CAA

Sorry but I'm with GreyGoose as well. Ryan - welcome to the board and good luck with everything. Personally I just want to know if Lindsay's your customer.

BevHillsPorsche

Afshin,

I remember when we talked about getting you a Spyder in Ice Blue Metallic. At the time we weren't sure if there was going to be a 2012 model year Spyder and the build allocation in question was the last Spyder, or so we thought. I think that in the end you ended up with a hell of a car. I'm not sure why Basalt isn't nearly as popular as Black but it's a nice color and a hell of a lot easier to maintain. You've got sport buckets and Sport Exhaust and that's about as good as it gets!

I recently bought an RS 60 Spyder and absolutely love the car and take it through Mulholland whenever I need recuperating drive. For Mulholland which is a series of short tight turns I think the car's perfect and I think I'd only get in trouble with a 911 and the extra grunt!

Did you end up ordering your car or was it available in stock? I think we had a Basalt with Red and Black deviating carpet at the time (That was a cool car especially with the black carpet) but it was a PDK. Now that I've had the RS 60 I see the Spyder as the next logical step in my Porsche progression. I need to get a set of Bilstein Damptronics for the car though, I loose my breath every time I look at the fender well gaps on the car. I'll be visiting the guys at RSS in OC when I get some extra cash and get those coil overs installed.

The cars are ordered individually and depending on whether we order a car for a specific customer or for stock will determine how it's ultimately built. We get an allocation for different cars, EX GTS Coupe, GTS 4 Cab, Turbo Cab etc etc. If we have someone that puts down a deposit and builds the car to their liking we will order it exactly as they like.

When the car is slated for stock inventory (production date set with no deposit) we try to order the car in such a way that it will appeal to the largest pool of potential buyers. If you look at our entire inventory across 911, Cayenne and Panamera you'll probably see that 50% of all cars are Black on Black. That's simply because most people will always take a Black on Black car where as some other colors which I personally love appeal to a much smaller base. The same is true with options and because PDK just simply sells better than manual the majority of our cars are ordered with PDK. I'm a guy that loves the involvement that a manual transmission brings to driving, but the second get PDK's in the 991 and 981 are so good that even I might consider a PDK because it does everything so well.

Now with regards to a GTS without Center locking wheels thats INCREDIBLY RARE and I've honestly never seen a GTS either in person or online with the optionally available Carrera Sport wheels (5 lug) that were an option on the car. If that's what you want that's going to be a very difficult car to find but I'm sure at least a few of them were built.

Can I ask why you prefer the 5 lug to center lock? Personally I love the fact that the car's come with such an interesting and expensive method for fitting the wheels, but I know that those who want to change wheels have much fewer options in the aftermarket for the centerlocking hub. The only other draw back of center lock is that you need a 20 ft long breaker bar to remove them and a high quality torque wrench for that job costs between $500 and $1,000. Torque multipliers also work but generally I suggest that if you have a blowout or need to replace the tire to just go to your service department. If you're stuck on the road you can also call 1 800 PORSCHE for roadside assistance for cars under warranty including CPO cars.

THANK YOU! I'm thrilled that we're finally here and I hope to continue to contribute whenever possible.

I can't publicly comment on customers but I will tell you that we have a very impressive client list. Don't let that scare you off though, 90% of my cars are sold to buyers outside of California and Beverly Hills and this effort on Rennlist and 6speedonline is to help reach more customers out there that might not know who we are and what we offer.

paver

Ryan, could you jjust have told him you didn't have time for the DME and the extra pictures since you didnt think he was a serious enough buyer?

I ask just trying to understand the "sales mentality, position, outlook" because of something my local salesman did when I was trying to buy a new C2S. FOund the exact car I wanted but at a P dealer 2500 mi away. Asked my local P dealer to get it for me. Agreed on price with salesman. Gave him $5000 deposit. He started setting deadlines as to when certain steps of process would be finished. Deadlines kept getting blown. He kept telling me everything was good, car was about to be in their inventory as they had fedexed funds to secure car into their inventory. He even asked me to pay full amt which I agreed to when he could show me car was in his inventory. The last straw was salesman said they will have the funds in 2 hrs and it's a done deal then. 2 hrs came and went...nothing. Through a friend, I was able to speak with owner of the local dealership. Less than 30 seconds into our conversation he told me there was no deal. No funds were sent. The deal involved a vehicle swap that was not in their best interest. Even more amazing was that he then went on to tell me how hard his salesman was working for me and they would be glad to factory order a car for me. To say I was astounded is a gigantic understatement.

I have never understood why that salesman told me such blatant lies and subsequently created so much bad will when he could have just said "this is not a deal we can do, we'd love to sell you something we have here". Which would have probably lead to me buying from them at some point in the future.

sandwedge

+1. Same as buying a house. First get a handle on whether or not there's a meeting of the minds on the price or at least if there's potential. Then start spending time and money on inspections and such with the sale contingent on good inspections. Not the other way around.

paver

About centerlocks:
There are plenty of aftermarket options out there as far as wheel choices go. The problem is that centerlocks call for a complicated procedure to take wheels off and put them back on. The procedure requires a degree of knowledge and attention to detail that most people changing wheels don't get. And if not done right, it can lead to component failure with some already documented serious damage(especially at the track). As you said it is an interesting and expensive way of fitting wheels but there is absolutely no functional benefit to them. They are not lighter, they are not safer, they are not simpler, they are not faster to put on and take off, they are not easier to use....they are basically useless "motorsports inspired" bling. Porsche will be lucky if someone doesn't die as a result of a centerlock failure.

utkinpol

for sport activities when you have 2-3 sets of different wheels 5 lugs are way simpler to work with and way more reliable when you bet your life on a track.

you can look up on gt3 forums - they even have a registry on CL failures.
cup cars CL are fine, on street cars it is, well, i would never want to deal with it.

hakaida702

I have seen one when I was looking and I believe it was in florida. It was white, 6 spd, SPASM, aerokit, 5 lugs with champion wheels. Low miles (less than 2,000 miles), and maxed out on other options but asking was a crazy 130k or so if I remember correctly and it sold pretty quick. I emailed about it and the salesperson said they could drop it to 105k, but that was still over my budget and I thanked him for a quick reply but also said I couldn't go that high so I went with a different GTS.

hakaida702

5 lugs will be a mod I will do hopefully next year depending on my year (I'm in sales too) and it's because I'm paranoid about them falling off at a DE. Being worried about them failing at the track is no fun at all. I am confident that they probably will not fail on the street. I do like the way that they look, but I would rather go 5 lugs for ease of use and peace of mind. Plus the amount of wheel choices are so much better.

kosmo

um, this pretty much sums it up for me.

Paver/ utkinpol
you guys shouldnt have to school a P salesperson.

paver

Hakaida, I understand. Be very careful of who you let put your wheels on. If you have the equipment, check them yourself to make sure they are torqued properly and the safety locks are engaged...especially at the track. If you only use street tires and the centerlocks have always been installed properly you will be OK.

BevHillsPorsche

Sounds like a very aggravating situation and I'm sorry to hear about your experience. I think your situation is something else entirely where you were promised something, had exchanged funds and they simply failed to deliver on their word. I can only imagine how pissed you were.

I think your situation is in an entirely different category however. The discussions that I had with the other RL'er here had never really made any progress after the initial request. I have in the past been working deals on cars with a customer and before we can close another salesmen has found someone else and just like that both me and my customer lose out. I lost a deal on a low mile 97 Turbo Coupe over $1,000 and a matter of hours. The thing I learned from that was that if there's activity on the car it's in both my customers and my best interest to let them know that we need to act NOW or risk losing out. I had tried to do that in this situation but I think he and I were just on different wavelengths and my attempts to secure the car for him came off like a desperation plea more than anything else. As I said in this situation nobody won.

I've been doing this for awhile but I'll be the first to admit that every day is a learning experience. I think experience in knowing how to react to situations and different types of customers is very valuable in sales and in the end I don't think that we had the chance to build the trust necessary where my recommendation was seen as that and not some type of ploy for a quick or rushed sale. That's also why I think it's important to speak over the phone where you can get at least some sense of the character of the person on the other line. A voice and persons delivery goes a lot further than simple words.

I've heard about the situation and the subsequent recall on the original fastening nuts. Is this still a problem with the updated fastening spec's?

As far as the process being tricky or overly detailed I've heard the same from one of our GT2 RS customers and that they were simply a pain to remove. I guess it depends on what you intend to use the car for and I'll tell you this I know I have a lot of experience with putting on and taking of 5 lug wheels where I can do it in my sleep, the center lock however is something I've never personally removed and reinstalled although I know the procedure. I guess that too is something that probably takes time and experience to be totally comfortable with and I can understand why there's uncertainty with fitting them and an uneasiness with track use based simply on the experience of others.

Thus far we've not seen the centerlock n the 991 but perhaps when the Turbo comes out or the GT3 we will see an update.

You mentioned that Cupcars aren't experiencing the same problems. Are the parts different between the 2 cars? I know I've seen longer threaded hubs on some cup cars and a different securing nut.

Agreed with wheel selection.

BevHillsPorsche

Definitely feeling the love here today.

you guys are tough, I think i'm going to call it a night. Until tomorrow.....

paver

Ryan, the "recall" was to give a central locking bolt, what some people call the nut, that didn't have a torque spec printed on it any more. Apparently the original torque spec was too low. Now the spec is 600 nm as opposed to 500 nm(I think) originally.

The cup car centerlocks are totally different system...that works.

Thanks for commenting on the situation I mentioned earlier.

kosmo

hey ryan, i've shouldnt have come across rude. I'm just saying it will make you a better salesperson to stay current. IMO the CL "issues" are a big deal.

BevHillsPorsche

I asked about the recalled nuts and the differences between the new and replacement ones and I was told that there was no structural or material changes that the only differences were the tightening specs etched on the nuts.

No problem, as I mentioned this is a learning experience, I'm here to help when I can, pick up things I might have missed and enjoy the journey ahead.