Nope, not really but my SA knows us fairly well and we live almost 100 miles from the dealership after selling our other house in Cleveland. I’m not driving 3 hours for a donut and a look at cars I wouldn’t or couldn’t buy.

Funny thing is I just got an email about some event there with coffee and donuts or something like that. They must follow Rennlist pretty closely 😂😂😂

We won’t be going.

 

AGREE 100%. Right on the money.

 

Absolutely. I find it more and more that the best Porsches to have are the ones bought used away from the dealer network, without complicated/expensive tech (eg HPFP) and out of warranty. It saddens me how well the car drives opposed to the way the whole PCNA/dealer structure operates.
As I said, the events are sad. They actually rent a track nearby but all you get is some grandma lead/follow. I had this woman in front of me stop to let me pass so she could stroll. The lead (instructor) had to stop the whole thing to wait for madam to join the group. My wife made this guy very upset bc she was driving faster than him (911) on a her cayenne. He came to whine as she was taking the car seat out, and that rubbed more salt.
McLaren rents tracks in the area for actual track days, free for customers. That's good value of my time. Once they improve reliability (5 year warranty on the Artura) and network, I'm getting one. I hope I still have most of my teeth and my walker will fit on the frunk by then.

 

Just some insight.

Ferrari makes 1 car less than the market demands. So imagine there is a line of customers who have been buying the regular production models and are are all wanting the limited model.

Imagine you have purchased enough cars to be top tier and then Leno walks in and gets the allocation from under you.

So what….. Leno wants the loyal Ferrari customers to be masochistics? Screw you Leno, get in line!!!

Theres an old story about (Either De Nero, Pacino or Stallone can’t remember) that goes something like this. He wants a discount on a Ferrari. He’s famous, will be seen in the car & figured thats worth something. The Dealer rep takes the message to Enzo himself. Enzo says, if he wants the car he can get in line and pay full price. Ferrari has nothing to gain by having him be seen in a Ferrari. Enzo said, he stands to gain by being seen the the Ferrari.


When you break it down, Leno wants to be able to steel your allocation because he’s Jay Leno.

NOPE, WRONG!!!

 

Sorry, Leno is spot on.

 

I’m not here to argue the point. I’m just telling you why it’s the way it is.

Its just that Ferrari doesn’t need an influencer to sell the car.

 

Of course not, and there are plenty of other brands Leno can buy, without having to play all the games that Ferrari dealerships put buyers through. I first learned of this from my neighbor….who told me, “ he will never make that mistake again.”

Leno is spot on in terms of his reasoning for passing on Ferrari.

 

I have to say, they do play games with their allocations. Sometimes they won’t sell the new car unless you guy these 3 cars first. They want you to buy all their models.

 

True to a point, I was offered at different times to trade whatever 911 I had towards F8, F8 spider, Roma, Porto, Porto M and 296 GTB. No funny games, meh trade in (not that different form other badgers). They are just very expensive, with ludicrously expensive options (just like some other german brands). If you want the fancy V12 models, than you may need to be a long term client. Put that in perspective with what Porsche does. They charge a markup in almost all their models, regardless of the production number. They fake a lack of cars and never sold as many cars as in 2021. Markup on Taycans, that at a point had the galloping rate of 10% of the cars in the used market being lemons. You have to go over 3 low levels guys to finally get to a boss fight to have a warranty fix approved.

Phenomenal sports cars. Subpar dealers and network.

 

Agreed. A previous poster had asked do I get invited to dealer events, and yes I was invited for a free donut to the Macan refresh event along with some charity things. I think the nail on the head is the customer relationship is at the dealership level which is not shared with PCNA or PAG. If you want to have a corporate relationship you have to go via other avenues. In the Audi example I referred to earlier (non-US), Audi had a regional PR team that was much more hands on with customers. I don't believe Porsche NA has a similar approach for PR or Customer Engagement.

Seems everyone so far is in the same boat. Waiting for that one whale to join who spends $3m+ a year and has Andreas Preuninger or the Jens Brücker on speed dial

 

Slight tangent but if you want to see the Ferrari machine show it's teeth, look at David Lee's LaFerrari story or how Chris Harris was banished when he complained about press cars being tuned up.

At the end of the day, these are toys for high days and holidays. I'm not going to spend my free time fawning over someone in the chance that they might take my money whether it's high end watches or a table at the 'must have' restaurant. My sole interest in starting this thread was to see if others had a differential level of service and what it had cost them to see if that would be something I would subscribe to but it doesn't seem apparent.

From an overall loyalty perspective, there's a lot of this playing out on the ADM side with dealers trying to decide if they should make a a buck now vs invest in a customer relationship who may not be loyal to them back longer term.

 

I don't think they have to worry. Plenty of 4 door cars being sold. Markups just sweetened the budget. As if they were not already profiting handsomely on MSRP.
Interesting point is that their behavior just makes more of a case for online purchase from the factory.
In regards to loyalty, don't expect much. I was told many times about a client that leases 10 cars a year for his employees or another one that collects etc. all with a not so thin veil that I'm a nobody and I'm wasting their time. It goes both ways, but they have the fact that only a few attainable cars are interesting to drive and mildly reliable. Even at that Porsche is going the other way.

 

Yes, I was going to post that YouTube video regarding being banished…lots of high rollers and influencers who refuse to get sucked into Ferrari’s games, just because it’s Ferrari.

Personally, it’s hard for me to feel “loyalty” to anyone brand, as my tastes change too often…and always put a premium on getting the car that offers the most bang for the buck (eg, value)….with “bang” being determined by my own metrics. For the time being, I’m very satisfied with my 992S…but who know what the future will bring?

 

They should be earning my loyalty, not the other way around.

 

At the end of the day, be loyal to yourself.

Not to any brand, marque, or car.

If you're loyal to your own principles and what you want, you'll never be disappointed.