I can't imagine a dealer still insisting on MSRP for a '24. That's absolutely ridiculous. As I mentioned earlier, I received over 6% off MSRP plus a good trade-in number when I purchased a '25 a week and a half ago. If you're still interested in a '24 with a decent discount and your local dealers are being obstinate, perhaps it's time to expand your shopping area a little. I don't know if this will interest you or not, but I just noticed a new '24 Panamera 4 in Rockford, IL that's currently being advertised with an 11% discount from its $133,730 MSRP down to $119,000. And that's their starting point. I'm sure you could do even better if you show up in person to negotiate. And it is not that far from Chicago. Here's the link: New 2024 Porsche Panamera For Sale at Porsche Rockford | VIN: WP0AA2YA0RL001123

 

A local Porsche tried to convince me to buy a Panamera E-Hybrid that’s been seating in their lot since last May, apparently it was cancelled, and not letting me place an order for 4S E-Hybrid…

although I found another dealer a bit far from where I live, however they were quick at getting an allocation

now, I’m trying to speed up the configuration lockdown and not wait till end of April

anyone had successfully done that? Cutting down the process by over a month?

 

In my experience, the factory determines its manufacturing capacity that they want for the year and align their component suppliers behind that, so they split the capacity by giving allocation to each market, and each market then gives its dealers a monthly allocation.

Typically, the dealer places “generic” orders against their allocation by model, and spec amends the first car they have coming through that is still spec amendable and not locked for build if they get an order. Once locked for build, that is what the dealer is getting, sold or not, hence why they end up with some cars coming through to their compound as unsold stock. If a car is tagged as sold, the manufacturer may bring forward, but I have not heard of a dealer being able to influence an earlier build slot, without corporate being involved somehow, but even then, it is just a request on the factory.

The other issue here is that if a model is popular, a dealer may not have any allocation left in the month you order, so whilst they will take your order, it does not really get ordered on the factory until they have allocation available, which could be one month or more. This is where dealer groups have an advantage, as they get allocation by site, so have the ability to use “group” allocation to potentially spec amend a car with an earlier build slot. I have seen some bulletins where a manufacturer has closed the order bank in July for example as they have sold all allocation for the whole year and the factory is unable to give any more build slots.

I know the US may operate slightly differently as you tend to have more cars on lots, however in Europe, most are made against a customer order and its is not that common for an unsold car to come through to stock, but you can normally spot them as they all have a fairly consistent spec if things that are most popular.

 

Thank you for your reply and research. Have recently reconnected with a dealer in North Carolina. Stopped by a dealer in the Chicago area to actually see the paint color up close. After a few minutes of looking around, I approached a salesman playing on his computer. Turns out to be the owners son. Very helpful and talked a good game. We looked at two cars and the amazing part was he very forthcoming on pricing. So there is hope. He said they are 3rd biggest store in the US. They must have two hundred cars there. So not sure if that helps me or not. Their floorplan interest cost must be high.
Thanks again, Bob

 

Anyone get more than 5% off on GTS order recently? Thanks in advance.