Not really a false perception since most on “lists” do not have true demand orders. A Demand Order means is that the dealer has a client ready to buy a car. The dealer has to then be willing to officially enter that client into the system showing Porsche Corporate that they have an allocation demand (v70). It does not guarantee an allocation for the potential customers desired trim will be granted in any meaningful time or even at all.

When so many here talk about being on “the list” that can be something different. Most all dealers keep customer want lists (many more then one list separating msrp request and adm willing) without officially entering them as V70 demand orders. Why? Because the larger volume dealers in particular know that many on these long waitlists are not getting a car so really is no point. Always good business practice to keep the lists however as the dealers never know when they may need to start referring to them (a random canceled order, or perhaps when the car market gets back to something more normal even if several years from now).

 

When a customer is willing to put in a nominal deposit on a car, say $5k, a dealer could create a demand order, but they don’t. Why?

I would expect that Porsche/PNA would see increased demand at this dealership and allocate them more cars.

IIRC, Porsche is already running the factory 24 hours a day, so maybe there’s no more supply to be had anyway (without a massive capital outlay to stand up a new factory and a major supply chain change).

 

A unicorn allocation wait!

 

Porsche are smarter than that; demand orders are an indicator sure but they'll likely be more worried about how many cars actually get sold and who sells them, trends around that and so on.

 

I am in a demand order system. I was shown the screen and made no deposit to get that. I've since bought a CPO, but I'm staying on the list to see what turns up. By the time I get an allocation, it could be a 992.2 and maybe that would interest me.
The dealership knows this, because I bought the CPO from them.

From what I've gathered, allocations are not built around lists. We like to think if I'm first nationwide then I'm next. I believe that is false. It is built around dealership volume. The highest volume dealer gets more allocation, which is a catch-22 for the smaller dealers.

 

The SA who sold a new Cayenne to us last summer told me yesterday that they had dropped the ADM for 992 from $15K to $5K. I don't know if he was talking about all 992's or just the one I'm interested in which is a modestly optioned C4 which at 2023 prices would have at MSRP of about $150K. He has told me in the past that it's a lot easier to get an allocation for a C4S than for a C4 which might be true since I've found many C4S but very few C4 when I've done nationwide searches. I don't see the need for the extra power or higher stressed engine of a C4S since the car would be a daily use cruiser driven primarily by my wife.

I thought I had been on a 992 allocation wait list since around last September but I found out a couple of months ago that my SA doesn't remember our conversation then or at least that is what he told me.

If I get back on a wait list I'll insist on getting everything in writing and preferably make a deposit. Wait lists don't seem to mean much unless money has changed hands and even then maybe not.

 

 

Because then dealers would then put in fake demand orders. Porsche has no real way of verifying whether or not someone paid a deposit.

 

I can say from experience this isn’t true. I have a demand order in for a GTS and a GT3 with one dealer, and while those were already in - I received a GTS allocation from another dealer.

My build was submitted and accepted, and the build starts today on the GTS. The dealer never said anything about seeing that I have 2 demand orders in with another dealer.

 

Maybe I was just being dissuaded from doing this by the particular person I was talking to...

 

I think your view of the C4 vs. C4S allocation is true. In fact, one SA I dealt with was very good with me and provided a lot of detail in the last round. He said there were ZERO C4 allocations given in the U.S. last period.
This lined up with a lot of statements and anecdotes I've seen. Right now, Porsche wants to focus on the higher end cars, so a C4 is more rare as is a base allocation apparently.

 

Well that's a perfect example - this entire system Porsche has created here is really crazy. Does the "system" automatically go in and cancel your other two orders, or are they relying on you to call them? Sure, if the other dealer calls you and offers a GTS, you would decline because you already have one on the pipeline from someone else, and in this market they would simply jump down the list to the next person. But still, having all these multiple demand orders floating around inflates what real demand actually is.

The same thing is happening with the Z06. It's sold out for 7 years, the entire model run, if you believe the order demands. But everyone knows people are on the list at 5+ dealers. In fact if you read the corvette forum, people are putting family members on lists for it. So one actual buyer may have 10 orders in place for a car.

 

No the system does not cancel orders if a buyer has multiple orders in. For sure the order books are inflated, and eventually the situation will deflate. Same thing happened with the semiconductor shortage… companies started doubling ordering from. Multiple suppliers creating appearance of huge backlogs.

That is the system of how cars are allocated to franchise dealers across the industry. Allocations are divided upon criteria such as previous years sales per dealership, and on the flip side dealers are obligated to fill every allocation they are given. This is the only way to do things, until the US market moves to an agency model as is used overseas where the customer registers directly with the automaker for an allocation. I believe Ford has started doing this here for some models.

 

A friend at a major chip company told me the same over dinner in late February. His employer was trying to figure out what their real demand is.

 

I have two 911’s on order… the system definitely allowed it. I intend buying both, one year apart.