4carl

Two months ago I received an invitation to drive the 918 @ the thermal club track. I responded and they set a time to drive the car.
Today Porsche in Atlanta called and said that in order to participle I would have to go to my local dealer and give them a $200,000 deposit on the car sight unseen.
I was also told that if I didn’t like the car I would get a refund. I told him that Porsche approached me and a deposit was never discussed when I set the appointment. I also told him it was unprofessional and unethical and I would share my experience. He said that they would make a note of it and it would affect my relationship with Porsche. I said they went doing me any favors by selling me a car.
It’s funny how the car game is the same even though the price changes. I really thought they were above this but I was wrong, they cancelled my test drive.

Plastique999

That's really too bad.
I'm surprised though they would offer test drives with the 918.
Are talking about the new Thermal race track in La Quinta? Didn't know it was open.

W8MM

Once a 918 prototype broke the 7 minute barrier on the Nordschleife, their demeanor changed drastically. The PR buzz from the fast lap must have altered the incoming order rate for the car so that they no longer feared not selling all 918 examples. The previously solicitous attitude (new for Porsche IMHO) completely evaporated coincidentally with their Nurburgring success.

My "personal" 918 concierge disappeared right about the same time.

Porsche is a huge company and some of the details regarding customer relations can get messed up when a change of plan occurs at the top of the chain. It will be interesting to see how much more insulated Porsche executives become when the sheer volume of new Macan customers begins to flow into dealerships. I know they have to ramp up volume to survive, but things like the 918 on-again, off-again marketing SNAFU may get more frequent in the coming years.

I hope their market planning takes into account the "burning" of the brand ambassador type customers that formed the basis of their current success. We'll get to see if all the MBA's at HQ are as smart as they think they are.

4carl

Eddie, i don't think its open there just using it for a few days. If they would have said upfront you need to go and put 200k down site unseen that would have been different. Kind of a bait and switch, they came to me,called me several times to make sure i could come. Poor ethics but thats how the car biz works. carl

Polar Peter

Porsches attitude is effecting them in many ways, just take a look at what's happening within racing here in the USA. You will not see many 991's campaigned in 2014 professional racing. TRG left a while back and now the Lizards and Miller are in Audi's.... There are reasons for these changes... The head is getting too big for the body

wtdoom

Very strange . None of that in the uk or eu .

W8MM

There has always been a disconnect between PAG and PCNA. There are transfer-pricing tensions between the two parties made worse by the low pricing demands of the USA auto market and currency fluctuations. Neither entity is willing to "take a loss" from the other after a pricing/unit-volume negotiation has concluded. If something unplanned-for occurs, each side dukes it out with the USA customer left holding the bag.

Not pretty.

jenk12m

Yea it's sad to see long porsche supported race teams, switching brands. There is something definitely going on at the top

4carl

My first porsche was in 1977 its not the same company. Im gone, no problem getting someone to take my money for a car. 918 was on the radar but i need it like another set of nuts..The way they handled it was a total misrepresentation. The talked to me for two months and never mentioned putting money upfront for the privilege of them selling me a 900k car. Reminds me of when i bought a new F355 in 94, it was like a drug deal,real sleazy ..

E-Man

You're not alone. They (Porsche) pulled the same bait and switch on me. Invited me to Thermal and then a couple months later said 'oh sorry, you're no longer invited, but if you'd like to test drive the car wire us 200k. Not only is it sketchy but it's insulting. I even made plans to be in Palm Springs at that time. Oh well.

4carl

I really don't give a sh-t about the event but i invited a friend to come because they said i could. Now hes flying in from Wisconsin next Friday and no event . At least the weather in Santa Barbara is better. I'll see if i can set up a private track day with some buddies as a consultation prize. carl

bbs993tt

So here's my similar story.

I got invited to the first 918 road show that they were to do in multiple cities. Made my reservation for Houston. A week or so later, they cancelled the entire road show with little explanation.

Fast forward to mid-October and the "918 concierge" calls and invites me again to the road show in Thermal. Again, I accept and make a reservation. Like others, neither time was there mention of a deposit and like others, I already invited someone to attend with me.

Fast forward to last week when I get an urgent call from my 918 "relationship manager". First thing he asks is if I've put a $200,000 deposit down with my local dealership. When I tell him no, he proceeds to unapolagetically uninvite me to Thermal. When I ask how this could be when I've been invited twice, he responds with "I'll make sure you're not invited to these events anymore".

The real topper is the next day I get another urgent voicemail from the same guy. I'm thinking they've had a change of heart and I'll get to go after all. Instead, he uninvites me again, not remembering that he spoke to me the day before.

Very disappointing and handled completely unprofessionally.

themarsman

I also was invited to a few events for the 918 probably because I bought a CGT, I declined because I knew I wouldn't be buying one. In the invitations it didn't mention anything about a 200K deposit.

I have a friend of mine who owns a local Porsche dealer in my area, I wonder if the dealers realize how much corporate Porsche is screwing up the relationships with their customers.

mtbscott

I'm too poor to get invites to these things anyway, but sounds to me like the deposit thing was a last minute addition, hence why it was never mentioned before. I'm going to take a stab and say that almost no one will put down $200K just for a test drive. Some buyers may have put down money already if they were willing to buy one sight unseen, but that's completely different from PCNA trying to garner additional new sales.
4carl, you said it best "It’s funny how the car game is the same even though the price changes.."

mousecatcher

Why wouldn't you put $200k down? If you don't like it they will refund it. I'd do it just to get a test drive. On a track no less.

"Sorry, I don't like this car. It's been tracked." lol