oslermarine

Hopefully this is the right place to post this. When the 918 came out I was still building my career and could only admire photos online. My goal is to be successful enough to buy the next generation supercar from Porsche. For those members lucky enough to buy a 918 and become Porsche VIP, what was the process leading up to that? Was the demand for the 918 insane initially? If this is a touchy subject pm is great too! Thanks!

German_Saint

There wasn't crazy demand & is why they offered the VIP program. The CGT was fairly easy to pickup as well from various dealers who had them in inventory for a long time. Generally, if you show up with all the money you'll get a car.

STG

If you bought a 918 in the USA, you're in the VIP club.

PCNA got cold feet and were having problems selling out the supercar and came up with this "incentive" program to move 918's. Sold their soul to do it. They thought that they'd line up down the street like they do for Ferrari, etc. The buyers didn't. That's a whole different game.

I think any loyal Porsche buyer should be a VIP. Guys that have been buying many Porsche's for 20+ yrs have no more VIP status than someone who's first Porsche was a 918. Go figure.

oslermarine

Yea I was surprised by that. BMW rewarded their loyal customers with the M4 GTS. Not the same with Porsche. So that makes more sense now. I guess it depends if their next supercar will be in high demand. Maybe they will do away with the VIP program and make it a more even playing field.

STG

I think they've learned their lesson and regret it in retrospect.

Joe T

I gave buying the 918 a hard look but would have needed a few other "investors" to pull it off. They sold 918 of the cars which is a multiple of the supercars that Ferrari or McLaren sell. That bothered me as to it's future value.

I was in the dealer and was told all you had to do was configure one online and put down your deposit. I don't recall being told about the VIP program but that has paid off very well for 918 owners. My concern was paying $900k for a car and driving off the lot in a $600k car. Guess my career as an auto speculator won't go anywhere. Not only can you get your hands on all the special cars at MSRP (I know some VIP members have had 2 or 3 GT3RS cars) and flip them for $50-$100k profit, I believe the 918 is worth a meaningful amount more than it costs.

RealityGT

When I had finally convinced my good friend to order one, Porsche stopped taking orders.. literally 48 hours after leaving the dealership .. lol
From what I remember, hardly anyone at first wanted to put down the $200k .. then all of a sudden, everyone and their uncle wanted one.. then Porsche closed the window.. lol

Edit: To answer OP's question (my opinon) - You want in the VIP program? you need cash and the willingness to part with it...

mwar99

And the 918 was sold by PCNA, not the dealerships. You got to choose where you wanted your 918 delivered and then you would get all future VIP orders from that dealership. As far as I'm aware the dealerships shouldn't be claiming they sold a 918, they delivered one. Unless early deliveries were different...

golfnutintib

agree with all above commentary on vip program in usa

would add following:

$900k at the time for 918 seemed just crazy, esp making so many cars worldwide, no wonder the world balked...also economy was just coming out of deep bottom 2011... context matters a lot

looking back with 20-20 hindsight, it might've been worth going for it to be VIP... would have gotten all GT cars and 991R at sticker since then...but the notion of flipping these out for profit to defray the original outlay seems flawed to me... as my interest would be to have these cool GT cars since and to come, to own and enjoy... if you take the profit, they are out of your hands! no bueno...

so then you are back to having paid $900k for a 918... to me, as great (and historic) as that car is, it isn't worth that money if you actually drive it... not by a long shot

better idea --> just be an otherwise loyal porsche customer, work with a good local dealer who values your loyalty and sells at sticker, put some deposit dollars down, and get the gt cars you would want anyway... minus 1 or 2 maybe ...then if there is a 'have-to-have' car, you just pay up to get it, new or slightly used... you should have a few bucks in the piggy bank not having paid a cool mill for a 918!!!!!!!!!!

laranja

Slightly OT, but if you stare at Golfnut's sig while listening to the opening of Foghat's "Slow Ride", the little bowdown guys are in perfect rhythm with the bass line...

-eztrader-

lots of people - including myself thought 900k was a terrible price. The economy was in much worse shape, hybrid tech was unproven, and the future didn't look so rosy. I thought it would be a 400k car in a few years.

Well, we were wrong.

916Bob

lol... you're sick

JonA85

Salomondrin explains here.

786

that dude is hilarious