Frankly, Porsche is fed up with customers flipping special edition sports cars and supercars for big profits. The automaker's CEO Oliver Blume proposed a solution: interested parties won't actually purchase the cars.
Instead, he told Autocar on Friday, the special edition models would only be available as a lease, or perhaps part of a subscription model. The goal is make sure the cars are given to the right customers who plan to drive them, not park them in a garage, or make it part of a physical investment portfolio. Blume said Porsche puts too much love into cars like the 911 R or 918 Spyder to have them flipped for a quick buck. It would also stop collectors from showing up at dealers with blank checks to cut in front of a wait list.
2016 Porsche 911 R
Porsche 911 R Gearbox
2016 Porsche 911 R
Blume is speaking directly to cars like the 911 R, which famously showed up on the used market at fives times its original cost. The 911 R, which was positioned as a purist representation of the sports car, sold for $189,950 when new, but collectors expressed so much interest that owners began to flip their cars for as much as $1.3 million. Tim Marlow, head of supercar finance company Magnitude Finance, said in 2016 that it may have been a record level of value appreciation for any car.
The option to only lease the limited edition cars or other special models is one solution Porsche is currently looking at. In the end, the company may just want to ensure that the cars aren't quickly flipped within the first year or two. Ford has tried a similar strategy, which has been contested in court by instituting a clause that requires GT owners to hang onto their cars for a period of time before it can be sold.