What i know is you said you called several dealers, I call a spade a spade when i see it. I am glad you have owned 5 porsches, I have owned about 20 or so with probably 85% of them being turbos, don't really know what that matters. What I do know is when I am shopping a car I know what they are asking for it before I start negotiating it, I never assume anything. I ask for the best price and it usually works for me. If it doesn't i do not leave the dealership whining about it on a forum calling them "stealerships". You are correct, it is about profit and supply and demand, a dealership is not obligated to discount anything to you or me, thats there choice and not deserving of being bashed by everyone that didn't get what they wanted, even my 9 year old daughter doesn't act that way.

 

^ x2.

If you don't like what they are offering, go try another dealer.

 

Thank you sir for your advice, the admonishment and the comparison to your very mature 9 year old. Also congrats on the 20 porsches. Certainly impressive. I started this thread out of frustration with dealing with some of these dealerships, I'm glad you haven't had that experience. While I'm not destitute by any means obviously I'm not as blessed financially as you and it is really important to me to get the best deal that I can. I just find it frustrating how inconsistent the car business can be but a necessary evil to deal with to get to the enjoyment of these great cars. I hope you ride in good health.

 

Nice response cman. We can all get along here and don't need to resort to crap talk because we can hide behind computers. We all have one thing in common on this forum, the like for Porsche's. It's hard not to respond to criticism with more criticism. I appreciate the feedback on dealership experiences as we all must go through this. I strongly believe in a free market economy and if I owned a Porsche dealership you bet Id be trying to maximize profits while doing things (good customer service etc) to sustain a successful business. Unfortunately for some, they will be disappointed in the process.

 

Old saying:

"Call me anything, but keep calling!"

 

I think referring to dealerships as "stealerships" is an unfair characterization. I can think of only one or two bad car buying experiences in my lifetime so far and in both instances I think it was more the person with whom I interacted, and I took my business elsewhere. When it comes to buying or leasing cars, "hope" and "luck" are not strategies. As a matter of fact, it's gotten a lot easier for us as a result of the Internet...with references like owners forums and buying guides. We can better estimate cost and profit now and the dealers I have worked with have all priced competitively. Then there are factors like timing and loyalty. Sometimes, these factors work in unison. Also, if you shop in a competitive market, like in the DMV where there are perhaps as many as 5 Porsche dealerships, there is leverage in favor of the buyer. It's all about capitalism, supply and demand, and making it work for the buyer. Porsche is a niche market; but that fact can work for buyers since these cars tend to sit on dealers' lots a lot longer. I found that paying attention to dealers' websites and how price drop is corresponds to the length of time that a car sits on the lot can work for me when I come to look at it. Also, remember that many of these dealers will ship cars to make a deal. I know that mine does. So, if the dealer in your vicinity isn't negotiating just use the Google search function and move on!

 

I "interview" my sales people before trying to do business with them

The Internet is a powerful tool (an equalizer really) to establish a fair price these days. The ones who understand that are the ones who do negotiate.

 

Let's never forget that the customer - dealership relationship is diametrically opposed when it comes to pricing. Unless you are the kind of person where $$$ doesn't matter, then they are your best friend. For anyone else, they are the enemy.

What truly irks me is when the dealership doesn't know their product and are too lazy to learn it...and then they want to charge you top $$$. That's the worst in my book!!!

Anyway, one consumers opinion, yours may be different.

Good luck and never forget, they are not your friend!

 

^+1 Totally agree. That is my point exactly

 

Completely agree. Sometimes we get a little to harsh on our fellow members. We are on here to share our interest and hopefully support that interest rather than bash each other. We all have our own opinion and experience....

 

I doubt it.. There is always lots of guessing that they play with supply to manipulate prices.. But I think that is nonsense.. Production lines are entities with a lot of inertia with their suppliers etc.. You don't just throttle it at will to manipulate things like you might with other raw commodities.

Keep in mind, they sell at invoice price (well roughly) to the dealers, so I would think Porsche AG just want's to move product.. at that $20K+ per unit...

My guess is that maybe there is some disruption of the production in general as they check their processes and designs in the aftermath of the GT.. I can tell you from my production experience in other industries, especially when it is safety oriented you start looking close at everything just to be careful... then once you are sure everything is ok, you ramp up and get going as fast as possible.

So what you see is a hicup that temporarily disrupts things a little. And keep in mind the overall production level at Porsche is still fairly low by auto industry standards (especially for the 911's) so it doesn't take much of a hicup to dry up the deliveries..