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Old 8th June 2020, 16:55   #1
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Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!

Things aren't looking good for the brand in the financial capital of India. From a Team-BHP fan & industry insider:
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Seems for sure that their existing dealer Jubilant has given up on Porsche. For one year, Jubilant operates from Trident Hotel Nariman Point by merely renting a room and using the hotel lobby + basement for parking the cars. This is after they gave up their Prabhadevi showroom.
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Will a new dealer sign up? In such times and considering the erratic leadership? No vision = rudderless ship.
From today's Economic Times:
Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!-img20200608wa0000.jpg
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Old 9th June 2020, 01:59   #2
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re: Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!

I hope they get their act together, they are the emblematic of what supercars should be.... The market will be soft for another year or two. Hope they survive to catch the eventual rising wave in the future
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Old 9th June 2020, 10:05   #3
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re: Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!

Ironic (although understandable) how in a time like this a luxury alternative like BBT is thriving.

The VAG group is just too damaged across the board in India - can't seem to get a step right anywhere. Its no surprise Porsche is in the state its in. If Lamborghini / Maserati can have a respectable showroom in Mumbai no reason that Porsche can't. As supercars go, they actually start at the more affordable end of the curve.

Last edited by Axe77 : 9th June 2020 at 10:16.
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Old 9th June 2020, 10:12   #4
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re: Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!

Even in Chennai and Kolkata they are trying their best to woo potential dealer partners - with hardly much success.
With the economy in the doldrums and now the crisis unleashed by the COVID pandemic, it's a double whammy for Porsche India. The rich businessmen are very reluctant to open up their purse strings, especially since the investment & working capital requirments of Porsche is very high, and they are unwilling to budge from it.
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Old 9th June 2020, 12:41   #5
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re: Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!

Agreed guys. Porsche India is like a headless chicken & has been so for a decade. Despite now having a small SUV, they are selling merely 300 cars a year (or less) . Some big luxury car dealers do more volumes than that.

The fools don't even have a dedicated website for Porsche India ! Imagine the laziness. Overpriced CBU products + limited dealership reach + patchy after sales service + exorbitantly priced options + excruciatingly long waiting periods = what else can one expect? Only a mad man would invest in a Porsche dealership at a time when Jubilant is operating out of a hotel room and Aadya (earlier Porsche dealer) ran out of cash. Let's not forget who was handling sales before = the infamous "Chor"dia (related thread). Even in North India, Porsche's prominent dealer turned out to be a cheat - link.

Fact is, Porsche India knows absolutely nothing about running a business, choosing the right dealers or building a good team. Sad, really sad, because it remains one of my favourite sports car brands.
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Old 10th June 2020, 10:30   #6
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re: Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!

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Originally Posted by GTO View Post
Agreed guys. Porsche India is like a headless chicken & has been so for a decade.
I agree with GTO on this. In the past 5-6 years, 3 Porsche Centres have completely shut operations - Porsche Centre Kolkata, Porsche Centre Hyderabad & Porsche Centre Chennai. It seems as if Porsche India is trying to reduce operating costs while trying to sell the same number of cars, which is pretty much contradictory to what other luxury & high-performance carmakers (Lamborghini, Mercedes-AMG, Ferrari) have been trying to do. No doubt, they sell fabulous cars but without good Sales & Service, they can just expect the sales graphs to just come down.
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Old 10th June 2020, 11:14   #7
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re: Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!

This is really a sad state of affairs for Porsche, considering the really wonderful cars they make. I truly believe if Porsche can get their act together, they can make a strong impact. And though they are CBUs, I feel that the prices are still astronomical, especially when one compares it to the price in certain other markets.

One of my absolute favourites is the Cayman GTS 4.0 with a 4.0 litre, naturally aspirated flat six motor and available with a manual transmission. This car retails for around 65 lakhs (with a few options) in the UK. Meanwhile here in India, customers are expected to shell out close to 1 crore for the base 2.0 turbo.

Add to this pricing, a non existent and often pathetic service network and a leaderless management, it is really no wonder that Porsche has found itself in this predicament.
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Old 10th June 2020, 13:03   #8
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re: Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!

I love Porsches but I feel that they are a bit overpriced . One can argue that you are paying for the excellent build quality. But in the end , Porsche is not for the Indian market. When you buy a Porsche you buy it for the driving experience and not the luxury . Porsche are pretty expensive , and become much more with added options( trust me you would need to add a few).

Let's be honest the people who buy Porsche's in India would mostly buy a Cayman or 911.

Porsche have 2 SUVs and a sedan in there lineup. The Porsche dealers expect to sell these in a decent amount(let's face it not many people want sports cars). Sadly they do not sell well in India due to there prices. The dealers would definitely be struggling .I guess that's the reason Porsche is losing Dealerships in India.

Let me use the Macan as a example:

The base Macan costs around 70 lacs. In context the much bigger BMW X4 ("Sporty SUV") starts at 63 lacs .A smart person in India would obviously go for the BMW.

Ok, you don't care about the Value for money part. Let me tell you that Base Porsches don't have much features . You would end up paying 7 to 10 lacs extra in options at least.

I mean that is the reason why Porsche is struggling in India.

Last edited by Eshan Joshi : 10th June 2020 at 13:31.
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Old 10th June 2020, 13:17   #9
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Porsche India is *desperate* for a Mumbai dealership

Similar sad state of story for the Porsche Centre Kolkata dealership as well.

Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!-imagep.jpg

They shut shop in January 2019 after functioning for about 7-8 year by the Mohan Motor Group. They would average about 5 cars a month in their peak years. Reason for shutting down was a financial mess by the Mohan Motor Group, once Eastern India's largest automotive dealership group with Porsche, Audi, Hyundai, Nissan, Maruti, Isuzu, Ducati, Benelli, Suzuki dealerships in various cities of the East with over 30 outlets. Almost 1000 daily livelihoods were lost overnight with several unpaid salaries for months, unpaid incentives, what not by their company. Call it bad management or bad luck but it was a really unfortunate sight to see one this large conglomerate sink. Sales, service, customer relations at their end was always top notch.

Reasons for Porsche to be struggling nowadays are the following:
  • Overpriced product lineup: The Cayenne that once costed about 80-90L ex showroom now costs 1.20cr minimum. The Panamera that once costed about a crore ex showroom now costs 1.50cr minimum.
  • No diesels: Their main bread earners, the Cayenne and Panamera no more have a diesel motor. The petrol motors are still very expensive compared to their competition.
  • Excessive discounting that killed the brand value: The dealer was known to literally open their pants giving 10-20-30-40L discounts on their cars. Now after purchasing cars at those prices, who would want to buy a car paying full price again.
  • Overbilling, underbilling in some cases: Sleezing off money from unsuspecting clients by overinvocing the loading prices, or even underbilling the cars if someone had different terms of payment was possible by some of the Porsche dealerships of the country.
  • Dealership terms & conditions: Heard Porsche India has very strict terms of dealership conditions, size. Now with massive showrooms in the middle of the city, huge manpower, and low sales there is no way a dealership would be able to sustain their costs and rent.
  • Lack of focus: Nowadays consumers want to experience the brand in every way possible. Regular interesting events to keep the crowd entertained is a must. Another big miss by their team was that they would always target the same 10-15 set of buyers again and again. They should realize that once a client has purchased a Porsche, and the dealership maintains good relations with them, they will automatically come back to buy another Porsche. Rather use the same energy, time to focus on a new set of buyers to upgrade them from their Mercs, BMWs, Audis, JLRs. To get those young kids straight out of college their new sportscar. Or to lure those midlife crisis gentlemen to with a fancy Porsche.

Infact today even after 1.5 years of the dealership shutting shop. Porsche India is still struggling to find a good and trusty local partner for themselves who will agree to their terms. I think the best recipe to succeed for Porsche in Kolkata would be to find a reputed individual or group who is enthusiastic as well but who also has his integrity in place. A 2 car boutique style showroom in the middle of the city with the entire model line up available for demos. 3 people sales team with one Sales GM and 2 good sales guys. And a 5 car monthly target for the Eastern region. Regular events as well. They should be set.

Last edited by moralfibre : 11th June 2020 at 10:17. Reason: Typo
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Old 10th June 2020, 15:08   #10
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re: Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!

Has the big Porsche showroom at Prabhadevi closed down? I thought that was sufficient for a brand like Porsche in Mumbai. It’s not like they are in the volume business. The showroom is pretty central for suburbs and south Mumbai. Anyway most HNI customers prefer calling for the car home instead of visiting showrooms.
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Old 10th June 2020, 15:18   #11
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re: Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!

I am not surprised by this at all. No sales = no dealership interest. Porsche has serious issues related to pricing and value proposition in India - I can write a book on this

The extra premium you pay vs the value you get compared to Mercedes/BMW/Audi alternatives is simply unjustifiable. Take their more accessible 1cr cars for example: they come with 2.0L engines and poverty spec interiors. I do not mean to offend any current owners but interiors and the drive in their entry level 2.0L cars felt like a badge engineered VW (not even Audi). One has to be so enamoured with the Porsche badge to overlook everything else in the market - too many disappointed customers putting their 2.0L 718 Boxster/Cayman on resale. The exterior designs are absolutely smashing, but the feel good factor ends right there.

To have a genuine Porsche experience, one has to be in stratospheric budget and should have a very good taste, deep pockets and familiarity with Porsche options to spec the car tastefully. As Indians, we hate shelling out extra money on options. We are also not knowledgeable/mature enough to spec luxury cars (when in doubt don't pay for it mentality). Unless you do a good job of spending money on options, you will get a VW instead of a Porsche. It's a catch-22 situation and as a result the standard cars from big-3 will always feel like a better place to be in. There are also import duty related aspects that limit how well you can spec their entry level cars. Not to mention the overdose of technology and gadgetry in cars where Porsche is one generation behind.

Next comes the after-sales hurdle. Very limited network. Very expensive - PDK (cousin of DSG) will cost you 25-30L (replace only, no repairs allowed.) Very slow - nothing will be in stock and everything has to be shipped. In the end, AMG range feels like a Toyota

Porsche should first get their value proposition right in India, or they will lose existing dealers let alone acquiring new ones.
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Old 10th June 2020, 16:09   #12
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re: Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eshan Joshi View Post
Let's be honest the people who buy Porsche's in India would mostly buy a Cayman or 911.
Not really, no. 65% of Porsche India's sales come from the Cayenne and Macan (Source). Here in Mumbai, I'm sure you'll see 10 Cayennes for every sports car Porsche sells (911 and the 718 twins combined).

I do agree with the latter however, the problem lies in options. Look at something as basic as the exterior colour on a Macan - It's absolutely ridiculous how I have the option of either black of white, if I don't want to pay more for a colour of my choice. If I want Miami blue for example - That's almost INR 4 Lakh more! Reversing camera (Which is a necessity) is INR 1.2 Lakh.

Unless you're a categorically devoted Porsche fanatic, I don't see you entering the Porsche ecosystem. And once a brand pushes someone away, it's difficult to get that person back into the showroom.

Last edited by DeKay : 10th June 2020 at 16:13.
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Old 10th June 2020, 20:14   #13
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re: Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!

Understand that Kun would be opening a new Porsche showroom in Chennai.

Currently the Hyderabad, Chennai and Kerala regions are being looked after by a dealer based in Kerala who appears to be doing reasonably well for himself - the pic below is of their showroom:
Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!-1image.jpeg

They also have an authorised service outlet in Kochi which apparently is doing well.
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Old 10th June 2020, 21:54   #14
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re: Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!

Quote:
Originally Posted by manishk123 View Post
Has the big Porsche showroom at Prabhadevi closed down?
Yes. Porsche operates out of the Trident Hotel (Nariman Point) now. The Prabhadevi showroom has been split into two now. One part is an MG showroom and the other is an HSBC branch.
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Old 11th June 2020, 09:30   #15
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re: Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!

See what I mean? The idiotic Indian company doesn't even have its own website. We're part of the "middle east" portal

Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!-annotation-20200611-092347.png

Quote:
Originally Posted by manishk123 View Post
Has the big Porsche showroom at Prabhadevi closed down? I thought that was sufficient for a brand like Porsche in Mumbai.
Long gone. If you were curious about the room number, Porsche will gladly provide you with that
Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!-annotation-20200611-092426.png

Quote:
Originally Posted by AMG Power View Post
Currently the Hyderabad, Chennai and Kerala regions are being looked after by a dealer based in Kerala
Search for Chennai on their stupid website and it guides you to Bangalore:
Porsche India looking for a dealership; Mumbai Center is currently operating out of a hotel room!-annotation-20200611-092533.png
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