Dealer forcing me to receive my CT4 order with add-ons - Resist All and Apex coating. Dealer move to tack on revenue.

[Prit]

I feel like I need to rephrase the question here. I am not asking anyone what I should do given it was disclosed ahead of time. Although the behavior is still extortionate regardless, I’m asking if this is becoming common practice. Everyone held on and began answering a “recourse” question which was never asked, and then others grabbed onto to those answers and the entire convo went left.
This is amazing actually.

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[blulite]

I feel like I need to rephrase the question here. I am not asking anyone what I should do given it was disclosed ahead of time. Although the behavior is still extortionate regardless, I’m asking if this is becoming common practice. Everyone held on and began answering a “recourse” question which was never asked, and then others grabbed onto to those answers and the entire convo went left.
This is amazing actually.

You asked a pretty open-ended question: "What are your thoughts". It is not standard practice as far as I am aware (the finance guy goes through the list of stuff and I laugh and just say stop asking and answer NO to all the offers).

I would walk from the deal.

 

[Prit]

Oh, gotcha. Yes, it has unfortunately become common. I don't know if it's every dealership but many are charging above MSRP one way or another. It's not just Porsche, demand is higher than supply for many cars and dealerships are licking their chops.

I hate the practice and agree it's unethical but it's certainly allowed.

Thanks for this. It makes sense.

 

[LonePalmBJ]

Hennessy.

That's where I bought mine, and they were nothing but professional with me. I wonder if this is more of a case of a crappy salesperson than a dealership issue? Shoot me a private message and let me know who you are working with. Your experience doesn't align with the experience and service I've gotten from them so far.

 

[Mike in CA]

I never asked for anyone to help me or to take legal action - Others made those comments. My question was whether or not this is common or happening elsewhere. That’s all.

I now understand your situation more clearly. You really have no recourse at this point, as has already been mentioned. Agreeing to the add-ons up front is no different than agreeing to a dealer markup.

However, to answer your question, I have ordered many vehicles over the years and have never had an add-on specified as a requirement for doing the deal. Never. If it had been, I would have found a different place to do business.

So based on my past experience I would say that it is not common. Or at least it didn't used to be. Unfortunately, in the current sellers market for vehicles stuff like this is apparently happening much more often. While, IMHO, it is very bad business practice to take advantage of the customer and sacrifices long term good will for short term profit it's not really unethical as long as the customer is aware of what they are getting into.

Anyway, sorry you got caught up in this and I hope you still enjoy your car when you get it.

 

[whitex]

I suggest you tell them
1- you ordered the car and were not told about the add-ons
2- they were obligated to tell you at that time
3- you proceeded without them speaking up and they were obligated to do so
4- you detrimentally relied and proceeded to purchase the car
5- your detrimental reliance is you would have purchased a car else where and have now wasted x months
6- if you have to go elsewhere now given the demand it will cost you $x more to purchase a similar Taycan
7- they are now legally estopped from raising the add ons now

Good luck

Sounds logical and plausible, however dealers in the USA have had powerful lobbies and they have managed to buy themselves better rights than customers. Having personally gone through a situation like this, and having talked it over with an attorney at the time, I suspect the only option the customer has is to take the deposit back (or pay the new price of course). I would check with local laws for sure as my experience was in WA state. In my case the dealer played even less games, no add-ons, they simply told me that the sales manager who approved the deal was new and inexperienced and should have held out for more money. After talking with an attorney, it turns out, at least in WA state, a dealer can back out of the deal at any time until they hand you the keys, and all they are obligated to do is return your deposit. It gets worse, I also found out that in theory, the dealer can sue the customer for the full price of the car (the originally agreed upon price, not some new one they come up with) if the customer backs out. So, I took my deposit back, contacted manufacturer's customer service, they told me that dealers are independent entities and they cannot control them, but at least offered me few hundred dollars towards a new car of their brand, the offer which I took after buying the car from another dealer (manufacturer just sent me a check after I submitted to them the new sales contract).

 

[PanameraFrank]

Thanks for this. It makes sense.

How pushy were they about all of this? Did they put in writing that "you must get these addons for an allocation" or was this more a pushy salesperson? Did you get the GM involved?

Just curious. If the GM wasn't involved I'd make them aware.

 

[whitex]

No, I’m not saying it was a bait and switch. They made it a mandatory part of taking my order. In other words, “if you want this allocation, you have to take these add-ons”. This is no less unethical or taking advantage of the situation.

There is nothing wrong with telling you up front they have an allocation but will only sell it to you for any price they want over MSRP, or even tell you it only comes with a million dollar mansion you have to buy with it. It's their allocation and they have the right right to sell it for whatever the market can bear. I've ran into things like this before, simply passed on the allocation and wished them luck finding a buyer. One time this happened, I actually got a callback a month after the dealer insisted on $25K over MSRP ($150K car), saying they were more flexible now, but by then I was no longer interested.

 

[whitex]

I feel like I need to rephrase the question here. I am not asking anyone what I should do given it was disclosed ahead of time. Although the behavior is still extortionate regardless, I’m asking if this is becoming common practice. Everyone held on and began answering a “recourse” question which was never asked, and then others grabbed onto to those answers and the entire convo went left.
This is amazing actually.

The answer to your question above is yes, this is a common practice dealers use when market value of the cars they sell exceeds the MSRP (typically due to high demand and/or short supply). Most dealers I dealt with in situations like this simply up the price above MSRP. Forcing add-ons is probably a technique they devised so that you could qualify for a higher loan (a lot of banks will not value the car above MSRP, but add-ons add to MSRP). If the dealer told you "Give me $10K extra", you may not qualify for a loan that high, but if they add $15K worth of options on which they make $10K, banks are good with that. As a side note, if you are leasing, forced add-ons might actually result in a lower monthly payments than over MSPR markup, because residual values are based on MSRP.

 

[Prit]

How pushy were they about all of this? Did they put in writing that "you must get these addons for an allocation" or was this more a pushy salesperson? Did you get the GM involved?

Just curious. If the GM wasn't involved I'd make them aware.

I didn’t involve the GM.

The answer to your question is yes, this is a common practice dealers use when market value of the cars they sell exceeds the MSRP (typically due to high demand and/or short supply). Most dealers I dealt with in situations like this simply up the price above MSRP. Forcing add-ons is probably primarily done so that you can qualify for a higher loan (a lot of banks will not value the car above MSRP, but add-ons add to MSRP). If the dealer told you "Give me $10K extra", you may not qualify for a loan that high, but if they add $15K worth of options on which they make $10K, banks is good with that. As a side note, if you are leasing, forced add-ons might actually result in a lower monthly payments than over MSPR markup, because residual values are based on MSRP.

This was really insightful. Thanks for this add.

 

[DerekS]

I’ve bought seven Porsches in my life and have never been pushed addon crap like this. I would not do business with any dealer who attempted it.

 

[schad]

Years ago, I walked out of Hennessy Porsche because the salesman was a disgusting pig. I was there with my wife, and the salesman kept staring at her chest. It eventually prompted her to say something, and he apologized. To defuse the tension, she made some flippant comment like, "These get me a lot of free stuff, maybe a free Porsche too?" The salesman laughed, too hard. We were both so uncomfortable that we just left. On our way out, the salesman pulled me aside and suggested that I return after 6pm to check out the night secretary's chest. Needless to say, I ended up in a BMW instead of a Cayman.

You might say that it's unfair to hold an entire dealership responsible for the actions of one asshole. I would counter that he was so blatant that everybody at that dealer knew exactly what kind of person he was. I'm sure the night secretary did. Maybe they were willing to overlook his behavior because he hit his sales targets every month. Maybe he was related to the owner. Who knows. Whatever the reason, it demonstrates that, on their list of priorities, "customer satisfaction" is waaaaaaay down near the bottom.

Which is why I am completely unsurprised to learn that they are one of the (sadly many) dealerships tacking on whatever BS they possibly can.

 

[SWORDER]

Dealer in Georgia is forcing me to accept my custom order with Resist All (interior protection) and Apex coating (exterior protection, similar to ceramic coating) with my CT4 delivery. I pushed back some but not too hard. My sales rep basically said it is what it is. What are your thoughts? Has anyone else had this happen?

I brought this topic up earlier in my post "Is it just me, or did your Taycan come with an unrequested, always-on tracking device called StarGard?"

TLDR: I got ripped off for $1,000 for a tracking device that I never ordered. It was installed by the dealer, not Porsche, and without my permission.

To answer your question, my thoughts are this: We were screwed once because they caught us off guard. But I won't let it happen again. Next time I'm going to tell them ahead of time, if they try to cram an expensive add-on down my throat without asking, I'll go elsewhere.

 

[SWORDER]

Years ago, I walked out of Hennessy Porsche because the salesman was a disgusting pig. I was there with my wife, and the salesman kept staring at her chest. It eventually prompted her to say something, and he apologized. To defuse the tension, she made some flippant comment like, "These get me a lot of free stuff, maybe a free Porsche too?" The salesman laughed, too hard. We were both so uncomfortable that we just left. On our way out, the salesman pulled me aside and suggested that I return after 6pm to check out the night secretary's chest. Needless to say, I ended up in a BMW instead of a Cayman.

You might say that it's unfair to hold an entire dealership responsible for the actions of one asshole. I would counter that he was so blatant that everybody at that dealer knew exactly what kind of person he was. I'm sure the night secretary did. Maybe they were willing to overlook his behavior because he hit his sales targets every month. Maybe he was related to the owner. Who knows. Whatever the reason, it demonstrates that, on their list of priorities, "customer satisfaction" is waaaaaaay down near the bottom.

Which is why I am completely unsurprised to learn that they are one of the (sadly many) dealerships tacking on whatever BS they possibly can.

Wow, dude. That's horrible.

There is something about car dealerships in general that attracts employees who are sexually aggressive (and smokers), even if they are in the minority. I'm not sure what it is that draws them in.

My girlfriend used to work for a Land Rover dealership in a wealthy community. She says the sexual attention from the other salesmen was insane. They'd rub sales contracts on their crotches right in front of her. Really disgusting stuff. Unfortunately, this was before the #metoo era when women can spin even random/unsubstantiated sexual harassment allegations into a mega-payouts, so she ended up just leaving in disgust.

I've heard similar stories from other females in the car sales business.

Your situation is even more appalling because you guys are customers, not employees. Crazy!

 

[jheard]

Dealer in Georgia is forcing me to accept my custom order with Resist All (interior protection) and Apex coating (exterior protection, similar to ceramic coating) with my CT4 delivery. I pushed back some but not too hard. My sales rep basically said it is what it is. What are your thoughts? Has anyone else had this happen?

No these are add-ons where the sales guy makes the most money, if you don't want them flatly refuse if you haven't signed for them and donate accept delivery with the add-ons and tell them that. If they refuse tell them you will cancel and go to another dealer

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