Chasing Porsche UK salespeople

[stewieyan]

Is it normal to be chasing them (and not the other way round, like the rest of the world)? Why is trying to buy an expensive car such a negative, almost neglected experience? Questions remain unanswered, no offers/any discounts, little follow up interest.

Edited by stewieyan on Wednesday 9th December 14:36

[LordGrover]

Odd isn't it.

I see this quite often, but when I was buying they were helpful and accommodating. In fact, once I'd made the purchase they maintained contact, inviting me to open days and events - even though I made it clear that having just bought a car I wasn't in the market for another, and probably wouldn't be so for several years.

I think that if/when you find a 'good' one, you stick with them.

[Deep Thought]

stewieyan said:

Is it normal to be chasing them (and not the other way round, like the rest of the world)? Why is trying to buy an expensive car such a negative, almost neglected experience? Questions remain unanswered, no offers/any discounts, little follow up interest.

Edited by stewieyan on Wednesday 9th December 14:36

Are you emailing them or meeting them face to face?

[MrVert]

Which OPC?

[craigjm]

stewieyan said:

Is it normal to be chasing them (and not the other way round, like the rest of the world)? Why is trying to buy an expensive car such a negative, almost neglected experience? Questions remain unanswered, no offers/any discounts, little follow up interest.

Edited by stewieyan on Wednesday 9th December 14:36

You might get a different response face to face and it’s hard to have a view otherwise because we don’t know what you are asking. Taking about offers and discounts may make you not look like a serious buyer. Some OPC are better than others. I have always used Tonbridge and Sussex

[stewieyan]

Meeting some, emailing others.

Basically no offers whatsoever - asking to give me the best offer on a £75k car, getting back the standard pcp calculation with £1k dealership contribution (while on the website the calculator returns £2k).

Asking questions about add ons, no response.

I mean any normal sales person should be there to try and close a deal.

Edited by stewieyan on Wednesday 9th December 14:50

[stewieyan]

Is it reasonable to expect say a 5% discount on a 75k car in the middle of December? Or are we all very rich and don’t care about money )

[stewieyan]

Any good advice appreciated, thank you!

[Deep Thought]

stewieyan said:

Meeting some, emailing others.

Basically no offers whatsoever - asking to give me the best offer on a £75k car, getting back the standard pcp calculation with £1k dealership contribution (while on the website the calculator returns £2k).

Asking questions about add ons, no response.

I mean any normal sales person should be there to try and close a deal, who employs these people?!

Unless they're just looking back glumly at you then this suggests email.

I think you need to arrange an appointment and be sat in front of them, hammering out your options this and negotiating a price.

I also think you need to spell it out when you're arranging the appointment that you are in a position to place an order on the day / based on your discussions on the day.

If you're not getting any satisfaction with that approach then i'd ring and ask to speak to the sales manager and ask why.

[craigjm]

Is this a new car or used? I have never had a discount on a new Porsche but it is possible to get some of the options you want thrown in

[stewieyan]

craigjm said:

Is this a new car or used? I have never had a discount on a new Porsche but it is possible to get some of the options you want thrown in

New. Why wouldn’t there be a discount available on any car (Porsche or otherwise)? Then what’s the purpose of sales people: arrange demo drives and obtain paperwork signatures?

[stewieyan]

Deep Thought said:

Unless they're just looking back glumly at you then this suggests email.

I think you need to arrange an appointment and be sat in front of them, hammering out your options this and negotiating a price.

I also think you need to spell it out when you're arranging the appointment that you are in a position to place an order on the day / based on your discussions on the day.

If you're not getting any satisfaction with that approach then i'd ring and ask to speak to the sales manager and ask why.

Thanks for the advice. Maybe they are still not used to ecomms.

[stewieyan]

craigjm said:

You might get a different response face to face and it’s hard to have a view otherwise because we don’t know what you are asking. Taking about offers and discounts may make you not look like a serious buyer. Some OPC are better than others. I have always used Tonbridge and Sussex

Thanks. Tonbridge is relatively close, will try that one

[stewieyan]

LordGrover said:

Odd isn't it.

I see this quite often, but when I was buying they were helpful and accommodating. In fact, once I'd made the purchase they maintained contact, inviting me to open days and events - even though I made it clear that having just bought a car I wasn't in the market for another, and probably wouldn't be so for several years.

I think that if/when you find a 'good' one, you stick with them.

Sounds like I need some luck on my side )

[Rojibo]

stewieyan said:

New. Why wouldn’t there be a discount available on any car (Porsche or otherwise)? Then what’s the purpose of sales people: arrange demo drives and obtain paperwork signatures?

Because we simply don't need to discount our cars to sell sir.

Best to do this face to face, or at least over the phone, they probably deal with a lot of time wasters over email. Personally I've received excellent service every time I've been in an OPC, and not just the one where we have a long family history of buying from them.

[craigjm]

stewieyan said:

craigjm said:

Is this a new car or used? I have never had a discount on a new Porsche but it is possible to get some of the options you want thrown in

New. Why wouldn’t there be a discount available on any car (Porsche or otherwise)? Then what’s the purpose of sales people: arrange demo drives and obtain paperwork signatures?

They won’t take you seriously if you start talking discounts before even trying to do a deal. My advice would be to spec up the car you want online and then go down to tonbridge and talk to them face to face. Before you do take a look at your list of options and choose a group of them that are reasonable price and add up to say 5% of your overall price and during discussions ask whether they would be willing to discount options and go from there.

[Holgate86]

stewieyan said:

Is it normal to be chasing them (and not the other way round, like the rest of the world)? Why is trying to buy an expensive car such a negative, almost neglected experience? Questions remain unanswered, no offers/any discounts, little follow up interest.

Edited by stewieyan on Wednesday 9th December 14:36

My experience too, told the dealer principal my opinion, sold the Porsche I already owned, moved on, won't have another.

Porsche salesmen just want you to walk into the showroom with a configuration and a deposit.......that's it.

H86

[bigmowley]

Funnily enough just had this very conversation with my Porsche salesman. I am actually tying up the loose ends on an ID3 for MrsBigmowley as they are VW dealers as well. Getting the answer to even simple questions is a nightmare and the details change depending which way the wind is blowing.
He actually said to me today that very few people actually haggle, mostly they just pay the price! Some people even refuse the finance even when there is a big deposit contribution and they can just pay it off straightaway, madness.
But in all seriousness face to face is the only way to do it. Any discount or deals will have to go up and down the chain of command before they get approved so it’s far better to be sat there drinking the free coffee and putting the pressure on in person. Persevere you will get a deal in the end, it’s just a bit soul destroying at times.

[MrC986]

I’ve had a friend just buy a new Carrera on PCP which was a cancelled order from a London based dealer and they part ex’d their Boxster. The dealer admitted that Brexit had put the kybosh on customers ordering new cars from the factory as the possible 10% increase in price because of it was discouraging them.

OP, I suggest you see which dealers blink, but don’t expect big discounts on 911s & Taycans although I’m told there are deals on most other things “in stock” although you need to be persistent & to take finance (even if you pay it off almost straight away). Buying “remotely” isn’t IMO going to get you the best deal & you might need to deal just before Christmas to take delivery of a brand new car before the end of December.

Good luck

[Cheib]

stewieyan said:

craigjm said:

Is this a new car or used? I have never had a discount on a new Porsche but it is possible to get some of the options you want thrown in

New. Why wouldn’t there be a discount available on any car (Porsche or otherwise)? Then what’s the purpose of sales people: arrange demo drives and obtain paperwork signatures?

No discounts because they don’t actually sell that many cars (there are only 40 dealers) and right now there is plenty of demand. I know one fo the dealer groups that has several OPC’s has an official “no discounts on used cars” policy at the moment.

What you might be able to do is get a nominal discount of say £1k if you take finance.

I know it’s incredible with the state of the economy but car dealers are short of stock. Porsche dealers are getting large shipments of cars through this month and last but that’s so they have cars in case of a hard Brexit....AFAIK they are due to get virtually no cars in January. The factory has front loaded production for the UK.

If you are asking for discounts I am not surprised you aren’t getting called back to be honest as they know they won’t get sign off so think a sale is very unlikely. Especially is it’s a popular car like a Boxster GTS. If it was a Panamera Thurso you were buying you would probably get a discount and have sales people all over you....