I got an email from one of the folks I was in contact with at Porsche of Lexington, KY saying that they were being closed by Porsche North America on December 1st. Anyone else hear of any other dealerships closing?

Here is the email:

Porsche of Lexington as a franchise is closed by Porsche North America starting Tuesday December 1st. It is with sincere regret that I share this announcement. Consider this my personal apology. We were instructed not to divulge any information regarding this matter, and as such prior to today, I had to comply. Please be assured I will assist in any way possible, no matter what the request may be.

 

Wow. If this is legit then I guess it was a matter of time. Some dealerships are poorly run and in the end this economic downturn should result in a stronger economy.? I guess I can hope, right?

http://www.lexingtonporsche.net/

No sign of closure on the website, though.

 

wow.....

 

Here is the email:

 

Here's the link: http://lexington.porschedealer.com/

 

Porsche should let us vote which dealerships to shut down.

 

Maybe PCNA is pulling the franchise due to a large outstanding debt. Pay up, or your franchise is pulled.

 

Premier dealerships are simply those that "play by the rules". They are generally smaller and sell far fewer cars at higher prices than other dealerships. I do not think that the dealers that are closing are necessarily poorly run......they are probably relatively weaker dealerships that do not sell so many cars because of where they are located, etc. I believe that the Porshe franchises that are larger or connected to a VW/Audi dealer will do better in the future ( to generalize).

 

Chris Sanner at N.Olmsted Ohio Porsche mentioned this about 6-8 mos. ago that this would start happening. The smaller non performing dealerships would be shuttered.

Dave

 

wow...i dont think it's going to be too big of an issue around where i live. i can think of 3 dealerships within 40 min from my house. i dont know how much they are saving by doing this though. i can only imagine.

 

It sounds like all those great deals are winding down . First there was the wave of CPO and used cars last year selling at panic bottom prices . Then there was the 09 massive inventory going at great prices .

So let's see -
1) porsche slows production
2) closes select dealerships
3) allocates inventory with expectation of those cars to be sold
4) takes in lease cars which are below residual value and hopes the dealerships can sell them too.

So we see -
1) CPO prices rising
2) Less deals on the 2010 cars .

The only problem is -
Whose buying a car ? So far there are only a handful of 2010 new owners .
The CPO cars are sitting too.

 

I think that Porsche will go with lower sales ( units) and higher margins.

 

Why not... Look at Hermes. Low volume, high cost, constant demand.

 

Not for me. I've got one dealership about 45 minutes away and than the next nearest dealership is over 3 hours away.

 

Is there a list that shows which dealers were closed?