Planet 9

wbartram · #1 11-15-2008, 08:20 AM

Dear All

To my absolute astonishment I have just been subjected to the new standard practice, that my local dealer Porsche Guildford is now following.

My car is due in for a MOT on Monday, and this morning I had a phone call from "the sales side of the business" just checking if everything was OK and asking if they could help in anyway?

While talking to the sales man concerned, I told him of my astinishment at the call, saying that in 10 years of dealing with Porsche no salesman had proactivly called me and indeed when visting the dealer show room for a service, was completely ignored while browsing the various models on desplay. Its was explained to me that this was standard practice for sales to make such calls............. not to me!

I wonder if marks a shift in approch and that we might be treated like the customer, or would it be something to do with the fact at for the first time they have a number of new 997's in stock that they can not sell!

Best Regards

William

silberrosa · #2 11-15-2008, 09:45 AM

My guess is that in the present and most probably ongoing economic environment, we're going to see a lot of change from past practices. When I ordered my car in June, I got a discount from MSRP that I would have thought impossible to obtain only a year or two ago. I was prepared to go anywhere to get the number I was looking for, but ultimately had to visit only two dealers. The first was local and relatively inflexible; the second agreed to my price with minimal negotiation. Although Porsche is reducing the amount of product available to the US market, which I happen to think is an excellent strategy, the market may be shrinking at a greater rate. I think that dealers will be required to adapt in order to survive in this environment, and those who continue to operate as they have in the past will pay the price.

old dude · #3 11-15-2008, 11:48 AM

Originally Posted by silberrosa

My guess is that in the present and most probably ongoing economic environment, we're going to see a lot of change from past practices. When I ordered my car in June, I got a discount from MSRP that I would have thought impossible to obtain only a year or two ago. I was prepared to go anywhere to get the number I was looking for, but ultimately had to visit only two dealers. The first was local and relatively inflexible; the second agreed to my price with minimal negotiation. Although Porsche is reducing the amount of product available to the US market, which I happen to think is an excellent strategy, the market may be shrinking at a greater rate. I think that dealers will be required to adapt in order to survive in this environment. and those continue to operate as they have in the past will pay the price.

***** I think you're got it about right. Just go back to the site archives to read how some people were treated when they tried to make a discount deal. Dealers now realize ...no sale,no follow up service,no sale in the future.