I had the strangest experience with them and to be frank I'm fairly upset with them

I called to inquire about a Cayenne they had listed on their site and if it was available, was told yes and after a bit said I would be interested in purchasing it.

We agreed on a price over the phone and was emailed the credit application, all this happened in minutes. Our(Wife's and I) plan was to have all the paperwork done then after work, just show up and sign and get the car, as we both hate the whole car buying experience.

Well we fax back the credit app and are told we will have an answer in 30 minutes or so. After a few hours I finally call back and am told, they will not sell us a car. My salesman's English wasn't the the most understandable so I asked to talk to the manager, a guy named Victor. He flat out tells me they won't sell me a car because we live closer to another dealership(McKenna).

I'm was blown away, I asked what kind of BS policy is this, and he tells me it's not BS it's their standard operating procedure. I then say so if we had driven the whole 15 miles(as opposed to 3 to McKenna) to your dealership you still wouldn't sell us a car, and he said no, we have had people come in from Newport Beach and we won't sell them a car.

So I asked, then why did you even entertain us and have us fill out a credit app? He tells me they didn't run the app and they used it to see if we were in the Porsche system as having previously financed through them and if we had, then they would sell us a car.

So now I'm mad, I tell him then why did you waste everyones time, and if this really is your policy why not state so from the beginning? He had no answer for that and basically told me I was SOL.

Well to make matters worst today we get a notice from our credit rating monitor, that they did run our credit.

Has anyone ever heard or had such an experience?

 

That might be the most bizarre sales experience ever...wtf.

I had a negative experience when trying to purchase a Boxster Spyder from them a few monts ago (from 400+ miles away); they agreed to a specific price after countless calls/emails back/forth to confirm all the details, and then contacted me 30 minutes after we had agreed, only to state that the allocation was no longer available. They went on to further state that they had another allocation, but their new pricing policy would not honor the deal we had just worked out.

 

Yeah, we had a deal, we agreed on a price and we sent them our application, then they just stopped communication with us till we got a hold of them.

My Wife called today to ask about the credit report they ran, and they of course said that we authorized it, but again if it is their policy and they never planned to sell us a car, then why do that?

She then asked them again about us living "out" of their area, again a whole 15 miles away, and they said that's how we work. So you don't sell cars to people from Beverly Hill or Pasadena? To which they replied, No we don't.

What doesn't make sense if that is how they work is how do they sell cars then? As the area they are in is surrounded by 4 other dealerships.

 

You're the second person to post an issue with that dealership- I think someone else had an issue with an order car. How the heck does that make any sense that a dealership won't sell you a car if you're not from a designated area or live closer to another dealership? I've never heard of that before.

When I was looking last fall, we stopped there to take a look on our way out of LA. I actually negotiated with them via email (or tried, they wouldn't give anything off the V6 back then as they were just hitting the lots). I didn't care for the sales guy that I was working with- his English wasn't very good either. Wonder if it's the same guy? I also met one of the managers while we were looking, he was trying for the hard sell me right there. Turned me off. They're supposed to be one of the higher volume dealers- how would you be if you can only sell to people in a designated area? Something just doesn't seem right.

 

Sounds to me like they got a better offer for the car at maybe full MSRP or higher and decided not to honor your deal. They sound pretty scummy to me. By the way, I live in N. Cal. and was able to negotiate deals with two dealerships not even close to where I live. One was in Monterey which is 1.5hrs away and another in Livermore which is about 45mins away. I have 3 dealerships that are closer to me than those ones. And the one that I finally came to terms with is more than 15miles away. So, I don't know where they get their policy as it is not a Porsche USA policy.

 

Not surprised. I had a custom order with them and then waited almost 4 months for the car to arrive only to discover that got the order wrong. We had exchanged emails with the specs but somehow that isn't what they loaded. To make matters worse they wouldn't do ANYTHING to fix it. No discount, no other aftermarket offer, nothing. They even wanted me to pay the original negotiated price even though that price included some features no longer on the car. The only thing they offered was that I could wait another 4 months for a new car - but that would be at full MSRP. I went with another dealer, needless to say.

And, to add fuel to your fire, I live in SF and they were willing to sell me a car this year so I have no idea what the issue is with your buying from them.

 

Wow, I would be livid if I had ordered a car and they didn't put in the right options. You could have asked them to send you over the confirmation. I asked for that to make sure. For the amount of money you're spending, they better get it right.

 

Here is a thread I started about my experience back in DEC.

My experience at Downtown LA Porsche ( 1 2 3)

Sorry I am not sure how to do it as a link but if you do a search, this is the exact title of the thread. They sold me a CTT and I live in SD with 2 P dealers here so that does not make sense that they wont sell you a car for being out of the area. The Victor guy is a very sleazy type of nice. Just felt like I needed a shower every time I dealt with him. I would probably ask to speak with the GM of the dealership and then let them know you will be putting a complaint to Porsche of NA about their practices.

As you will see from my thread they royally f'ed up my purchase process from them but were willing to do something to make it right which they upheld their promise. And when I was inquiring about getting a new TTS or gt3RS they were offering me a bigger discount then any other P dealer.

 

Yep. Lesson learned (very painfully). I assumed since everything was confirmed in emails that they could load the PCNA system appropriately. When I ordered from Sonnen in NoCal I didn't even have to request the confirmation, they just provided it automatically. In every way a better experience...and hoping it stays that way since I am anxiously awaiting my order now.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience. I deal with them many times and have no complain toward them. Each transaction was pleasent and smooth. I ordered my 977 and Cayenne from them and came out just fine. There are 3 other Porsche dealerships closer to me, but LA gave me the best deal.

I had many conversations with Victor face to face and he seemed to be an okay kinda guy.

You should talk to the owner or GM about it.

 

Well, I'm glad you got it straightened out and didn't give in to the dealer's demands. For making you wait 4 months and then give you what you didn't order, they should have bent over backwards for you. That's very disappointing. I hope this story makes other forum members avoid this dealership.

 

Victor was polite, but it came off in an F U sort of way, if that makes any sense.

Of course we called and left a message for the GM to call us, but still have not heard anything.

Here is something that Victor did tell me, that if I was already a Porsche owner they would sell me a car no problem, but since this would be our 1st, then they couldn't. Messed up part is the reason we were gonna buy from them is that they are just a 4 miles up the road from our family business, and that would be convenient for us for service and other issues.

Then we have been inquiring into our app they ran, and the status on that, and they won't give us that information. Aren't we entitled to know the status of that?!?

 

The 1st time buyer thing still doesn't make sense. Just bought my first Porsche and like I said, I could have bought it from any one of 5 dealers in our area.

 

Could be they thought you may export the car.

I had a similar experience when buying one out of state. We negotiated the deal quickly, told them I was going to fly down that weekend to get it and they called and said "we wont sell you the car" and to "buy it from your local dealer". I was blown away! They looked at my linkedin profile and saw I was in trucking, that with the fact I was a cash buyer, out of state and no trade was enough to spook them. I actually had to convince them who I was before they agreed to sell me the car. They then explained why they turned me down, should it get exported, they lose an allotment and they werent prepared to have that happen since they were burned 5 times in the past.

There are 2 Porsche dealers in my town. One dealer 3 is blocks from my house but they didnt have anything in stock and werent interested in my business when I told them I was ready to buy quickly. The other dealer didnt have anything either. Its too bad for my local dealer, I ended up purchasing a black Cayenne and then bought a white one, both at 5% off with no issues.

 

If I did my investigating right, you just bought your car within the last week, right?

Yeah this makes no sense at all.

If they were honest and said hey we sold the car while we were dealing, I would be bummed, but all this BS and double talk they have given us, is very shady.