Price Check on Aisle '06

[husker boxster]

I have never in all my years seen a dealer NOT want to sell a car until now. It's no wonder they have 2 left over 06 987s in their inventory.

I saw this car on AutoTrader about 1.5 mo ago. Sent them an email via AT to see if they still had it. No response.

Over Thanksgiving w/e I saw it was still listed on their website. Sent them an email via their website a week ago Mon. No response.

Call them last Wed. Asked the salesman about options, build date, Katrina issues (the car is in NO), etc. He called me back with the info. Then asked if I'd seen it on the internet. I said yes. He gave me his direct dial number and hung up. No "what can I do to get you into this car" jive or asking about trades, etc.

A good sales person would call back in a day or two, but he didn't so Sat AM I called the Sales Mgr and left a msg. No response. Called again in the PM and left another msg.

A different salesman called me. We had at least 5 phone converstions between him talking to the Used Car Mgr. The salesman and I came to a number on what it would cost to trade my 01, but the UCM wanted to low-ball me because he couldn't commit to a price w/o seeing my car. He wanted me to come down and let him look at my car. According to NADA, trade-in on my car is $20200. That's what I was willing to take for it, so I didn't think I was being outragous. The UCM said $16K. I suggested they call the Service Mgr at Woodhouse Porsche here in Omaha and get a description from him on the cond of my car. They said they'd call him on Mon and get back to me Mon evening. Sent the salesman a pic of my car.

Called the SM at Woodhouse yesterday morning to give him a heads-up on the call. He was happy to talk to them. Got home last night, no call. Called the SM this morning and he said he never got a call either. Got home tonight and there was an email from the salesman who said the car has been sold. We'll see, they told me that once on Sat. Got a feeling they just want to blow me off. I'll keep an eye on their website.

I bought my Box over the phone from Boardwalk in Plano, Tx. We had a deal made in 3 calls and that included my trade. Woodhouse moves lots of inventory via the internet. These fools in NO don't have a clue. If they only want to sell their cars w/in a 100 mi radius, they shouldn't advertise on the WWW.

Sorry for the long post, just needed to vent a little. How stupid are people when you want to hand them a wad of $$$ and they don't want to take it?

[NickCats]

Husker,

Sorry to hear about all your troubles...

It amazes me that some of these places stay in business when they treat potential ( and current ) customers so poorly

Nick

[timothy]

I don't understand why Porsche NA puts up with dealerships that tarnish their brand.

Husker, that you had a good experience with Boardwalk is no surprise. Here in Dallas we're lucky to have Park Place and Boardwalk; both have been nothing less than excellent. I didn't buy my car from either yet am treated the same as someone who just spent 100k.

[baseball]

Husker, I wish I could say your experience was the exception, but in my experience it's not.

When I bought my car, I dealt with over a dozen (close to 20) dealers in the Northeast. I have never met so many people who didn't want to put ANY effort whatsoever into taking my hard-earned cash. In at least 6 cases, a simple return phone call would have sealed the deal.

I guess some sales operations feel it's best to play hard to get.

I wonder if these salespeople are the same ones that always complain about sales being down???

[Bob Z.]

The 3 closest dealers to me here in Florida were very cordial in dealing with me and were very prompt via email. I decided to go with Brumos, which has a good reputation in the Porsche community, not to mention price.

Back on topic - they are going to get stuck with that '06 and either they are playing games with you or are very stupid - offer them what you want to pay and if they say no ask them for their "best" price...walk away if it is not acceptable but give them your # in case they change their mind.

I am not condoning the poor practices that some (many) of the Porsche dealerships exhibit to potential and current customers, but the bottom line is that Porsche is a limited production car and the dealerships do work with a specific limited allocation.

So, I think some of them just figure the car will sell at some point and the buyer will be willing to pay close to MSRP.

If the dealership is only going to get 30-40 (pick a number) cars per year, they are going to try to sell them at the highest possible prices with a limited amount of effort. Sad, yes, and maybe true. I don’t know. Just my hunch.

I would bet a very high percentage of new car Porsche buyers do very little or no price negotiations with the dealership. They just pay MSRP.

[Bob Z.]

I think your thoughts are dead-on. Porsches are not like Chevys - when was the last time you saw rebates on Porsches?

When I first approached dealers about ordering my 2008 987 S I was told MSRP and when I asked if I could get a discount I was told 3% (2% on 911s). I suspect that many people (not me though) would stop there and take that % off.

Volume is low but then again, last years (or the year before that) model should not command the same price as a new car, especially when the warranty clock has started ticking.