Early buyers of 40th anniversary cars

I've written to PCNA explaining that while I love the car, I'm in mine for $90k and after the manufacturer's "trunk money" decision, I'm looking at a car suddenly worth $20-25k less than that. Not a happy camper. I'm awaiting the response. Curious to know if any other "early adopters" are pursuing a similar approach, or if being first on the block just taught us an expensive lesson. Hopefully, the company is still small enough to be responsive to a faithful customer, now in his 4th 911. Looking back, I was so thrilled to get $8k off MSRP in December...that's just comical today. As I said, good thing I really like this car, since I'm in it now for the long, long haul. I thought it was a good buy at $90k; it's a terrific buy at $75k!

The discounts given to later build number cars have in no way diminished the enjoyment that I get from driving my car. I haven't written a letter to Porsche nor do I intend to do so. Nonetheless, please let us know if they respond to your letter. Manufacturer discounts seem to be the norm and the German manufacturers have learned from their American counterparts that discounts move cars. I never expected to see the 40th's price stay solid with the 997 arriving so soon after its debut so I'm not surprised to see dealers trying to move them off their lots. I thank Porsche for coming up with the 997, which has convinced me to keep my 40th for a long time.

I feel your pain....My dad bought a BMW 850i when first came out in the early 90's for 90k and sold it a year later for 50k after BMW did a similar "price reduction"......... Good luck, but I doubt they will do anything about it! Robert

I would have your lawyer shoot them a letter with the subtle hint of a class action suit. You are entitled to something, not the full $20k discount but something. Perhaps $5000 in goods and services or a similar amount off the next Porsche you purchase.. Perhaps your next Porsche at invoice seems fair to me.

Not getting this one at all. Why would you be entitled to any money. You knew how many they would build on the front end and knew that the 997 was coming out this year. A jury would stroke you on this, especially in my area.

I thought about writing a letter too but figured it's probably not going to get me anything. All car companies give incentives to move slow selling cars and I've never heard of them doing anything for the ones they've already sold. Certainly, keep us informed if you get a response.

C'est la vie.

Sure. Easy for you to say with a 2005 Turbo S on order! LOL

Lets say that all those buyers who purchased their 2003 TT the very next car after yours received a check in the mail for $10,000. The way I see it, Porsche used their reputation to sell an overpriced car to gullible(gullible in the sense that these buyers trusted Porsche) buyers. They also proceeded to convince several auto magazines that these are "collector cars" which should retain their value better that your normal 911.

Sjssharks is 100% on the money. the car was overpriced to begin with, the discounts brought it back to a reasonable $ price for the packadge. they oversold the concept's value and you paid for it, unfortunately thats life, how could you even think of asking for money back. my congratulations and much respect if you can actually get porsche to fork over ANYTHING at all, but all common sense says impossible what does this have to do with my turbo S, anyone can see the value (Now - with discounts) of the 911 anniversary, but before (when it just came out) - everyone thought it was overpriced, and hence no one was buying it (THUS- causing the discounts to happen).

Now if the car really did not have the X51 package, more horsepower and etc., then maybe a nice breach of warranty claim, but it seems that you got everything you bargained for. It would also suck if Porsche had initially said we will only build 400 and turned around and built 2,000 at a lower price. Overpriced, I thought it was good deal given the options you get. Its just that for $ 90k, people may opt for the GT3, TT, C4S, C4S cabriolet or a nicely optioned cabriolet over a $ 90K coupe. The problems I see, Porsche ain't going to write everyone a check which they would probably start having to do if they wrote one check, especially if you are going public about it. Be hard to certify as a class, if not impossible, because there is a reliance issue and each individual would not be similarly situated under class action law. This would be a toughy here unless you had something like a car with only 300 hp where it was rerresented that you had more and etc. It would be hard to sell to a jury that a bunch of intelligent, educated folks were guillable or duped under the circumstances here and the sympathy factor won't be there. Its not like you could not price out the options on the car to see what you were getting and if those options were worth the money. There was nothing stopping you from ordering a C2 with less options and paying less if you really did not want all of the options on the Anniversary. Regarding collector status, did Porsche not say on the front end how many they would build or did you not know this when you purchased your car. I will agree that it may be a difficult pill to swallow, but I would just enjoy the car and not let it get me down. The GT3 and early CGT owners may feel the same way you guys do in a year. One can either be patient and wait and see if their is a good deal latter in production or pay a premium/MSRP to have what want now. There is always a price to pay to be the first to have the newest, greatest and coolest car on the block or toy. IMHO, this seems like one of those frivilous lawsuits you read about that gives the legal system a bad rap, kind of like the McDonald suit where the guy said he was overweight because of eating McDonalds.

i was one of the 'lucky' few that bought a targa the day they hit the street. i paid full sticker, and needless to say, got hammered when i traded the car in 14 months later. i was angry for a while about the depreciation and then got over it; lesson learned. wait a few months ++ to see what happens with the market. no matter what, there will most always be one available at sticker! if money is a big nothing, and one just wants to be the 'first' on the block, then terrific. otherwise wait out the hype... caveat emptor - in this case, no? what about the poor soles that paid big money for ford f150's or tahoes or expeditions weeks/months before the huge cash give aways and 0% financing? how dismal must they me? might everything be realtive?

Can I get something too? I'm angry because I wanted a 40th March 1st but decided it wasn't worth almost 17k more than the Targa I got a great deal on (for my particular situation). Of course, I think its just a fact of life that deals change from day to day and month to month. I waited a while to get the Cayenne S because I was not willing to pay the initial sticker or more earlier, knowing all along that is how the market works and that eventually the market would get better. Of course, had I gone for the 40th in March, I would probably feel pretty bad too. I agree with Doug H that no jury would feel sympathetic for a guy who bought a 90K+ Porsche and felt bad when the price dropped later (though you have my sympathy). In any case, I think the 40th is a TERRIFIC package and just enjoy the hell out of it. Most probably in a few years, it is not going to make a huge difference in value, no more than other heavily optioned cars, which always tend to take a little more depreciation hit than base models.

Since Porsche did not to the best of my knowledge misrepresent their product nor did they coerce anyone to buy their product, on what grounds can you seek a financial remedy? I'm certain that Porsche in good faith believed that they would be able to sell their product without discounting it. Unfortunately for them and for the early buyers of the Anniversary edition, that wasn't the case. The deprecciation scenario happens here all the time with American manufactured cars. Some models don't sell well and hence the manufacturer has no recourse but to discount their product. I don't think that you'll find GM or Ford writing checks to the early buyers of their models that were sold without benefit of a factory discount. From a percentage perspective, those who bought American cars without the benefit of a substantial factory rebate, suffer as great if not a greater loss than the buyers of the Porsche Anniversary edition. Caveat emptor.

I'm with Doug on this one: "There is always a price to pay to be the first to have the newest, greatest and coolest car on the block or toy." While were at it, can I get anybody to join me to get some $$$ back that paid 5K for a plasma TV last year that is now 2K......oh yeah and while we are at it, can I get something back for that stock I bought back in Spring 2000 and sold in the Summer that wasn't worht the paper the statement was printed on, etc, etc, etc? Lesson to be learned here is SUPPLY AND DEMAND (and sometimes it is a false demand). Now that the demand is very low what has happened to the 40th with the 997 coming??? Now what would happen if next for some freak reason the 40th becomes THE car to have and shoots to 100K. Do you feel comfortable sending Porsche a check for 10K? Let it go and enjoy that beautiful car you own!

Since it was I who began this thread, please allow me to respond. While I appreciate all of you guys weighing in with your opinions, I particularly am interested in the people who actually were early buyers of the 40th anniversary cars, as I was. Really, I do value all of the other comments! Seriously, I suppose one of the reasons why I bought this car was my prior experience with the brand. I don't believe that the company offered $10k in trunk money six months after the Millennium was introduced, which I bought new for $90k and sold two years later for $75k (with 20k miles). Nor did I mention one word about a lawsuit. What a laugh that is. That, my friends, never crossed my mind. I suppose that for those of you not in my shoes, this thread has become today's entertainment. I was just curious if other early buyers are distressed over this development. Sure, I'm probably overreacting, a loss of $25k (which is actually not incurred until resale) is not enough to lay awake at night. But, I will state that this new marketing technique for PCNA, borrowed from our domestic firms, will impact decisions made about future purchases. What do I expect? Absolutely jack point ****. Would I treat my customers the same way? If I did, I couldn't afford this car.

In fairness to you, class action was mentioned in the third post. If you got $ 8k off MSRP, then are you not actually only down $ 2k if Porsche is offering a $ 10k mark down. Its kind of hard to say if you would have gotten the additional $8k off even if Porsche would have been offering the $ 10k rebate when you purchased. This may vary from dealer to dealer. You may not have done as bad as you thought. As far as resell, you always take a chance in getting your money back for a car loaded down with $ 30k or so in options. I dropped about $ 30k in options on my TT and I doubt I could get much if any more for it than a turbo with little or no options. If concerned about resell, one should buy a C2 or a TT with minimal options and don't buy the last year of a series run.

I am an early buyer and have no issue with the discounts; it is normal practice. BTW - Considering that a 996 costs Porsche basically the same as building a Boxster, all 996's are overpriced.

The problem is that we are not talking about depreciation nor are we talking about allowing the normal market forces of supply and demand to determine a mutual price. What we are talking about is Porsche deliberately and arbitrairly manipulating the price of one of their cars at the severe penalty of early buyers who placed their trust in the Porsche brand. And further we are not talking about a drop over 14 months or 2 years. We are talking about a $10,000 cave in 6 months from initial offering on the car. I think most of us would admit that we pay a certain anti-devaluation premium on these cars over and above other costs just to maintain the Porsche reputation. The evidence of this is that Porsche is one of the most profitable car companies around. Keep in mind we are not talking about a few thousand or 10 or 20 thousand. Ebay had a 40th edition with a no reserve bid of around $67,000. Since many of these cars were around $95,000, the hit is closer to $30,000 and we have not even completed one year.

I don't think you can buy a new Porsche and not expect massive depreciation. That's basically what's happened here. The cars have depreciated in value because supply has exceeded demand. Even though Porsche has influenced the depreciation, they're just trying to sell cars. Without these discounts, the cars would still be sitting on dealer lots. My Boxster S has probably lost half its value from when I bought it new & loaded at full MSRP (at the height of the stock market boom in 2000, when S models were is short supply). That's a $30k hit, if I sell. Once all allocated Carrera GTs reach these shores, it won't surprise me if we start reading about $100k-plus depreciation on those cars. It's all relative. On the bright side, at least PCNA is wheeling and dealing to move cars--that works in the benefit of surrent & future shoppers. The only way to avoid locking in depreciation is to keep your car for the long term. There are worse fates!

In the law suit be sure to fully describe the make and caliber of the pistol the sales manager was holding when you were forced to buy a car at a discount to list.

#336 and I'm not looking back. I'm having too much fun in my car. Am I upset about Porsche giving discounts on its vehicles? Not really. It's become the norm with all major car manufacturers selling vehicles in the US. The US buyer now has been trained to look and wait for the discounts. Porsche needs to move the meat so to speak and I didn't mind saving some money on a great car. Market forces have now forced prices even lower, which has been a boon for later buyers. Would the dealers been as willing to let them go at such low prices without the Porsche incentive? Probably not, but they would still have been under allot of pressure to get rid of their cars so later buyers would have gotten discounts albeit smaller then the "norm". I see this as normal market forces in action. I've watch with interest and congratulate those that have purchased a 40th. The press has not been to kind to this model, but I have yet to hear of an unhappy 40th buyer. I truly understand your angst. It could be worse, you could have been a buyer of a new 964 when the 993 arrived in the show rooms several thousand dollars cheaper and an all together better car. The 997 won't be cheaper and we will soon be debating whether or not Porsche has strayed too far from its sporting roots with items such as variable steering, electronically adjustable suspension, and a weight increase. And the 993 boys thought the 996 was not Porsche enough!

This is actually not too bad. I recall when the PT Cruiser was launched, people were paying a 100% premium over sticker.