Another Flipping Porsche Spy shots of the upcoming new Porsche 718 GT4 and Spyder models have been proliferating on the web. These days, of course, with that comes the inevitable matters of allocations, values, resale and so-called flipping. Who is going to get one and how much do they stand to make if they flip the car overnight?
The notion of ‘flipping’ refers to what might be characterised as a short term strategy in which a car is bought with the express intention of reselling for a profit. For some time now, Porsche reps at various levels have indicated that they do not support or condone such practices. Around the time the market was going nuts for the the unobtainium Type-991 911R, Porsche’s GT car guru Andreas Preuninger famously said Porsche is not a hedge fund. “We are a company that produces cars,” Preuninger said. “We live because we sell cars and we have to make a profit to go on. So we cannot offer cars with a built-in promise to keep value for a small amount of chosen people, this wouldn’t be fair.”
Canvas views and you’ll find quite a lot of lip service being paid to the idea of clamping down on flipping. Future access to cars being denied. Porsche GB tracking outside of the official network sales. The reality, however, is that none of it adds up to much. The cars continue to be flipped, including the latest GT2 RS monster, the R, the new manual GT3, the lot. So long as there’s sufficient demand, it will continue. Unless, of course, Porsche actually took real steps to stop it.
Porsche could contractually oblige customers, as for instance, to only sell the car back to the supplying dealer at a maximum of list price in the first two years. In an instant, that would put a very different complexion on the opportunity for quick profits. This kind of measure would not be without precedent in the car industry. But Porsche doesn’t do it. Perhaps because it knows that much of the demand for these halo models is tied up in the perception of spiralling values, free motoring, call it what you will.
However, guarantee there’s no money to be made and the merry-go-round might very well stop dead. For now, then, all we can say for sure is that Porsche has decided not to put a stop to the circus. Meanwhile, the measures some claim Porsche does make to marshall the market imply that flipping is fine, just so long as you keep it – and the associated profits – within the official Porsche network.
