[Sebring]

That stretch of road is in tatters, indefinitely. But I guessed that people who want a Porsche would go the distance. This news comes as a surprise

[karan561]

This kind of news is never comforting for the current as well as future prospective Porsche buyers.

Lets hope Porsche AG has a foolproof strategy in mind for the Indian market.

[ajmat]

A Porsche owning friend of mine enquired. They are indeed closing down but a new dealer is to be appointed.

[manishk123]

What is it with Porsche and their dealers in India? Second dealer in Mumbai also shut shop around a year ago. The company was operating out of the Trident then but that too has shut shop. I believe Infinity has now been appointed as the new dealer in Mumbai. Let’s hope they last.

Disagree that Bangalore was not a good market for Porsche. In fact it’s the other way around. Lots of IT and Real Estate tycoons in Bangalore who have money to splurge. This was probably a dealer / company issue again.

High time Porsche gets its act together and studies why it’s dealers are unhappy!

[AKSarkar1]

I think this post is a bit misleading. India is a really important market for Porsche and I really doubt that such a big car company would leave customers in a lurch, especially in a large city like Bangalore. They might shut down the current dealership and open it elsewhere, maybe even with different people.

The tone of the article sounded like they are abandoning the market and I believe right now that is more of a speculation. The company is currently going through a massive amount of internal restructuring, one of the hints of that being the appointment of a new Brand Director, Mano (an acquaintance of mine).

[A.K]

Originally Posted by manishk123

Disagree that Bangalore was not a good market for Porsche. In fact it’s the other way around. Lots of IT and Real Estate tycoons in Bangalore who have money to splurge. This was probably a dealer / company issue again.

Seconded.
Infact, the Bangalore dealer was one of the, if not the, highest in terms of volumes for the longest. The bread and butter models aside, I am pretty positive that they have delivered the most number of Porsche GT cars. The dealer principal is a super passionate gent who knows his way around the trade and his clients very well. It is plain sad that Porsche India isn't supportive and hence forcing him to repeal the dealership. Friendly Auto has managed to weave a close knit network among the owners in the city which would be very hard to top by whoever takes up the Porsche BLR dealership next, primarily owing to the fact how the dealer principal was pretty much the face of the brand in the region.

[smsrini]

Originally Posted by vishwasvr

Nope. Jubilant group doesn't own Porsche Bangalore. It is owned by Friendly Automotives (India) Pvt Ltd.

Same owners as Dakshin Honda ? and possibly another VW dealership on Hosur road ?

[A.K]

Originally Posted by smsrini

Same owners as Dakshin Honda ? and possibly another VW dealership on Hosur road ?

Dakshin Honda and VW on Hosur Road belongs to Elite Automotives.
Friendly Motors, who ran Porsche Bangalore, runs a bunch of Suzuki dealerships in Mysore and the surrounding areas.
Jubilant Auto operated Maserati Bangalore before they shut shop. They currently run the two Audi dealerships in the city.
All three different entities.

[GTO]

Thanks to the Team-BHP fan (he prefers to remain anonymous) who sent this information in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts via this page!

Came across this recently, it seems to be from Instagram, being circulated on WhatsApp, the original source remains unknown. I think it gives an interesting insight into what’s happening with Porsche India and their dealers. The figures mentioned are absurd and make zero sense financially. Guess this should explain why a well-performing dealer was forced to repeal his dealership.

[Turbojc]

Autocar India just published an interview with Manolito Vujicic, the Brand Head at Porsche India. Here's what he had to say about their dealer network:

Will Porsche look to expand the network in India?

We already have six dealers in India, and rather than add new partners, we want to help our current dealers expand their presence and go to satellite cities with an easier format; for example, like this Porsche Now format. We have identified white spaces all around the country and we are drawing up plans to address these, and even though online is a major part of the future, it will always be with our existing partners. Also, down the line, we are exploring the possibility of using the Volkswagen service network to expand our service reach in India. We are the Volkswagen group and so we can and should use the existing network, as it also helps strengthen the group’s partners. And in times of crisis like COVID-19, this is the right thing to do, so this is something we want to look into.

Read the full interview here: https://www.autocarindia.com/intervi...nd-more-420576

Cheers!

[GTO]

Porsche India really needs to get its head together.

Tell you a funny story about a very senior level hire at Porsche India. Shared by an anonymous Team-BHP fan!

During his initial briefing / orientation session at Porsche - after an exhaustive download of product attributes, the new Porsche executive asks a question "Tell me, does the 911 have a diesel engine also?".

The guy giving him the orientation nearly fainted.

He replied out of respect - No, and then this new dude counter replies "that is the real reason for the poor sales of 911 in India. It should have been fitted with a diesel engine"

[Jeroen]

Difficult for me to comment on Porsche India specific situation. But in Europe Porsche has brought down the number of dealers as well in the last decade. It is all about brand positioning and perception. They prefer fewer very well equipped showrooms with equally well equipped service centres over more less equipped showrooms and service centre.

So it appears to be about quality over quantity here. Which I always think is great, especially for this brand. Going into a Porsche showroom should be an experience not rivalried easily by any other brand.

I have been to a few Porsche dealers here in the Netherlands before the Corona crisis hit. Extremely well knitted out show rooms, excellent fasciliteert and very knowledgeable staff.

Also, Porsche still appears to be investing in proper paper sales documentation. I got a complete hardcover book for the Porsche Panamera. At Jaguar and Landrover they can show you a single scrap of paper documentation anymore.

Jeroen

[Turbanator]

Porsche AG is highly profitable but unlike other Germans like MB & BMW, they don't want to understand our market.

718 in its basic config, starts at 120-K-USD and 911 - 230 K USD and once you add some basic options and upgrade to S, you are looking at an ex-showroom of 300 K USD. Except for a brief period when the cayenne was seeing a generation change, we never get any models loaded with packages. Porsche in all of their wisdom wants to charge for everything individually.

To give you an example, MB India, gets low transfer prices even for a highly successful product like G-wagon from HQ, a model which will almost always have a backlog in the International market. Due to the support, MB India can price the same to relatively affordable levels. Compare this with a 718, despite importing at 60% duties, they have never priced it competitive. And more than this, the dealers or the company will almost never have anything in the stocks. You have to backorder an 85 Lac car on which you cannot choose options more than 5 lacs and wait for 6 months as allocations for our markets are booked!

Porsche or for that matter VW, have failed in our market, the reasons can be out to Taxes or whatever but in my opinion, they never considered us important at HQ. MB gets many models including Maybach assembled. Same way, BMW India has most models from CKD. But with VW, it's more like a wave, they came all out with SUV's last year, maybe arranged 2500 cars created the hype and probably vanished.

Coming to this dealership fiasco, I think the Banglore dealership was handled professionally in whatever infrastructure they had. Recently, Porsche has got a new experience centre right in the heart of Delhi, the dealership must have spent over 10 Crores for sure. Just to recover that kind of investments, it's going to take ages or in the present conditions, never.

Unless Porsche gets better prices/ packages, It's just a matter of time before they run out of steam.

[GTO]

Thanks to the Team-BHP fan (he prefers to remain anonymous) who sent this image in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts via this page!*

[rajivsj]

Porsche makes fabulous cars. But Porsche has treated it's dealers in India very shabbily. They do not care about the investment made by the dealer. It is truly unfortunate that a company that makes such awesome cars can't get it's act together despite being here for almost two decades. I had invested in Porsche Center Chennai and my investments were completely destroyed for no fault of ours. IMHO the consistent destruction of the investments made by the dealerships in India is not the fault of the dealers. I have seen this happen too many times over the past decade. I do hope that they realise that dealers are the face of the company and customers need to be able have confidence in the dealerships. It is certainly not an easy business. Company needs to support dealers to ensure that Customer remains the focal point. It is the customer who pays for the existence of the Dealer and the Manufacturer.