I’ve sold 700 Porsches!

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and get out on the road. So, Andy B, have you ever sold a Porsche?

Yes, I have.

I'm assuming you're 993.

Yes, that's the only other Porsche I have had, yes.

Yeah. So, the chat from Spain.

That was it, yeah.

Blue up the road with a flagrant disregard for a speed limit allegedly.

Did you ever get any tickets through?

I didn't know. He was flying, yeah.

Yeah.

I can't believe you read that out, yeah.

No, I didn't get any speed tickets, thankfully.

Love it. Absolutely, love it.

No, yes, the going on there.

So, how did you find the experience of selling a car?

Selling a Porsche?

Quite stressful because my car was very...

I don't know.

It needed a particular way of being sold and that was via auction to see as many eyes as possible

because it was a bit unusual.

Yeah, yeah.

So, it was stressful.

Excellent. Well, I think selling a Porsche is one of those where we all think we can do it

and we all think we're going to be really good at it.

But, actually, like many things in life,

you need a certain degree of expertise to do it and to do it well, to do it with conviction

and also enjoy the process.

So, it isn't for everyone contrary to opinion

and that's why, certainly, on the number of its marketplace,

we entrust certain people right to sell great cars and deliver us

on the other side of the fence, you know, the very best possible buying experience.

And it's, with that in mind, we've got our guests this week who are sold

and incredible 700 Porsche's.

That's what I'm doing, isn't it?

Some doing indeed, Andy.

Imagine, you know, selling that $9.93 over 700 times.

And will it be right in saying that it's not over that many years either.

It's not like it's a 40-year history, is it?

It's a lot of Porsche's in a fairly shortest time.

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely. So, yeah, it's an incredible tale you're about to hear.

So, we're going to be joined by Andy Pearce to say it was a specialist at Williams Crawford.

And to be honest, it was he who contacted us and said,

look, I don't know if you know, I've just sold 700 Porsche.

You know, do you think it'd be worth a conversation to share?

And, you know, I thought it might have been 70,

and he'd added an extra watt.

But no, here we were, 700 Porsche's.

It's almost an unfathomable amount, really.

Until you go down to the Williams Crawford showroom and you see

kind of just how many Porsche's they have got there, to be honest with you.

And yeah, yeah, yeah.

And again, Andy's a good guy whenever we're down there shooting videos or whatnot.

He's always got time for a chat.

Always interested in whichever car you've turned up in.

So, it's a story worth hearing and sharing, I think.

It's a proper enthusiast, isn't he?

Yeah.

Not just a guy selling cars.

He's deep in.

Yeah.

I don't know about you.

I'd like to know some of the numbers and figures behind 700 Porsche's sold, you know.

Yeah.

I don't know if that adds up to you.

Yeah.

The earliest, latest, weirdest, most wonderful, you know, as well.

So, hopefully we'll get some numbers and some anecdotes in there to paint the full picture

of what is, yeah, an incredible story.

Having sold 700 Porsche's to enthusiast right around the world as well.

I might add, not just in the UK.

Yeah, all over.

Should we dive right in Andy and speak to Andy Piss?

Absolutely.

Let's get him on.

Andy Piss, sales specialist.

And you very much are a specialist.

Williams Crawford, welcome to our most radio.

Nice to see you both again.

Good to you.

Yeah.

You were just saying off mic that, yeah, I think the last time we kind of all bumped into each other

with down playing with Adrian's SC.

Yeah.

That's right.

The sun was shining then.

And then you came down again in the 911 hole.

Yes.

And the sun was shining in Cornwall again.

As a door.

As it always does down there.

Yes.

I remember actually, because you were taking a picture and I remember you said, it's not often you

see the 911 hole plate in person.

No, I never seen it in person.

You know.

So you're heavily entrenched in the Porsche world.

Absolutely.

Would you mind starting really, but yeah, given us like your, what was your introduction to

Porsche?

What was it at Williams Crawford or was it long before?

I think long before I've been a serial magazine consumer right from the days when I was 17,

18.

So I would, I would subscribe to all of the magazines.

So performance car, car, auto car, max power back in a day.

And I would religiously read every single page and still do.

And now added to that is obviously all the YouTube videos as well.

So I've consumed lots of, you know, motor in performance car information for years and years.

It's always been a huge passion.

So my first introduction to Porsche was before I came here and I went to watch a local,

well, I told my wife I went to watch, going to watch a local football team and I came back

with a 986 box to rest, which was a, which was a surprise to her.

It was, it had done 90,000 miles.

It was, it was lovely and I commuted in it for the next 40,000 miles.

And I had it when I started here in 2018, 19.

And there's a couple of implement through still on that car now and it's still going strong.

So that was my, that was my first Porsche experience in terms of ownership and driving.

And before that, I had gone through all of the hot hatches of the 80s, 90s,

commuted in a notice at least series one for 10 years or the way Elbow.

And ex ex ex ex ex to, and then the two or five GTIs, clear Williams, RS turbos, all of those.

So I've always had a huge, you know, enthusiast, you know, knowledge of cars

and I've always wanted, you know, to own something a little bit different, a little bit special.

And I just enjoy, enjoy the, the joy of driving really the, the thrill of driving.

That's really lovely, Andy, because you have seen this from both sides, therefore, you know,

you're not, you're not just selling a product or a commodity.

Oh, not at all.

You know, you've worn the shoes on the other foot as well, you know?

Yeah, no, absolutely.

And, you know, I started with Honda in the, in the 90s, I did 10 years with Honda,

five years with Jaguar, and I was, and, and then I went out of the industry for about 12 years.

And then at the end of that, my father recently passed away and I took six months away from work.

And then it was, it was brilliant because it's a, it was an opportunity to decide or think,

what do I really want to do next?

And then it was exactly the time that Richard and Adrian here were moving from down the road to the premises we are now.

And I thought, that's the job I want, that's where I want to be.

But the, the, the difficult, most difficult thing was obviously, you know, getting the job in the first place.

You know, you might talk about my, my first sale, or my first sale, or my hardest sale,

would have been convincing Adrian that he needed me here to, to help the business grow and to look after the customers.

And so that, that, that's where we, you know, that's where we started.

I came in here pretty much weekly to see Adrian just to see if, if he, if he needed me, wanted me.

I offered to volunteer to come here whilst I was out of work just because I wanted to be in this surroundings with this, this product.

How about that for some of you ever?

Wow, that's so good.

Toughest sale, everyone since has been quite easy.

How did the conversation go when he finally crumbled?

Oh, I was delighted.

It was exactly that, you know, when we moved to this building,

it was, you know, we thought when we moved in here, you know, will we ever fill the building?

It was, you know, it was much bigger premises.

But yeah, I was just absolutely delighted.

It was, you know, at the time I thought it would be the best job in the world.

And seven, six, seven years later, it definitely is the best job in the world for me.

It's not for everyone, but I adore it.

I get up every morning, and I don't want to be here.

You know, most of my day is spent talking to people about cars or buying cars or selling cars.

And I would do that at home anyway.

I think sort of answered the question there, but I'd like to dive in a bit more Andy.

So, you know, you've taken an opportunity in your life where you were saying you took ten months to just kind of, yeah, reassess.

You've already kind of done some time in automotive already.

So, you've got this wonderful opportunity where you're looking at which way to pivot in your life next, I guess.

Yeah.

And yeah, you sort out that sprawling metropolis of porches as it is down there at Williams Crawford.

Yeah.

You know, what made you decide definitively?

You know, that is exactly what I wanted to say.

I think, you know, I've known Adrian for probably 30 years of known Adrian.

And Richard Williams, Richard and myself went to primary school together.

So, I've known Richard since we were four or five years old.

And I've followed both of their careers.

I knew exactly what they were doing.

I know how particular and how customer focused they both are.

And how they look after both the customers and the staff, you know, the people that I knew that worked here.

Most of them have been here a long time.

And it just felt like a really good place to be.

The other dealerships I'd worked for had only been family run dealerships.

I'd never worked in the big corporate companies.

So, I wanted that again.

I wanted local people to work with local people that I knew.

And when I first started selling cars, somebody said to me,

you need to treat everyone as if you were selling your car to your mum.

And I think I've always done that.

And if I'm honest here, our biggest challenge is getting the news start.

I tend to think that the selling part, there's not really selling.

It's helping and guiding people into the right porch.

We often, we don't joke about it, but we talk about having the right customer in the right car.

Whereas in the motor trade, as a whole, perhaps doesn't always get the best press.

But there's no way I would put the wrong person in the wrong car.

There's no benefit to us or to the customer.

And a lot of people are coming here.

A huge amount of my customers are, it's their first Porsche.

They've always dreamt of having a Porsche.

And they have a budget, but they have no idea really what they want or what, you know,

how much they want to spend, what they can justify to spend.

And it may be that they have a huge budget, but they only really need to spend 20,000 pounds on a Gen 2, 987 Boxster

because that will do everything that they're wanting to achieve.

But yeah, certainly we're big fans of that sentiment.

And exactly as you said, there's no real merit to getting somebody in the wrong car

because it's a bad experience for them.

And it won't reflect too kindly on you guys as well.

Exactly as you said, the operative word guidance, because everybody wants a GT product.

It will look great on the drive, but actually does it work for the lifestyle, for example?

What are you going to use it for?

What is the, you know, is it, you know, high days and holidays?

Do you want to take it on track 10 times a year or, you know, is it just something you've always wanted?

So we'll fast forward to the present day in that time, no less than 700, 700 cars sold,

which is just, I mean it's bonkers, it's positively bonkers.

I think it's amazing you've kept track.

I've started the spreadsheet, you know, very simple spreadsheet in 2018 and 19.

And I've got, and I can look at it, I look at it daily, every single person, every car,

all the details of each one.

But you talk about 700, you know, that Harry Kane scores an awful lot of goals.

But there's a whole team behind him on the pitch and off the pitch.

And it's the same here, you know, I, perhaps I take, I'm taking the glory, but from, from the receptionist to the mechanics,

the validers, Louise who does all the advertising, the photograph in the research, Harry Mason who's here,

who does the sales admin, we got Beth of Ross and Richard Asian, everyone here.

There's 28 of us here on site.

And I couldn't, you know, I couldn't sell one car without the rest of them.

You know, I often say if I have a, if I'm off for two weeks, nobody really cares, nobody really misses me.

If we lose a valetaire or a mechanic or somebody on reception, or Louise who does the advertising for a week,

you know, that, that's a real, you know, my, if I'm missing in a month or two's time, it might be a problem.

But I'm not missed day to day, you know, so.

That's very selfless of you say that.

And to be fair, Andy, you know, like your attitude, I think it's coming across really nicely on this podcast.

I see it in person every time I visit Williams Crawford, not just you, but the whole team.

There's a real effervescence about the place.

Yeah, I think we're all, you know, the large majority of a car enthusiast of different makes and brands.

And we all want to be here, you know, that's the difference.

And we have good days and bad days, but we help, you know, we all help each other.

And we've all got issues at home or, you know, there's always things going on.

But we're, you know, it's, it is a real, I know it's, it's a bit bad.

We are, it is one big family.

And hopefully it comes over, you know, on the phone on the, on the websites and when we're dealing with people.

Definitely, definitely.

So look, 700 Porsche's, let's look at some of the numbers.

Everything, this is in your words, you know, everything from three, five, six to nine, nine, twos, inclusive.

Yeah, yeah.

On your spreadsheet, have you got like a total valuation of all?

I have.

It is just shy of 30 million pounds.

Is it really?

Yeah.

Is it really?

That's amazing.

I bet, I bet Adrian's informed of that when it comes to company.

I'm not sure about that.

You know, I think a lot of people say, you know, I've, you know, I've got, obviously got some repeat customers.

I've got a retired traffic officer policeman, a lovely gentleman who lives in Plymouth.

And he bought his first Porsche from me in 2018.

And just recently he's taken delivery of his tenth Porsche from me.

He only has one at a time.

And he's in the sort of 30 to 40,000 pound bracket.

But he has had Boxster, Cayman, 997.2, 996, C4S.

You know, he's had all sorts of different experiences.

And with Graham, I have to, when he takes delivery of his most recent Porsche, I have to rein him in.

And I always say, Graham, I am not selling you another car into a Christmas or at least.

So that's quite, quite.

But I've got an awful lot of repeat customers, but I've, I've got a lot more repeat cars.

So some of the cars I've sold four or five times.

The very first car I sold, which was a, a seal grade 997, C2S manual dot one.

And I've sold that one four times since I've been here.

And we always say, once we've prepped and retailed and warranted and sold a Porsche,

we must have it back. We've really wanted it back.

So we know that we've, we've got it to the condition where we're happy to put our name to it.

We're happy to put our own warranty to it.

So I'm always very, very keen to get them back.

And with 700 sales, when I started, I religiously contact every one of those buyers, customers, friends,

every three months, either by email or phone or WhatsApp or a message.

That's becoming slightly more tricky, but I still do it.

I still, so hopefully when, when somebody with a Porsche from us, they're ready to change,

or they need to sell the first person I think to think of it as Andy.

And I get a huge amount of cars now coming back to, to sell again, which is, which is fantastic.

It must be like seeing an old friend when that car, you know, that 9 on 7.1, for example,

when it's come back through the door for the fourth time, you know?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And I, and the majority of the cars in the show, we've always got 60 plus Porsche for sale.

Nearly all of them I can tell a story about them, which for the next owner is brilliant.

You know, one of the, one of the questions I get asked a lot is,

oh, that, that Porsche's got quite a few owners.

And when I grew up, my mum and dad would say, you know, buy yourself a little fiesta, low owner.

And a number of owners to me when we're buying or bringing cars in,

it's barely even a question I ask.

I've had some horrific one owner cars that we wouldn't touch, but 678910 owner cars.

They've had half a dozen honeymoons in my, in my opinion.

They, you know, it's not, you know, the big thing with me would be when we inspect the car,

you know, the condition, the history, the specification, the maintenance,

rather than the number of owners, it's, but I do still get asked most weeks,

the first question.

How many owners does that car have a nice, I can tell you, but it's purely a number.

It's not a, it's not a reflection on the condition of that car.

Yeah, yeah, exactly that.

And funny enough, I was chanting to Chris at Harbour Cars yesterday,

we were talking exactly about this.

And he used a similar terminology, Andy, to be fair.

And he said, yeah, you know, if that car's had five owners in five years,

it's had five honeymoon periods.

And five times it's been under warranty.

We're thinking that, that have gone awry, I'm more likely to be fit.

Well, there's a one owner car, if you ding a wheel, it's more like, ah, it's okay.

You know, I guess I've had it for a long time.

It's, yeah, and you just become car.

Yeah, you get one owner, low mileage cars.

And the services to you, oh, we won't service it this year,

because we haven't used it, spark plugs to you, or not going to do that,

because we haven't used it.

So that maintenance gets deferred and it becomes a car that needs a huge amount of investment

to get it back to where we would want it to be.

And like a lot of your GT products, GT4s, GT3s, they might have two or three owners

before it's even turned a wheel.

You know, if it's been sold at a premium, so what?

Are there any other like, yeah, juicy numbers on your amazing spreadsheet?

I guess people often ask me the most expensive car.

So I think I've sold a couple of 993 RS's, which are around about 300.

The Holy Grail, the 4.0.997 GT3 RS, I've only sold one of those,

but that was a special day.

The gentleman pilot exchanged a 3.8 and bought four liters.

So that was a special day.

We had them both outside.

A lovely story.

I had a couple last year.

They had just sold there.

It was an energy company, and they bought a beautiful house an hour away from here

with a triple garage, and they wanted to fill the triple garage,

which I was glad to do.

They left here with an incredible low mileage, 944, 2.7.

Turquoise 993 target, and a garage, red 991.

So they had all the bases covered, and that was a good day.

That was a good sales day.

That was a good day.

One of my interests, you know, people often think,

do you get lots of people in that just want to test drive your Porsche's

or you get time-macers, and we don't really.

But there was a story two or three years ago.

I had a very young guy walked in the show, and I greeted him.

And it initially said, I really want a GT4, and he was quite knowledgeable.

But he looked very young, and you might think,

oh, is he a potential purchase?

I said, well, I haven't got a GT4, but tomorrow we've got a 991 GTS

coming in in Carmine Ray.

So I'd like to see that.

I'll pop in.

So he came in, and we went out for a test drive.

And on the test drive, I was asking him, what is it you do?

He said, well, I don't do anything.

I do a bit of online gaming, and I play a little bit of golf.

And I thought, oh, this is going to be a complete waste of time.

And as the conversation went on, it turned out him and his friend,

and I think they were doing house clearances, sort of a man and van type house clearances.

And they popped into a local spa for their lunch, bought two scratch cards.

And this young lad, he won a million pounds on a scratch card.

And he had bought four or five houses with the wind,

and then just wanted to treat himself to a nice car as well.

It was just a really good story of not judging people when they walk in the door.

Absolutely.

Which is very easy to do.

Wow, yeah.

But we try and take everybody seriously.

Yeah.

You never know, Dean, you never know.

What's the cheapest car you've ever sold?

The cheapest car, I would say, I think I sold a 924.

And I'm going to say it was 6995.

It was three or four years ago.

It's only 924 that we've retailed since I've been here.

Sort of more recently, 9995, 9X6 boxes, if we can get nicer.

And so we're more than happy if the conditions right will happily sell at that level

if the cards are right.

But there's an awful lot that we reject.

So all the cars have almost what I call a double inspection.

They have an initial inspection and then a full inspection,

even before they get anywhere near the showroom.

And what sort of time have you been able to achieve that accolade?

Well, I started here in early 2019.

Yeah, so that is.

And obviously we had some furlough got in the way a little bit in 2020.

Yeah.

And more recently with Ross and Beth.

Because it was a time when I was sort of doing all the sales essentially.

But we've got Ross and Beth now.

So I'd probably sell half as many a year now than I do.

But then I'm doing an awful lot of the buying and the consignment as well now as well.

And Beth, who's joined us a couple of years ago, she's learning the ropes.

She's doing fantastically well with it.

So I don't sell the numbers I did.

But as a business, we're just growing and growing.

And we're so, you know, it's looking at the numbers this year.

We're very consistent month to month.

It's been, again, another record year this year.

There's no, we've got no doom and gloom in our, in our world.

Well, just, just worked it out there, Andy.

You know, they, in roughly like the six years, the 700 cars.

It's like a car sale every three days.

Yeah.

That is just incredible.

Yeah.

I was thinking of the spreadsheet last night, because I thought you'd ask these questions.

May, May 21.

I sold 27 myself.

Wow.

Yeah.

There was, you know, post COVID.

Yeah.

And when we came back from furlough, we thought we'd, you know,

we'd, we'd ever sell another car.

And it just took off.

It was just crazy.

And this is when the doors were still locked.

Yeah.

And my biggest concern was when the doors were open, that I wouldn't have enough time to speak to people coming through the door.

It was incredible.

It really was a time of absolute maximum.

Yeah.

On the blind public.

It's crazy.

And we were, you know, because of our location, we are a million miles from everybody.

And so we were, we were, and have done, we were distance selling before it was even invented.

Yeah.

Post COVID distance selling was the new thing.

But, you know, Adrian was doing it from here when he was trading from his house, you know, 20, 30 years ago.

Because you had to, you know, people wouldn't travel 3, 4, 500 miles, unless they were really, really serious.

So the videos and the phone calls and the, you know, we've done that forever.

It's quite amazing, isn't it?

Yeah.

Down in Cornwall, you're well ahead of the curve, really.

It's a huge benefit of us being here.

But there is a, you know, we are a long way from, from, from everywhere.

But we, you know, in terms of where we sell cars, you know, we sell an awful lot of cars to people in Scotland.

Yeah.

I've, we've, I've had cars recently delivered to Australia, the Cayman Islands, Monaco.

So we, we'll, we'll export them worldwide, but people will travel.

And it's always a better, I always, you know, we will, we do deliver a number of cars direct to customers that haven't visited.

I always think it's a much nicer experience if they, if they travel down, meet us, they get the tour, they meet the team.

And then they get a wonderful drive back to, you know, to wherever they might be.

In their new Porsche.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, what a great way to bond with your new Porsche by driving from Cornwall.

Yeah.

Back home to Scotland.

Scotland.

Yeah.

I know we, we're, we concentrate sort of 99% on Porsche, but we had a caterham a few weeks ago.

And a lovely young couple picked up a caterham from us.

And they, I think they immediately drove it to, drove it up to Liverpool, got ferry across to Ireland.

And they were doing a, you know, a road trip of a lifetime in this caterham.

Wow.

That's commitment.

Right.

It was.

Yeah.

It was great.

Brave or foolish.

Super interesting.

I wonder, like, it's, you know, in, in that time, and you've kind of made the, the reference there

to like remote selling, if you like, which really kind of took off on a big scale post COVID.

But, you know, there, there been any kind of change in trends from the blind public that you've noticed in that time.

And I think the one trend that we, we see more and more more recently is the, I think the private person is much more unwilling these days to buy privately.

I see that more and more that the, the Porsche buyer is much more inclined to, to go to one of the, you know, the, the well known specialists.

And there's some really good ones right across the country that, that, you know, help us with, with warranty work, et cetera.

So that, that seems to be a trend.

We, we obviously monitor a lot of the private advocates across the country.

And they do seem to struggle to sell cars privately with that trends in terms of the product.

996, I think, came of age for us two or three years ago.

We still have to be very careful with the ones we take.

But I think there's, there's a much more positive reaction with 996 is now.

And it's a fabulous way of getting into, into a Porsche in terms of cost.

997.2.

Absolutely, holy grail for us together with 981.

Boxer or Cayman.

That's our, that's our real bread and butter.

If, if I was pinning a, you know, pinning a pin on the wall here with what we want in stock, you know, 997.2.

981 boxed or Cayman is, is a real sweet spot for us.

For, for what reason Andy?

I think it's a pricing.

So between say 25 and 50,000 pounds would be a real sweet spot for us.

I think it's a, it's an amount of money that people can justify, even if they've got more money they can justify it.

And an awful lot of our customers are that sort of retired kids have grown up, mortgage paid.

I've always wanted to treat myself with a Porsche.

And, and I've, and I've allocated 30,000 or 40,000 to a Porsche.

And then it's the case of what you're actually going to use it for.

You know, have you always wanted a 9.11.

But even with that, a boxer or Cayman may, maybe better suited.

But there will be some people that will, will have to have a 9.11.

And I, and I get that.

But those are the, I think, those are the cars that, that, that we turn over very quickly.

At that price, but that's, that price point.

You know, as well, because I, and from Adrian's, but your Adrian, when he started, he was importing left-hand drive, 9.11's from Germany, that were so much better condition, well maintained.

And at that point cheaper.

And so we still sell in all for a lot of 9.03s, 9.64s, early, you know, earlier cars, long bonnet.

So we're, we're very fortunate, if somebody visits, we have got everything from 356 to, to 992.

And we've got the knowledge as well, you know, Adrian's knowledge on the earlier cars is, is incredible.

He would, he would admit his modern knowledge is perhaps not so good, but we've got, you know, other people here that, that I've got all that knowledge.

So from, for me, 993 is, you know, best built, best looking.

That would still be one of my, that would be, if I had a, the triple garage at home, that would be one of the cars in it.

So it's definitely the high watermark for build quality, isn't it?

Oh, incredible.

Yeah, it's like, you shut the door. It's like a bankfell, it's, yeah.

So I don't think I've ever had a 993 customer that's been disappointed with what they've, what they've bought.

Yeah, for sure. With them, just with like 996 and you said that you feel like that has come of age a little bit more in the last couple of years.

I've been interested to know why you think that is. Is it anything to do with, for example, like, is there a younger demographic coming into these cars?

Or is it just the case that actually the older lot of starting to accept the headlights after all?

I guess, yeah, we still don't get that many younger buyers as a whole.

It is mainly people might, you know, 40, 50, 60-year-old is still the main.

And then the cost can be a significant sense.

So if somebody's only got 20,000 or 25, a really nice 996 is the best way to go.

If someone's, you know, they've got 40,000 plus to spend, they would generally be guided.

And they tend to want to, they've guided into a 997.2 because they may suit them better.

The younger buyers that I get as a whole would generally be 991 Kamens, 987 Kamens boxers.

That would be where I see the younger audience.

Is it so important, isn't it, to encourage young people into these cars?

It's almost a concern for me.

What we don't want is what I call the e-type scenario.

Whereas my father would have loved an e-type.

I don't want an e-type or desire it. That era has gone.

And also, you know, I guess the cars from the 50s or 60s, who's going to buy them as time goes on?

Like Harry Mason, who works here, is in his 20s.

You know, what will he want when he's in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, time?

That's the thought.

I think the brand is strong, you know, it's such a strong brand.

There's such a wide range of cars.

There is something for everyone.

It's not just the brand, it's actually the model of cars as well.

People might start, you know, you get a stereotypical 50-year-old that buys a 997.

But then he will cover that car and enjoy it, but then actually start to look back.

Yeah, definitely. Oh, and I think that's happened usually with the customers that have been able to go up through the model ranges.

So the customers that have had a 997, 991, 992.

And those 992 customers, for me, they've almost reached that the car is for some too big, too complicated, too good.

And they're coming back to a 991.1 or a 907.2, which is more analog, more engaging, slightly smaller.

And I think that's the same with all modern cars.

We've gained weight and lost the enthusiasm, the enjoyment of the car.

They're just too capable.

For me, I want the engagement at what I call to customers, normal road speeds, which you get from a 993 or a 3.2 or a 987 box steering with a mechanical steering.

For me personally, I would still take a 987 over a 981.

But some people want the shape of the 981, a bit more modern, and perhaps PDK.

I always say that people, there's no right or wrong.

I'll tell you my thoughts and I'll explain what I think's good and bad.

And I'll leave it to you to decide if you want to drive both.

It's the same with the 718, 981 scenario.

There will be some that will want the newer car, which perhaps looks a bit better, got better technology.

But often, the Porsche enthusiast, if I put them in both cars, they will gravitate to the 981 with a 6 in there.

Different by for each car, isn't it?

In the use case, I've noticed this year seeing them come onto the marketplace, a fair few 986 boxsters from Williams Crawford sitting at say,

10, 11, 12k for what looks like a time warp car, properly immaculate.

And it's so good to see those cars in that sort of condition and being sold on four courts and not eBay, for example.

The blue one that we've just sold at 9995, which Adrian did a video on, mechanically it was incredible.

And it was sold within hours, I think, of it being advertised.

Because it's very easy to go on eBay or Facebook marketplace and find that four or five thousand pound boxster.

But how many customers come in here having bought privately?

We inspect the car and there's an easily a four or five thousand pound bill.

For nothing serious, but just a series of deferred maintenance as I would call it.

So to spend 10,000 pound here and off you go with a piece of mind, a car that's going to work that everything's been done.

But those cars, I think the good ones will stay good and the bad ones will drop off the end, which is a shame.

But we've got a, there's a red, a guy's red 986s that we've sold at three times now with 9,000 miles.

And it is like, it's just a new car.

We had a 987 came and, no, no, 7.2 came and they went last week, a silver one, 9,000 miles.

And everything you touched, it was, it was just like a new car.

It smelled like a new car. Everything you touched was like new.

And that's why the woodwork, you know, it's where they appear from, I don't know.

Yeah, yeah. That's one of the big, you know, part of the firm.

Do you, do you find with those cars though that sometimes if it's a very low mileage car, it can also still be affected by the age.

So they still need the good amount of preparation.

Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

You know, sometimes you look at yes, you know, the preparation, some of the costs and the prep costs that we get.

They're not eye-watering because we, we, we inspect prior, so we know exactly what we're getting before we do it.

But yes, there are some big bills.

Yeah, I've sort of noticed that recently in that a few cars that I've seen might be very low mileage,

but they, they still suffer the same issues like the coolant crossover pipe, you might see problems there.

Yeah.

Or bushes in the suspension.

It's your exhaust valves, they will corrode you.

Oh, see, yeah, it doesn't matter that they've, instead of done, they've done 9,000 miles instead of 90,000 miles over 10 years.

Yeah.

You still got to look out for those, those bits.

So I guess what I'm saying is don't go and buy a 9,000 mile car and the private ads and think that it's going to be.

No, like, like, new.

I said earlier, you know, I've, I've had some really poor, or we've seen some really poor one, two in a car is that they've almost been forgotten.

They haven't had the maintenance, they haven't been looked after.

Yeah.

And it wouldn't be for us to put our name to.

You know, our biggest challenge always is if we sell, sell 20 Porsche this month, I need to find another 20 and that's the challenge.

And all of our cars come from private owners.

We don't, we don't buy any from auction. We don't buy any from other dealers. It's all private individuals.

But that's interesting.

You know, just some of the people we talked to and meet, you know, that's a huge part of the enjoyment of where there's some really interesting.

I've had some very interesting customers from all walks of life.

Well, imagine, imagine, indeed.

And if you've got like any funnies or anything that you care to share anecdotally from anything or any interesting sales from the 700.

Any interesting sales you know, I've had.

I've had anything hilariously funny, you know, I've had, you know, the, the premiership footballer.

I've had the, you know, the very famous singer drummer chef with, you know, all of that type of thing, which is interesting to me.

I had nuclear engineers and we've, we've had some really, you know, a lot of people that have owned their own business have created something.

But in terms of actual funny stories, nothing, nothing hilarious has happened that I can think of.

Where's the furthest you've been to collect a car that you've bought?

The furthest we've been.

Well, a number of the 356 is coming from Texas.

So that's quite a way.

Yeah, that's quite a way.

We sell, we sell quite a number of 993s to Australia.

And 99, we had a 72 RS touring that went to Hong Kong.

If I can remember that.

So yeah, so, but they, they, they, they crop it from everywhere.

We had a, there's a car just arrived yesterday.

It's 3.2 target.

And the gentleman bought it when it's 12 months old.

And we've never seen it.

Yeah, that lives about 10 minutes away from us.

And it's been tucked away in a garage for all that it's only done 60,000 miles.

And that will come up for sale shortly, hopefully.

But they just come out of the woodwork.

It's amazing.

Yeah, it's incredible.

A lovely couple of just one of my most recent sales.

Beautiful racing yellow 9-8-1 Cayman.

A lovely couple that we've dealt with for years.

John and Julie and Julie's got a bright yellow box.

John's had a bright yellow Cayman.

And they're always to remember that.

Just two.

And we've, we're trying to get the 9-8-1 Cayman from John for many years.

And he finally gave in.

And we bought it from him just recently.

And it's, it's found the new home already.

I'd say, well, I'll never give you 90 my telephone number.

Yeah.

You'll go on the spreadsheet.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

You know, in the Porsche market and we've covered it extensively on the podcast previously.

But you know, a lot has happened in the Porsche market in those six years.

You know, evidence by the 700 cars that you've sold, Andy.

But you know, with the big post-COVID boom and everybody buying cars,

you sold 21 in a month.

I'd love to know what Cully or Speedboat was, by the way.

From that.

But you know, then obviously things have slowed down a little bit.

And I think the word that the guys at Lakeside Classics used when we spoke some last series was, you know,

it's the market's just a lot more predictable.

It's more normal.

It's what you would say more normal.

Yeah.

We are consistently retailed 2025 cars every month now.

Not really seasonal.

We're busy throughout the year, which is fantastic for the whole business.

The workshops grown and grown.

So obviously as our car park as you'd call it grows locally,

the services and the maintenance that gets busier and busier.

So we've had to take on more mechanics, more people in services and service side,

just to keep up with that work and the work for the sale side.

So we're still growing.

We're not, you know, the foot is not coming off the accelerator by any means.

But then we've got to keep the quality of the cars that we get in and out.

That's imperative.

And that's, you know, Adrian and Richard, you know, they are, we have to do things right.

And that starts with them.

And I'm delighted that we do that because it's to sell the cars we do with confidence.

Can I ask you about turbos?

And 9-11 turbos specifically, although we can dive outside of the...

I've already had one car stolen out of the 700.

Really?

That was the 9-9-1 turbos, not locally.

Yeah, yeah.

9-9-1 turbos.

The 9-1-1 turbos.

It was, yeah, the only one of it.

Yeah.

Because people always ask about insurance.

And I think all the customers are always pleasantly surprised on the insurance costs

when they go from say they're BMW to Porsche or Audi to Porsche.

The insurance cost.

So I don't think, you know, we're very fortunate they don't get stolen.

And they don't tend to get broken into it.

And they don't tend to be getting involved in too many accidents.

So hence the insurance is normally quite acceptable, which is good.

Yeah, yeah.

Wow, wow.

You ain't catching a Turbo S that's on the run, are you?

It's possibly the best getaway car in the world.

But turbos, you know, we've just sold a couple of 9-9-7 turbos manuals.

Gen 1, I assume, definitely.

We've got a Gen 1 that's just been sold.

We've got 1.5 as well.

Yeah.

Or the other way around.

Yeah.

9-9-6 turbos can cause, you know, they can be quite expensive to get right in terms of preparation.

But Fabulous car.

I've got one customer locally who's bought two from me at the same time.

One a really low mileage one that he polishes and a black one that he really uses.

And he's got quite a collection of cars.

The black, he's got a black 9-9-6 Turbo tip, cabriolay.

And he just uses it all the time.

He just thinks it's just fabulous.

And he can go long distance.

You know, it is the usable supercar, isn't it?

Yeah.

9-9-7 Turbo manual for me.

It's almost too quick.

You're on the throttle, you're just not on the throttle long enough.

But a Fabulous, you know, designed everything about it to do.

Almost 200 miles an hour to break, accelerate, handle.

Fabulous car.

Myself, I'd prefer something sort of non-turbocharged, or mechanical, free revving, I guess, manual gearbox.

But I get the joy of a turbo.

It's just a, it's an everyday supercar, isn't it?

Yeah, definitely.

It's exactly as you said, it's like the usable everyday supercar.

Fantastic engineering that goes in.

And actually, so we've got a video that will be live by the time this podcast goes out.

And we were looking at the 9-11s of the previous three decades, like the best 9-11s of the previous three decades,

that fall outside of the GT lineup.

Because it's easy to default to those cars.

And for like, yeah, the Nautis 997 Gen1 turbo was absolutely in there, particularly a manual,

like that is such a good car.

Yeah, and is it too cheap?

I don't know.

But if you look at, obviously, we look at 993 turbo 964, you know,

it's an awful lot of cars, isn't it, for 60, 70?

Outrages and still so quick by today's standards.

Yeah.

But at the same time, you know, the word turbo, it's not, you know, on our collective WhatsApp groups,

for example, turbo isn't a buzz word.

I don't, I don't, I don't see or hear people getting excited.

No, they want a GT4 or a GT3.

Or a GTX.

Or a GTX, yeah, yeah, exactly that.

And I just kind of, I wonder where those cars, particularly reference 996 and 7,

so a little bit older, might need a little bit of money spent on them if you're not from the right place,

you know, not just a kind of, I wonder where they sit currently.

And I'll just hear one, did your thoughts on it?

Yeah, you know, that's, you know, a bulletproof engine.

Yeah.

But yes, your maintenance costs can, can be a bit higher.

I'm not sure, you know, because like I said before, we'll get an awful lot of customers

coming in with a value that they want to spend.

So say 70,000.

What do you do with 70,000?

There's so many different things from 981 Spyder, you know, 901 GTS, a turbo.

You know, there's so much choice.

It's a difficult, difficult decision to get your head round of this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which car would you be buying then?

Andy.

It's a question I get asked all the time.

I'm still a huge fan of a 981 GT4.

981 Spyder.

Kamenar.

Right from the very start, Kamenar has been an off-sold.

I know that is there 110 manuals?

Something like that in the UK.

I think so.

I think most of them are in the driven oil and collected.

Yeah.

There's another one added this morning.

Oh, brilliant.

I've sold quite a few.

And to me, that would still be a way up towards the top of my list would be a Kamenar, manual,

air conditioning, sports exhaust.

Don't mind if it's silver or peridote, I don't know about mine.

And I've got, there's a few, either, that I know of that I've sold.

But the custom is partying with them.

Is it tricky?

Is it a bit tricky?

Yeah.

But yeah, 981 Spyder.

991, I often talk to the customers here.

And I'm often very positive about boxes in Kamen's boxes in Kamen's.

To the point of people say, what about the 911?

And for me, 991 GTS.1 would be my peak sort of everyday, usable with theatre, with performance.

That would be a, we would just just sort of car mine, red one with an arrow kit.

And that's, there's a really, really special car.

I've sold that, I think I've sold that one twice now.

That's the second time I've had that.

But my, my office looks down onto the showroom.

So my, my choice changes daily.

We just got fabulous.

Guards, red 964, left hand drive that's had a lot of work done to it, suspension.

And it's just, it's just, it is beautiful.

And then I'd, I'd have to have a 993 C2S man, you know, coupe.

There's a silver one that I've sold four times now.

And I sold it to the same guy twice.

It was a, I think it's a 4S very low mileage.

And I think we sold it at 90 and we sold it at 110 to the same, to the same guy.

And it's still, it still appears to be going up and burning that, you know.

Yeah, they do for me.

Yeah.

Yeah, wow, buying it, buying it twice for second time at 20k more.

Yeah, it was.

Yeah.

You must really love that car.

Yeah.

Yeah, definitely.

Yeah, he had to have it back.

The, the best story I had was, and you might know it, it's Mint, Minty GTS.

Oh, indeed.

Yeah.

It's another Andy.

Andy, that car came into us.

And we advertised, I think it was probably on auto trader.

And within like minutes, we had this phone call from this guy called Andy.

And, and it was literally, I have to have it.

And that was the call when he did buy it.

And it turned out, when it sold previously, he missed out on it.

He did, yeah.

By days or hours, whatever.

And, and he came down.

And the joy on his face of having found again this car that he had missed.

And he still got, you know, a lovely guy.

Fabulous car.

Still, there's still one of the best cars I've sold in terms of everything about it.

The specification, the color of the story.

I think he's got a 968 club sport now as well.

Yeah, yeah.

In Riviera.

But Minty GTS is, yeah, that was a good day.

Fun, fun enough, it was conversing with Andy.

It's our track day at Thruxton a few days ago.

And he said, he said then that he'll never sell that car.

No, there's still very, very much in love.

Yeah, I'll still message him quite regularly.

Can we have it back?

Yeah, can we have it back?

Yeah, that one's not coming, is it?

He sold it to the wrong guy there.

Yeah, I didn't sell it.

You know, that's the thing with an awful lot of the cars here.

I don't actually sell them, do I?

I take the phone call and just help them, help them through the, you know, the purchase.

And just try and make it easy and fun.

And it's supposed to be enjoyable, isn't it?

Absolutely.

We have a laugh.

That's mega Andy.

I guess we should finish.

So we've kind of, we've half done a rendition when we do like for an ownership point,

if you first, worst, best, and next.

Obviously worst isn't applicable here by any stretch with your cars being on the

normal market place, of course.

But in terms of the next car, so what's the 701st Porsche that you'll be putting in?

We have got a beautiful.

It's a 70 or a 72 RS.

It's a homage of an RS.

It's a 3.2.

And it was built for a gentleman who had an original.

So that was put to one side due to the value didn't use it.

And this has been built to replicate it.

I'm just looking at his white with a black, black lettering.

And that's, that's going to be the next one.

That'll be on the website the next week or so.

That'll be the next one.

I love it Andy.

I love the confidence.

It's already in the bag.

Beautiful.

It's been like so wonderful to have this conversation.

Thank you for your time.

Honestly, as you know, as we said at the top of the podcast, your enthusiasm really shines.

So just like it does throughout the entire team at Williams.

It's always such a privilege for us to come down and do some bits with you,

whether it's like a car for YouTube or what.

It's just, you're, you're, your, your whole title, isn't it?

It lives cool for this passion for passion.

But yeah, I would breathe it.

You really breathe it.

Yeah, and anyone who's listening, if they want to pick up the phone and just have a chat about, you know,

what they want to do next or if they've never owned a Porsche, you know,

just, just I'll, I'll be honest and open and tell them the good and the bad.

I've got, yeah, quite a bit of experience now and I just like sharing it.

And I just love talking about cars.

So, yeah, give me a call anytime.

Excellent.

Andy Pearson, Williams, Crawford, thank you for your time.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, thank you.

I hope you see.

Thank you, Andy, for joining us, mate.

And we've, off the back of that, we'll say that, look, Gemma the Week,

we'll just say head over to the namois marketplace,

visit the Williams Crawford virtual showroom and fill your boots,

because that 701st Porsche is waiting to be sold.

Could be, could be the 2.7 RS, evocation.

Could be, could be anything else, to be honest,

but I think Andy mentioned the, there was a silver 981 GT4.

It's definitely been winking at me the last couple of weeks,

to be honest with you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You're deep into those, aren't you?

I'm loving them, mate.

I don't know what it is.

It's just, I kind of noticed this at the start of the year, to be honest,

chat with Jason at Paragon.

And a racing yellow one, it came in.

And I just thought it looked sensational.

And we were both kind of discussing there about how they're,

they're just getting better and better value, really.

Yeah.

And I still personally, I still think they'll come down a little bit,

to be honest, from where they are, just under the march of time.

But like, that's only a good thing for the enthusiast.

And yeah, like I said, the price point where they're at now,

you're looking at it and you go in, that's a genuine modern GT Porsche.

That's very dailyable, isn't it, as well I'd say, would you say?

I think you could get, yeah, yeah, I mean, to be honest,

I remember driving the press car for about a week and we did everything in it

and it was fine.

But you know, for, for, for GTS money, really,

to have a genuine kind of GT product car.

I think he's, yeah, just, yeah, for me,

they're a bit of a buzz car at the moment without doubt.

Yeah, you should stop looking at those classifieds,

stop doing your health any good.

It's like a lighter light, isn't it?

It's like a lighter light.

Oh my God, you know, you've been realding and you know you've been realding

but you can't help it.

It's so good.

So yeah, gems, gems of the week,

there's many gems out there at Williams Crawford.

So please go and take a look at the stock and give Andy a cool,

he'd love to have a chat with you.

I'm sure, yeah, love to talk cars.

AOB, Mr Brooks.

I'll do my normal collective update if I may.

I'll start in Dawkin in Surrey with Richard King.

He's actually rejoined us.

Nice little note here said,

I've had a rough time recently and not been well,

but the warmth, humor,

the podcasts and the subject matter, Porsche,

that I love has helped me through many a tough day and night.

Quite a lovely little sentiment.

What a lovely sentiment, yeah.

And I hope you're feeling much better.

Now Richard, I hope everything is good.

Absolutely, Richard.

We're all in it, mate.

And I just need to clarify as well,

is Richard from the Dawkin in Surrey near Leeds?

That's the one.

It is.

Absolutely.

Just down the road.

Everywhere's near Leeds.

Don't forget.

Excellent.

Okay, James Twitchett,

who is in Shinnah in Oxfordshire,

he's a friend of Paul Fairman's.

So he's fairly new to Porsche ownership,

but Paul gave him the nod towards us.

So good on you, Paul.

Recently purchased a 991.1 GTS in Carmine Red.

Beautiful.

What's a car?

Always a good spec.

Okay.

Neil Plumpton joins us from Sit Cup In Kent.

Neil Leeds, yeah.

Now bit well.

Absolutely.

Good to have you aboard, Neil.

Is that Neil Plumpton that used to help present the podcast and do?

It is indeed.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, we've finally got some money out of him.

It's great to have you on the DNHC, Neil.

It's awesome.

It's awesome to have you in the mix.

He's got a nice little section of cars, an early 911S,

a couple of 997s of GT3 and a Carrera 4 in Brown,

if I remember rightly.

Also got a Dakar and a GT3 Touring,

along with a daily KNCoop.

Very cool.

Yeah, nice little selection.

Very ambitious.

And lastly today is John Askew,

who is in Northwest Lancashire.

Red-Tote 911 for a couple of years,

and you're about the DNHC,

but he was recently talking to Tom Kid,

and was directed towards the podcast.

So Tom is one of John's old neighbor.

Oh, very nice.

He hasn't bought a Porsche as yet,

but he, I think he sent me a message on Instagram saying,

should he join?

And I said, yes, you bloody should,

because you find out lots of information from everybody,

there might be a few cars for sale.

So yeah, do dive in and get involved,

and help him buy what he wants to buy.

It says he's currently leaning towards a 991 turbo

or GTS in a boss' basalt or metallic black.

This body's looking for.

So, yeah, if you've got anything like that

that you're trying to sell, then maybe John needs

to have a chat with you.

Absolutely.

Yeah, that's our picks from this week.

Amazing.

Welcome aboard everybody.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Welcome to all whether you're new into it or returning,

because it's kind of too returning.

I guess if you, if you're completely new.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

So yeah, it's just great to have people involved

that just, I think, believe in the same values as us, really.

Yeah.

Indeed.

Right.

Wrap it up for this week.

Absolutely.

See you next week.

This episode is brought to you by the Driven

Not Hidden Collective.

If you'd like to join the DNHC

and unlock unique new experiences

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Bye.

I’ve sold 700 Porsches!

About this episode

Heritage Parts Centre

Code NineWorks

Road Trip Tribes

Porsche 911

hot hatches

GTI

Porsche Boxster

Porsche Cayman

customer retention

number of owners

4.0

Porsche 944

Porsche GT4

Porsche 924

Porsche 356

E-type scenario

Jaguar Etype

PDK

Porsche 718

Porsche 981

Porsche 986

deferred maintenance

coolant crossover pipe

suspension bushes

exhaust valves

insurance costs

Gen 1

supercar

turbocharged

Kamenar

Porsche 981 GT4

GT

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