in not so good times.

nuvolari612

True - let me add dealers have their backs against the wall.

Audi wanted their own store which meant Porsche dealers are now in at about 100M maybe less maybe more depending on location but that needs a ROI.

The old P dealers had experienced sales people that could make a decent living - today it's about volume so when they get a limited allocation the naive make the most of it - this is where I have an axe to grind - one thing for a Ferrari and like high end dealers that receive 50 cars another for a volume car dealership that caters to a large market perhaps they should separate the brand / sales team.

usctrojanGT3

And I will continue to assist my good guy dealers in good times and bad.

Zeus

Dealers - Keep playing those games.

Manufacturers - Cave in with politicians and your dealer networks. Don't fight the coming slaughter to the 'drivers' cars with autonomy and electrics.

There. Done. The auto enthusiast will be no more.

Not looking to go off topic, just want them to know I don't care if their Tesla copy has 10,000hp. I don't care about electric or autonomous cars. Starting to not care that every semi-special model becomes unobtainable to anyone who isn't a VIP. F***-em. Sooner or later their 'business models' will dry up and in the future, if you can legally own a car, it won't matter unless you care about the badge on the hood.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...vans-from-2040