Porsche Hunt Valley GM Steve Postal breaks down what “dealership excellence” really takes, from actively managing online reviews (including dealing with a suspicious one-star attack) to daily shop-floor involvement and lead handling. The conversation then dives into the manual vs PDK debate, arguing that modern PDK performance has reduced the practical need for manuals. EV and hybrid realities come next: Postal was surprised by the Taycan’s impact, discusses EV adoption challenges, and defends Porsche’s hybrid “T hybrid” tech as more than just a badge. Tariffs, paint-to-sample limits, European delivery demand, and CPO math round it out.
We’re heading inside the showroom with Steve Postol, General Manager of Porsche Hunt Valley and a dedicated PCA supporter. Steve joins us in studio to tackle the big questions: Is the EV market shifting? Are those infamous waitlists finally shrinking? And what’s the real story behind the gasoline Macan’s future? We go behind the scenes to discuss the daily life of a GM, the high stakes of customer satisfaction, and the secrets of PTS allocations and CPO costs. Plus, Steve breaks down the mysterious "Porsche Customer Excitement Score" in this must-watch, candid discussion.
"Lately we've been talking a lot about Porsche's strategies going forward and all of their current challenges."
Porsche is a German car company famous for high-performance sports cars. This conversation is about how Porsche is planning ahead, especially through its dealerships.
Porsche is the German automaker known for performance sports cars and engineering-focused driving dynamics. In this episode, they’re discussing Porsche’s dealer-level strategy and how the brand is preparing for future challenges.
"I want to thank our presenting sponsor, Pirelli. Pirelli tires have to achieve the highest levels of performance, safety, noiselessness and grip on the road surface."
Pirelli is an Italian tire manufacturer and a major supplier to performance car brands. The sponsor message highlights that Pirelli designs tires for performance, safety, noise reduction, and grip.
"If you aren't currently a PCA member and own a Porsche, what are you waiting for? Grab that VIN, head over to PCA.org and make yourself a member."
VIN is your car’s unique ID number. It helps websites and dealerships find the exact details of your specific Porsche.
VIN means Vehicle Identification Number, a unique 17-character code that identifies a specific car. Dealerships and registries use it to look up build details, options, and service history.
"What's the criteria for that? Reputation is mostly based on online review and review sentiment."
They’re saying the dealership’s reputation is judged mostly by what customers write online. “Sentiment” just means whether those reviews sound happy or unhappy.
“Review sentiment” means whether reviews are positive or negative, and how strongly. In modern dealer rankings, reputation is often derived from both the tone and the consistency of customer feedback across platforms.
"It's the spread of reviews that you get over different platforms like Google and Facebook, which are the two that are the heaviest weighted,"
Facebook is another place where customers can leave feedback about a dealership. Some ranking systems count it a lot.
Facebook can host business ratings and customer feedback that some dealer ranking algorithms include. The GM notes it’s one of the “heaviest weighted” platforms in their scoring.
"It's the spread of reviews that you get over different platforms like Google and Facebook, which are the two that are the heaviest weighted,"
Google is one of the biggest places people leave ratings for businesses. Dealership ranking systems often count Google reviews heavily.
Google reviews are a major source of customer feedback used in dealership reputation scoring. Because Google is widely used, it often carries heavier weight in “online reputation” metrics.
"but they also take into consideration a site that I never thought of for automotive reviews, which is Yelp. I've never Yelped an automotive dealership."
Yelp is a website where people review businesses. The GM is surprised that Yelp reviews can affect how dealerships are ranked.
Yelp is a review platform that the GM says is included in the dealership reputation calculation. Even though it’s less common for car-dealer reviews, it can still influence the overall score.
"People can just go on at any time and do or say whatever they want and give you anywhere [295.8s] from one star to five stars. [297.6s] That's got to be tough."
People rate their experience with stars, from one (worst) to five (best). A low rating can make the dealership look bad quickly to new customers.
This describes the star-rating system used in online reviews, where customers rate their experience from very poor (one star) to excellent (five stars). In a dealership context, a low rating can be especially damaging because it’s highly visible and easy to compare.
"Because we're a publicly held company, they also have specific policies about responding to reviews. So if you had Vue's car parts, and you run your website, you run your Google account, you're responsible for your reputation, you can respond directly to any review that you get."
The Saturn Vue is an SUV that people could buy years ago. In the podcast, it’s mentioned in a context about handling customer reviews and parts-related websites. It’s not really being discussed as a sports car—more as a vehicle that parts and support might be associated with.
The Saturn Vue is a compact SUV that was sold in earlier years and is now mostly encountered on the used market. The podcast context mentions policies for responding to reviews and handling customer-facing content, using “Vue’s car parts” as an example. That suggests the Vue is being referenced in a business or customer-service discussion rather than as a performance topic.
"So I always park in the service area. I always walk in through the shop. I make sure that I say good morning to all the technicians that are there when I walk in..."
That’s the part of the dealership where cars go in for service—like maintenance and repairs. It’s where the technicians work on the cars before they’re ready to be picked up.
The service area is the dealership’s dedicated space where vehicles are received for maintenance and repairs. In a Porsche dealership, this is typically where technicians work and where cars are staged before and after service.
"...I stop over with Kurt, our shop foreman and just get the lay of the land for the shop for the day."
The shop foreman is basically the lead person in the repair shop. They help organize the work so technicians know what to do and the cars get fixed right.
A shop foreman is the lead manager for the service/repair shop. They coordinate technicians, manage workflow, and help ensure jobs are completed correctly and efficiently.
"We have a limited amount of tire storage available. That's something that we decided to do a few years ago. And so we'll start to get people..."
Tire storage is a service where customers leave sets of tires with the dealership for later pickup. This is especially common for seasonal tire setups (e.g., switching between street and track tires or summer/winter tires).
"right about now pulling their winter tires off. So they'll come in, get the tire swapped. We'll
[647.0s] do a multi-point inspection on their car, see if there's any issues that need to be addressed."
Winter tires are tires made to work better in cold weather. They grip the road better when it’s snowing or icy, compared to regular tires.
Winter tires are specialized tires designed for cold temperatures and snow/ice. They use a softer rubber compound and tread patterns that stay grippy when temperatures drop.
"Don't get much from the mothership. Porsche cars manner of things, whether it's technical bulletins that are coming out, whether it's sales programs, whether it's sales updates, whether it's auction updates, scheduling, marketing updates."
These are manufacturer updates that tell the dealership about known problems and the right way to repair them.
Technical bulletins are official communications from the manufacturer that provide guidance on known issues, updates, and repair procedures. Dealerships use them to keep technicians aligned on the correct fixes and service actions.
"...for the last year and a half we were being encouraged to build those cars as manual transmission cars... we were being encouraged to order them as manual transmission cars, which we typically did..."
A manual transmission is the kind where you use a clutch and shift gears yourself. The dealer says they were being pushed to order more of these because they seemed to work well for their customers.
A manual transmission lets the driver select gears using a clutch pedal and gear lever. The speaker notes that Porsche encouraged ordering 718s with manuals, and that they sold better for their specific allocation/customer base.
"It was a shark blue GTS 4-liter Boxster that somebody had ordered and didn't take deliver..."
The Porsche Boxster is a two-seat sports car with the engine in the back part of the car. It’s made for driving feel and handling, not just straight-line speed. The podcast is talking about a specific higher-performance version (GTS) that someone ordered but didn’t end up taking.
The Porsche Boxster is a mid-engine, two-seat sports car built around balance and handling, with the engine mounted behind the driver for a low, athletic feel. In the podcast, the mention of a shark blue Boxster GTS highlights a higher-performance trim that enthusiasts often seek. It also comes up because allocation, ordering, and availability can affect how often specific configurations show up.
"You feel it through the car and you don't get that with the PDK. But the flip side of that is you get into a 992, even a base Carrera at this point."
PDK is Porsche’s dual-clutch automatic gearbox. It shifts fast and keeps the car feeling lively, but it can feel different from a manual because you’re not directly controlling the gear changes.
PDK is Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe, Porsche’s dual-clutch automatic transmission. It can shift quickly and keep the engine in the right power band, which changes the driving feel compared with a manual or torque-converter automatic.
"I'm not sure I'm 100% in line with that. I've never, I thought the Tiptronic was really good in comparison to other automatics at the time. I just never, I don't, I never really got that experience."
Tiptronic is Porsche’s automatic transmission that also lets you shift like a manual. The speaker is saying it didn’t feel as engaging to them as PDK.
Tiptronic is Porsche’s name for a torque-converter automatic transmission with a manual-style shift mode. The speaker compares Tiptronic’s feel to PDK, saying they didn’t get the same “experience” from Tiptronic on a Turbo.
"And depending on the car, my boxer is a Tiptronic. I've learned to live with it. It's a cruiser. Autocrossing, what I want a PDK over Tiptronic,"
Autocross is a timed driving event on a cone-marked course. They’re saying for that kind of driving, they prefer PDK because it can help the car stay in the right power/gear range.
Autocrossing is a motorsport where cars run timed laps on a temporary course marked with cones, emphasizing quick steering response and traction. The speaker mentions wanting a PDK over Tiptronic for autocross because the transmission’s shift behavior can help keep the car in the right operating range.
"the paddles alone and just put it on Sport or Sport Plus. And I remember at the trainings at
[1413.6s] Barber Sport Driving School, I was trying to do the paddles and I realized, I cannot keep up with"
Sport modes make the car feel more aggressive. They usually change how quickly the transmission shifts and how the car responds when you press the gas.
Sport and Sport Plus are driving modes that typically sharpen throttle response and adjust the transmission’s shift timing. On PDK, these modes often make shifts faster and keep the engine in a more performance-oriented rev range.
"And it's just two letters, EV. Okay. We know Porsche has kind of dealt with
[1460.2s] a tough hand here."
EV means electric vehicle. Instead of burning gasoline, it runs on electricity stored in a battery.
EV stands for electric vehicle—cars powered primarily by electric motors and rechargeable batteries. The discussion frames how Porsche’s EV lineup (and public acceptance) has evolved over time.
"I believe that there is a market and there is a client for EVs. But I don't know that there was as many of them as had been hoped."
EVs are cars that run on electricity stored in a battery. They don’t use gasoline like most cars do, and the GM is explaining how customer demand for them has been different than expected.
EVs (electric vehicles) run on electric motors powered by batteries instead of a traditional gasoline engine. In this discussion, the dealership GM is talking about how Porsche’s EV strategy and customer demand have evolved.
"...there are some that, you know, we're converting from a different EV into our EV because they've driven it and they recognize that it is very different and the build quality is superior..."
Build quality refers to how well a vehicle is assembled—fit and finish, materials, panel alignment, and how solid it feels. The GM says some customers are converting from other EVs because they recognize Porsche’s build quality as superior.
"So I think that depends on the market because part of the reason for what has happened is that the current Macan and the 718 both did not meet security standards for connected for your technology for certain countries."
The Porsche Macan is Porsche’s smaller SUV. They’re talking about how rules and technology requirements can vary by country, and how that changes what buyers expect when they pay Macan-level prices.
The Porsche Macan is Porsche’s compact luxury SUV. In this segment, the GM is discussing how the current Macan (and its connected-tech requirements) affects availability and market fit, and how pricing influences buyer expectations.
"The shame is that if more people would be willing to take the leap into Macan EV, it's a way better car to drive."
Macan EV means the electric version of the Porsche Macan. They’re saying that if people would try it, they’d probably like how it drives.
“Macan EV” refers to an all-electric version of the Porsche Macan. The GM argues that, despite hesitation about EVs, the Macan EV is a better driving experience than some buyers expect.
"The first thing I ask them is, have you driven one? Which one have you driven? Have you driven like a leaf or have you driven"
“Leaf” refers to the Nissan Leaf, one of the most common mass-market EVs. The GM is using it as an example of an EV someone might have driven, to understand whether their dislike is based on experience or assumptions.
"I heard a local hot shoe in Autocross had a good time on all season tires."
All-season tires are a compromise tire meant for many weather conditions. The GM is saying you don’t necessarily need super-special track tires to have fun.
All-season tires are designed to work across a range of temperatures and conditions, trading some ultimate grip for versatility. The GM’s point is that even with all-season tires, a GTS can still be enjoyable in autocross-style driving.
"So I have something to say about the hybrid and the battery, and I said, Mr. Information is floating around. I wonder, so if somebody, and I'm guessing, I'm assuming here that people are worried about battery maintenance and plugging it in or whatever, is it not that?"
Battery maintenance is the worry that owning a hybrid means extra work or extra problems with the battery later. The speaker is about to explain whether that fear is justified.
Battery maintenance refers to the care and service expectations of a hybrid or electric battery over time. The speaker is addressing a common buyer concern: whether battery upkeep and charging habits will be a hassle or cost more than people expect.
"LaFerrari was hybrid technology. Ferrari is still using hybrid technology in a lot of their cars."
The Ferrari LaFerrari is a supercar that uses hybrid power. The speaker’s point is that Ferrari still lets the car’s performance be the focus instead of putting hybrid branding everywhere.
The Ferrari LaFerrari is a limited-production hybrid supercar that helped normalize hybrid tech in the high-performance world. The speaker notes that Ferrari uses hybrid technology without making it the dominant visual message.
"Porsche does not condone the practice of using the the certification as a closing tool if you will. If the car is going to be certified it should be certified. If it's not it should not."
This is about using “we can certify it” as a sales tactic. The point is that certification should only happen if the car actually qualifies, not just to help close a deal.
The GM discusses a sales practice where dealers use the possibility of certification to influence negotiations. Porsche’s stance is that certification should be based on whether the car truly meets the program requirements, not used to manipulate pricing.
"where I'm gonna just remind folks to head over to pca.org remember to sign up for pca's news
[4260.5s] letters we have performance news e-brake news and mark fresh all free upcoming events"
PCA is the Porsche Club of America. It’s a Porsche fan organization that hosts events and sends out updates for members.
PCA refers to the Porsche Club of America, a large enthusiast organization that runs events, publishes news, and organizes driving and social activities. The GM is directing listeners to PCA’s site to sign up for newsletters and find upcoming events.
Select text to request an explanation
Welcome to the Porsche Club Insider, your one stop for all things Porsche and PCA.
Here's your host, Vu Gwin, and the Insider Crew.
Welcome everyone to Episode 212.
Lately we've been talking a lot about Porsche's strategies going forward and all of their current
challenges.
Today's guests hopefully will hear about how they're preparing sort of at the dealer
level and what's the landscape for them today and into the future.
To my right I have Manny Albin, Damon's at the controls, and returning guests, Porsche
of Hunt Valley, General Manager Steve Postal.
Welcome back my friends.
Pleasure to be here.
Had a big friend at PCA.
Absolutely.
I want to thank our presenting sponsor, Pirelli.
Pirelli tires have to achieve the highest levels of performance, safety, noiselessness
and grip on the road surface.
Innovative tires that can satisfy even the most specific mobility needs of the end consumer.
I want to thank you all for listening.
If you aren't currently a PCA member and own a Porsche, what are you waiting for?
Grab that VIN, head over to PCA.org and make yourself a member.
For those of you that are listening and you don't currently own a Porsche, we have the
Test Drive program that you can join again at PCA.org and we look forward to unlocking
resources to get that special Porsche for your driveway and or garage.
Alright, so first of all, I want to congratulate you.
You've got a lot of things going on, including a 2026 Reputation Excellence Award.
You watch things.
I do.
I think that's fourth year in a row.
Wow.
Third year in a row, we've been number one in our company, which is AutoNation and second
year in a row that I've actually seen the overall standings for the whole country for
auto dealers.
We were number 11 again.
Congratulations.
I can't even catch the Hendrick guys.
So whatever they're doing, they're doing right.
What's the criteria for that?
Reputation is mostly based on online review and review sentiment.
It's a very, very confusing metric to try to figure out because it's not just how many
reviews you get.
It's the spread of reviews that you get over different platforms like Google and Facebook,
which are the two that are the heaviest weighted, but they also take into consideration a site
that I never thought of for automotive reviews, which is Yelp.
I've never Yelped an automotive dealership.
Here's a Silver Star Platinum.
I know you are.
Here.
I am one of them, but I'm one of those extremists.
I put on that review when I'm really pleased or I'm really upset.
I don't usually take the time to write on things that are in the middle.
I used to be the same way, and then I probably just felt like I should stop doing that.
I started getting messages from people like, oh, suddenly you're a food critic.
Well, I mean, have you seen me?
I'm a food critic.
I'm a food critic.
So I was the same way, but we have taken a few years and really focused on making sure
that if people are having a good experience with us, that they're letting people know
about it.
And if they're not having a good experience with us, that we do something to change that.
And that's one of the keys to our reputation score is reacting to negative reviews and
trying to find a way to convert that customer back to a positive experience.
I take that personally.
I handle that task generally on my own, unless there's somebody in the store that has a specific
relationship with that client, and we've been successful at it.
That answers the question I was going to ask, because I wasn't naive to think that you were
just going to just do your daily thing and just happen to win that.
You have to actively manage it.
Yeah, and it's cumulative, and it goes throughout the year, so you have to get yourself up to
a certain point, and then you have to maintain it.
And it takes time.
If you get a negative review, it takes a couple of days for you to see the results of that
negative review.
If you get that negative review turned around, it takes even longer for it to reflect in your
score.
So it's one of the things that I monitor on a daily basis and try to make sure that if
there's an issue that we do something to address it.
What are the reviews or reasoning from positive or negative service or sales?
It's both sales, parts also.
Anybody who wants to review the dealership can review the dealership at any time.
It's Google's free site.
So you are subject to random reviews, both positive and negative.
People can just go on at any time and do or say whatever they want and give you anywhere
from one star to five stars.
That's got to be tough.
I see it from the restaurant level, and it could be just like their personal, whatever
vendetta that they have against a restaurant.
And you're like, oh, like you have no control over that.
And you try to remedy.
And just some people are just malicious, right?
Yeah, I had an interesting situation over the weekend with a service provider.
I don't want to get into too much detail, but we had a conversation that didn't go as
well as I think that person would have liked it to have gone.
And I didn't get the sense that he was equipped to be doing the job that he was doing.
And I was trying to prevent him from causing damage to a client's car.
And long story short, halfway through my Saturday, I get an alert for a negative review.
And this service provider left me a one star review on Google, but did it under a...
It wasn't the account of the service company that he was working for.
It was another account, and we did a little bit of diving.
Like my team jumped on it quick, and then while we figured out where this account was,
and then we looked at his account, it was nothing but one star reviews.
So he would hide behind this online presence and leave one star reviews with almost the
same language that he used for me.
So I made a couple of phone calls to the company that he works for who I've never heard back from.
And I also made a call to Porsche Roadside Assistance to take some action
and ask them why they would have a provider that would allow something like this to happen.
That review has disappeared. I don't know where it went.
I can't find it anymore, so I hope it doesn't come back.
But it is active. It requires very quick input.
And part of the difficulty is exactly what I was just saying.
You can't always figure out who it was that left the review.
Because we're a publicly held company, they also have specific policies about responding
to reviews. So if you had Vue's car parts, and you run your website, you run your Google account,
you're responsible for your reputation, you can respond directly to any review that you get.
And I have always read that that's almost more important than the review.
Your response is almost more important than the review because people are going to read
your response to the review and they want to see how you react to negative feedback or even positive
feedback because both are equally important to respond to. I can't do that. Somebody at a corporate
level sends a response. I happen to have a decent relationship or at least contact with that team.
So if there's something specific that I want them to say or offer, I'll shoot them an email
immediately. They'll review it. They'll make sure it meets standards. And look, the goal is,
for me always, to get somebody on the phone so that I can talk to them. So that we're not losing
tone and inflection in an email or a text message, that we can have a conversation about what happened,
they can see that I'm genuinely concerned about addressing their issue and making things right.
So aside from that, what else do you do during the week at the dealer?
You know, every day. That sounds like a full-time job.
Every day is a little different. But every day, for me, I try to start out the same. So I always
park in the service area. I always walk in through the shop. I make sure that I say good morning
to all the technicians that are there when I walk in and then I stop over with Kurt, our shop foreman
and just get the lay of the land for the shop for the day. It's important to me that those guys
feel supported and that they know that I'm involved in their portion and respect what they do for
the dealership because they do generate a lot of profit for the dealership. And those guys,
in some instances, tend to get lost because they're behind the scenes. You know, they're not
customer-facing. You just don't see them every day because they're kind of back to house.
But they're the elves in the back that are making things happen.
Yeah, they are. They are. And Kurt, who's our shop foreman, he and I have worked together since
day one. You know, when we bought the franchise, it was Kurt and another younger technician.
So he and I have worked together the longest. We're the two people that have been there since
the beginning. And we're close enough in age and have a similar mindset about working on cars.
And I think he respects some of the input that I have based on the experience that I've had over
the years, both with sometimes troubleshooting cars and things that are difficult and leading
his team into becoming much more like him, right? Because the goal is to have everybody kind of
come up to that level where they could do all of the things that he can do. So it's important to
me that they feel supported and that they know that I'm there for them. You know, they know
I have an open-door policy if they want to come down and talk to me about anything. Not that I
want to cut out the service manager, but it's important to me that everybody feels like they
have a seat at the table. Is there volume seasonal now that it's warming up and the driving seasons
come? Is there like a surge for get my car ready or is it? It's always seasonal. I think some of it
is get my car ready. We do track inspections. I don't want to say frequently, but reasonable amount
of track inspections. So we start to see more of those. We have a limited amount of tire storage
available. That's something that we decided to do a few years ago. And so we'll start to get people
right about now pulling their winter tires off. So they'll come in, get the tire swapped. We'll
do a multi-point inspection on their car, see if there's any issues that need to be addressed.
They see if they're close to any recommended services and go from there. So it's not just
dropping your car off and getting the tire swapped. We're actively looking for ways to help you
maintain your car properly. But it is definitely seasonal in this area. We definitely tend to
taper off a little bit in the winter months, even with the popularity of the four doors.
All right. So now that you've gone through the tech area, where do you head to next?
I go into the showroom downstairs, into my office, try to clear emails. Anything that I haven't
cleared in the short period of time that I kind of review things on my phone in the morning,
anything that I can clear off my phone that's not, doesn't require large reading or anything
like that. I'll try to clear that before I even leave the house, get to my desk and go through,
respond to any emails that I need to, and set myself up for the day. At that point, I start
looking into the sales schedule for the day. What appointments we have for the day,
who's in that morning, what leads came in overnight, make sure that they're getting
addressed very quickly in the morning. If a lead went to a salesperson, it's not going to be there
that day reassigning it to another salesperson, getting the sales staff set up so that when
they walk in, they can get to work and do what they need to do. So those leads, I'm assuming
they come over from the Porsche website or from your dealer website? Correct. Porsche website,
third-party websites. Okay. And it comes through and you're assigning it to folks.
Now, how often, roughly, what's the volume overnight?
Generally, we'll get a couple of leads overnight. Do people shop more Friday nights or Saturday nights?
Sunday night seems to be, Saturday night into Monday seems to be where we would get
a larger volume of leads. So on a Monday morning when I come in, I'll probably see
upwards of 10 to 12 leads that have come in over the weekend. Some of the sales staff will
attend to them on Sundays if they feel like it. I encourage people to balance their work life.
And so, look, if you want to be proactive and take some leads, they come in your name and
because quickly respond to people, usually the better success rate you have, then I welcome
to do that. I don't require it of them and I feel like I get better results with them
wanting to do it than having to do it. Right. Now, how about in your inbox,
how often are you being reached out to by Porsche cars North America and do you get
stuff directly from, let's say, AG, the mothership? Don't get much from the mothership. Porsche cars
manner of things, whether it's technical bulletins that are coming out, whether it's sales
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