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Mike O, LW3 and the state of Porsche
Mike O, LW3 and the state of Porsche
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About this episode
Mike O'Donnell, GM of Porsche Clearwater, and Larry Wood III, Porsche brand ambassador, share their journeys in the Porsche world, discussing career paths, the intricacies of the Porsche dealership experience, and the impact of tariffs on pricing and service. They dive into the Special Wishes program, detailing how customers can customize their dream cars, and explore the challenges and excitement of hosting dealership events. The conversation also touches on the evolving Porsche lineup, including electric vehicles and the importance of maintaining customer satisfaction in a changing market.
Topics:
career paths
special wishes program
tariffs and pricing
customer experience
dealership events
electric vehicles
Porsche community
allocation process
motorsport involvement
Porsche facility
We are doing it live! Well it was live to sd card from inside the dealership at Porsche Clearwater. Joining us on this one was Micheal O'Donnell the GM and Larry Wood III a Porsche Ambassador.
Thanks for always supporting us Porsche Clearwater!
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Car
Porsche Panamera
"...ling us that. And they're like, man, I sold three Panameras that just got loaded on a truck."
Car
Porsche Taycan
"on some of the EVs. So very little production of Taycan right now, very little production of McConn EV go..."
Car
Tesla By Model
"...her dealers in the nation. And that's broken down by model line. We get allocated"
Car
Porsche 911
"apply that share of nation percentage that we have for 9-11 to the number of cars that were allocated."
Car
Porsche Cayenne
"everything from like a base Cayenne or base Carrera all the way to going to Atlanta a..."
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We are here to bring you everything and anything surrounding Porsche.
I'm Mike.
I'm Aaron.
And this is Peacartalk.
Welcome to episode of Peacartalk.
I'm Mike.
I'm Aaron.
And we are at Porsche Clearwater with some special guests.
We have GM, Mike O'Donnell here.
And then we have Larry Wood, the third Porsche brand ambassador.
What's going on, fellas?
Thanks for coming on the show.
Thanks for being here, taking some time with us.
Yeah, it's good to be here on a Sunday.
Thanks for soaking up my weekend, guys.
Yeah, no, this is great, actually.
I've been a listener for a long time.
So this is actually pretty cool.
Yeah, so thanks for taking it.
We've been wanting to have you guys on the show for a long time.
You guys have always been so good to us here.
And you guys are so good to the customer.
So I think it was a perfect opportunity.
Things, stars aligned finally that we all could get here.
Mike literally flew in his plane to come here.
So this is special.
He's here.
It's awesome.
So let's get into the background a little bit
for the people who don't know.
You've been in the Porsche industry 20 plus years.
So take us through your career progression.
How does one become a GM of such, obviously, duration and time?
But I know there's way more to that.
So give us a little bit of career bio and how you are present day from past
and go from there.
Sure.
So I started in 2005.
Just as a parts driver, it was sort of an in-between job.
All I ever wanted to do was be a police officer.
So I started as a parts driver, just delivering parts.
That's all I was doing.
I did it here because I love Porsches, right?
And I just wanted to be around the cars.
So I just thought that was cool.
It would be a cool in-between job.
I progressed from a parts driver to the parts counter.
And at that point I was kind of getting into the nitty gritty
working with the shop.
We have other brands as well.
So Porsche, Subaru, Volkswagen, and BMW.
So I was getting involved in all of that.
And I was a car guy, so it was just cool.
And then, all of a sudden, in the parts department,
I was making pretty good money.
I was mostly off on the weekends.
I didn't have to chase drunk people around.
So I just kind of stuck with it.
From there, I did a little bit of motorsport stuff.
So actually, we were a Dynan dealer for a while at BMW.
Oh, nice.
That's cool.
So I did that.
We hung some cool wheels on Porsche's exhausts and stuff like that.
And then in 2009, there was a RGM at the time,
saw something in me that I didn't see myself.
And when there was literally like no one in the sales department,
he promoted me to Porsche sales manager in 2009.
We were not selling very many cars.
The economy was in the tank.
It was not great.
They called me a manager, which at the time,
I was super impressed with myself.
But I was really just managing myself.
And thank God for Amanda, who was in finance.
And Rhett Graham, who actually works with us now,
he wasn't with the company at the time.
But those people were my lifeline.
And they kind of taught me how to do things.
Mike Ford in our BMW store walked me through the road
to the sale and everything.
And then I was just kind of learning as I went.
And we had sort of a new crew come in around 2010.
I was just selling Porsches at that time.
And then in 2000, and I guess it was 16,
I had the opportunity to manage our BMW service department.
So kind of back into what we call the fixed side of the business.
And learned a lot there.
Learned so much there.
Had so much fun though.
Wonderful crew of people.
Again, luckily, I was surrounded by wonderful people
that taught me that.
And into the business, learned a lot.
I went over and managed our Subaru and our Volkswagen store
for a time.
And then back to Porsche in 2020,
running this side of the business as we were transitioning
into this nice new beautiful building.
It is gorgeous.
Yeah.
So that's my story.
Awesome.
Thank you for sharing.
All right, LW3.
Let's hear yours.
I think a lot of young people, I think,
is a very interesting story.
We hear stuff, and I'm sure you do too all the time, Mike.
Like, how do I get into the brand?
How do I start, you know, where do I even start doing
what I'm doing to try to get in and work my way up
and someday become a GM or whatever?
You know, obviously there's traditional ways
if there's a job posting, but those are so rare
and far between, right?
Because a lot of times you don't even need to post out,
right?
Like, you already know a couple people that want to work there
or have some, you know, have some skill set,
so you don't even have to go searching for people.
And I think, you know, Larry has a really good, like,
hey, I work my way up to being a Porsche ambassador
and, you know, let's hear how you did it,
like, your little path to be here and your future
and where you want to be.
And then we'll get into the Porsche side of things
and, like, the mechanics and the cars
and all the fun stuff.
Yeah.
So long story short, I worked at Publix when I was 14
and worked my way up and then the minute I was 18
I went into the pharmacy as a technician
and wanted to be a pharmacist.
And then I joined right during COVID.
So I watched my boss's hair go from brown to gray
in a year and a half and decided that that was not
what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
And so he actually told me to do what I love
and chase it.
And I'm really thankful for that.
I actually would ask him, like, hey, should I be a pharmacist?
And he never said yes.
He never said no, but he'd never said yes.
That was kind of a defining moment there a little bit.
And he's like, I will not be responsible
for your career path.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So I wasn't sure what I wanted to do.
I always loved cars, but never was really
like a car family.
My only experiences was like one of my best friends
in high school.
His cousins had like a C63.
They shared it in high school.
Which, like, that was hilarious.
We're running around a 2015 C63.
And so I always love cars and I love social media.
And I consumed it, but I never really, like, did it.
And so I started going to car meets
and then I kind of helped run a car meet.
And then we actually kind of partnered
with Portia Clearwater and would do cars and coffee
here at the dealership.
And then...
So to be clear, you weren't even affiliated yet
with Portia or Portia Clearwater yet.
But you were circulating on the outside
kind of like a looky-loo in the window.
Yeah, this is all while I was working at Publix
and going to school.
I was going to go into pharmacy school
and got accepted and then decided
to go $80,000 in debt for that.
I understand.
It all worked out.
But yeah, no.
And so I kind of pitched to Mike
after we did the events a few times.
I was like, hey, nobody really does social media
for main dealerships.
A lot of the third-party exotic dealers do it.
But nobody, like, no main real dealer does it locally.
And I thought it was something that
would be really useful for a brand like Portia.
And so I kind of pitched that to him
and he took a chance on me.
And long story short, that's kind of where it went.
Yeah, and just to be clear,
we don't have a whole lot of turnover here.
But when I am interviewing people,
you'd be shocked at the number of people
that come in for an interview
and are, I mean, they're coming into a Portia store
and they're in shorts and sneakers
or they're ill-prepared or just,
you know, resume not properly put together.
Should approach it like a corporate job
because essentially you weren't working
with high-level clientele.
Like, as you would wear a suit and tie
if you walked into a corporate building,
you should approach it the same way, correct?
Yeah, so, you know, my man Larry comes in here
dressed to the nines with a business plan.
Literally with a business plan and a PowerPoint presentation.
That's awesome.
Yeah, I mean, put it on my PC, we went through it.
It's like, I don't have time for this, but it was awesome.
Yeah, he was hired.
To me, and I love that, right?
Because it was so different than, you know,
when we do have to go through a hiring process here.
So, it was just so different.
And you can tell, you know, more than anything else,
you know, when I look to hire someone here,
I want somebody that really wants to be here
and really has a plan and really has a drive
and really wants to have a career.
You know, those are the kind of things
that resonate with me.
You know, Larry checked all of those boxes.
Yeah.
And like, as you know, because you've been in the industry
for so long, and anyone else
that's been in any industry for so long,
you know what to look for, right?
You're looking for that passion, you're looking for like,
hey, yeah, you're excited to be here now,
but how about when it's Sunday
and some podcast guys want to bring you in
and it's your day off, will you come in
or will you gripe about it?
So, he's here.
So, he might be griping behind closed doors,
but he's here.
No, I'm just kidding.
But I mean, it does.
I mean, anybody can do the job when it's a good time,
but can you do the job when it's not a good time?
And we've seen a lot of that because,
you know, especially during COVID, I mean,
you know, let's face it,
you know, you can have rookies come in here
and, you know, make great money.
Yeah.
And then, you know, everything was selling
and, you know, now we're coming into a time,
you know, that a lot of the younger folks
don't really remember, like, you know,
you talk about 2020 and prior to that,
where you really had to sort of grind.
I mean, it's very much of a grind.
And, you know, there was, you know,
the profitability wasn't what it was during COVID.
So, it's just a lot of folks don't really remember that.
Yeah.
So, we're literally having to, you know,
some of the younger folks here, we're having to...
Like recalibrate a little bit?
Recalibrate, yeah.
Yeah.
And that's a challenge.
Yeah.
I could imagine.
I mean, I'm sure industry-wide that's a challenge
just because it was, like, not a famine.
It was feast during that time, right?
Oh, yeah.
And now, I wouldn't say famine,
but maybe just calibrated to where it's normal.
Yeah.
Where it's like, you do have to call people now.
Like, it wasn't the way, like,
where the phone's ringing off the hook and the truck,
the cars would sell at port before they even got here.
Right.
You know, it's not like that anymore.
You know, I mean, so many times,
like, we had a lot of friends,
obviously, in the industry everywhere,
and they were telling us that.
And they're like, man, I sold three Panameras
that just got loaded on a truck.
Like, not that speak ill of them or anything like that,
but you just didn't hear stuff like that
prior to COVID, right?
Like, people are, like, banging the door down.
Like, can I get a Panamera, dude?
It's like, of course you can.
Like, come on in.
Right?
Yeah, it's not a problem.
Yeah.
But yeah, it's very, very interesting.
So let's talk a little bit about
tariffs in general.
Like, I think there's a lot of muddy water
for especially a lot of listeners.
We have a lot of people that listen that are on the go
and don't really have time to maybe
dive in and do the real,
like, what's really going on,
especially if no one's purchased a car
post-tariff implementation.
How is Porsche handling that
and what are they doing to go about that
so the people understand what's happening there?
Yeah, so no tariff has technically been applied
to any car that a customer has purchased.
So, Porsche was price-protecting cars
through most of the cars through July.
And then after that, they had a price increase.
Okay.
Right?
So the price increase for most of the cars
was 3.6%.
And that went across the board
and then, of course, Model Year 26 came out.
I think prices went up a little bit
on some of the models, but
there's not been a single tariff
that has been applied to a customer.
Okay.
So, in your opinion, is that
being absorbed in some of that price increase
or kind of rolling it into the MSRP of the car?
Is that how they're kind of combating it?
Sort of.
Instead of saying a line item, tariff this,
like, as some places are doing,
are they kind of just rolling that in?
They're rolling it in, yeah.
You know, the way the tariff works is
it's on the landed cost, right?
So, PAG sells the car to PCNA
for whatever that cost is.
That cost gets marked up to the dealer
and then that cost from there from the dealer
gets marked up to the customer.
So, you know, a 3.6% increase,
theoretically, is going to absorb,
not all of it, but some of it certainly.
But it's cost portion, a ton of money.
And the Volkswagen Group, a ton of money.
Yeah, they've lost a lot of money.
I've seen some of, like, high level numbers
where they're projected to lose, you know,
with a B, billions, you know,
like, because of the tariff
they find out ways to absorb that cost
where it's not directly affecting the customer base.
Yeah, it's affected all of us.
You know, we did have some cars
that, you know, the prices were increased
and after the customer had already ordered
that, you know, Porsche wouldn't price protect.
So, you know, that's never an easy conversation.
And it's sort of a perfect storm as well
because, you know, the EV market we see
has definitely sort of fallen off
and of course the $7,500 tax credit
goes away at the end of September.
You know, it's a perfect storm in that, you know,
the cars are costing more
and then, you know, these EVs
we have a big push to try and get rid of them.
Yeah.
We're losing a ton of money each time we sell one.
A ton.
Yeah.
Like, not Porsche-like in any way, shape or form.
Yeah.
You know, so it's just, you know,
it's definitely a different time
from two or three years ago.
As far as service goes,
I know a lot of people also
come in and do service.
Has the parts been affected by the tariffs
as far as, like, are people seeing
more of a maybe a little bit of an elevated service bill
because, like, maybe they need parts from
that are coming from overseas?
Yeah.
And the numbers haven't been,
haven't been as specific in terms of
parts price increases because there's so many.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, a big problem.
Just generally speaking.
Just generally speaking.
And we had a big problem with, you know,
availability.
There were literally parts that were sitting in containers
because in order to properly tariff them,
they had to figure out what the parts,
the metal content was.
So, you know, we would literally have parts
that would come in that would sit for months
that we couldn't get.
Yeah.
And then you get the back order stamped
and it's like, it's not really back order.
Like, customs is holding it.
Right.
Yeah.
And you just don't know.
And, you know, the folks at Porsche don't know.
Yeah.
You know, and not really their fault.
But ultimately, we have to communicate the message
to the customer, which is never an easy one,
especially if you've got a car down.
Yeah.
The end result is the customer's not pleased.
Right.
And like the whole goal in this business is obviously
to keep the customer happy.
Keep the customer happy.
Yeah.
That's our number one goal.
And it's tough.
But, you know, we're all working through it.
We're doing the best we can.
We're trying to keep the lines of communication open,
both with the manufacturer and the customer.
Yeah.
Trying to think outside the box
of people on the can.
Yeah.
What a mess.
Like, I'm just speaking from like, you know,
I ordered parts for some of my older cars
that come from Germany too.
And it's like, I've dealt with that personally
where I'll get a message from the parts company.
Hey, it's in customs, but it could be there for two days
or it could be there for two months.
Yeah.
We don't know.
And like that man puts a lot of people in limbo, right?
It's just kind of one of those guessing games.
And like nobody wants to hear it's like,
well, we'll let you know when we find out.
Yeah.
And it feels, as from a customer standpoint,
you know it's not true because you have enough
higher thinking to know it's not true.
But you're like, is anything being done?
Yeah.
Did you actually order the parts?
Or are you just like, my car is just going to live at your,
well, you need this to make them turbo run.
You're like, well, it's been two months.
They're not going to pay the bill until they go,
oh wait, it's going to cost us less.
Sorry, we'll wait.
I had a question on some of the EVs,
as you guys want them and all the tariff situation.
Do you think the lines, like we're just going to start shrinking
down as far as having like a GTS turbo, a GT car,
stuff like that.
Do you think they're going to kind of make that a little bit
smaller, make that easier on production
and figure out numbers in that way?
Yeah.
So what Porsche has done, you know,
despite the fact that they've had a,
invested billions in EV products.
What they've done is they've sort of turned the faucet off
on some of the EVs.
So very little production of Taycan right now,
very little production of McConn EV going forward.
I don't know where that shakes out,
but what they're talking about is we're actually going
to go down in volume.
So whereas we sell, call it 75,000 cars a year
in the United States now, you know,
we're talking about next year with 718 really going away
for a while anyway, you know,
we're talking about going into the mid to high 60s.
And then as I'm sure you guys know the internal combustion
McConn goes away at the end of next year.
So that's going to be, that's going to be,
that's going to take away a huge amount of volume.
So we're actually talking, you know,
2027 we could be in the mid to high 50s.
Wow.
That's a big, that's a big, big number.
That's a big deal.
Yeah.
So they've got, my understanding is they've got
another McConn coming should be here around 2028.
Then of course we'll have the, you know,
we'll have the EV 718 or whatever they're going to call it,
you know, probably sometime next year.
It's supposed to be spectacular.
But you know, what's the, we don't really know
where that car lands and, you know,
what the EV market looks like going forward.
It's just super murky.
I mean, everything's going to be awesome
when you first get it, right?
Right.
Everything's going to be awesome when we first get it.
I'm sure we'll sell all of them,
but you know, it just, we really don't know
what any of them are.
It seems like they might do, I mean,
the smart move in my opinion would be
treat everything like, especially your EV,
treat it like a GD car, as far as
small batch of colors.
The only the EVs you get, the small,
like just make them special.
Yeah.
And I don't think they were treated as,
they're meant to be a special car,
as far as it's a new thing,
but they wanted it also to, you know,
he wanted to sell like your normal combustion engines,
but.
I read just yesterday that they were talking about,
they were going to bring the internal combustion motor
back in the 718 and like the top model stuff.
I saw that, yeah.
I mean, I don't know how true it is,
but you know, a lot of that information,
like I don't hear that from Porsche,
they don't necessarily communicate that to me.
I would imagine like, it's probably hard, right?
Like I'm trying to think outside,
like I worked in the corporate world for a while.
I think, like Porsche is a little different
because there's a lot of brand loyalty,
there's a lot of customers that are interested,
as opposed to like, if you work for
an insurance company and you were in the corporate world,
there's not going to be disseminated information.
It's like, hey, did you hear there's going to be
changes in the policy next year and that people
are going to save a lot of money,
like external communication,
and then people ask, they're like, hey,
have you heard anything about that?
You work at an insurance company.
He's like, I don't tell us anything like that.
So I think it doesn't roll out internally
because there's so many dynamic shifts, right?
Like that could be told by like
some super high level executive in a press meeting
or somebody's quoted saying that.
And yeah, that may happen,
but maybe there's no timeline on it, right?
Like it could be, yeah, I said it was going to happen,
but I didn't say when.
Right.
So then it could be like an indefinite thing.
And then people come to you,
like people like us,
they're like, hey, what's the inside scoop?
And you're like, there is no inside scoop.
People ask that stuff all the time,
assuming that we get that information
and to a degree, we do sometimes.
But generally it's way after the hours
have been spied on the Nürburgring
and then you see all the stuff.
It's like official already, right?
Because then they have to build out
obviously for the portal for people to order
and all that stuff.
But by then you've got everybody already knows.
So it's not like that secret information, right?
Yeah.
So I mean like GT3 cab,
we've heard that's a thing,
the slant nose car,
we've heard that's a thing.
We've got one more heritage car coming up,
which is supposed to be like a 1980s throwback thing.
I'm pretty sure that's going to be the slant nose.
But again, it's just,
I'm just surmising based on what I've seen.
You're doing what we're doing,
but it's looking and learning.
Yeah, pretty much what everyone else is doing, right?
Like just looking and being like,
this is kind of like a process elimination.
It's probably going to be one of these things.
Yeah.
I heard some,
I think some of that comes out for some journalist stuff.
Because they were like, for example,
I know one of the guys was driving a GT2
and sitting with an executive.
And they're like,
just can't get any crazier than this.
And then they're like,
well, we can't really say,
but yeah, I can.
And they just talked about like horsepower numbers
and like what was kind of,
but then there's kind of left.
Yeah, yeah.
So I have a question for you, Larry,
as a Porsche brand ambassador,
if I'm walking in and I'm eligible as a client,
I've built reputation with you and I come in
and I want to do a special wishes car,
can you walk us through like high level?
I know like we talked offline about how
in the weeds you can get with that,
but can you walk us through maybe somebody
who's never experienced that
or they've heard things from other people?
I think it's a very kind of like,
if you know, you know,
and like it's by the time seven people
call a secret, it changes by the end
and you're like, this is how it works.
And it's like, yeah, you know,
I heard you got to go out there
and give a blood sacrifice.
It's not true, but you know,
by the end you have this tall tail lie
of how this all goes down.
Can you kind of clear that muddy water a little bit
and like walk us through that process?
Yeah, so it's definitely like the,
it's like the Skunk Works Division of Porsche.
It's very, very fun.
And so the way it works is essentially,
the allocation has to be really, really, really far out,
which kind of Porsche or corporate can help with.
And then we kind of,
we go best case scenarios,
always what I say, I go,
if the world is your oyster
and you want to do whatever on the planet,
what would you want to do to this car, right?
And so, just like a GT3 for example, right?
They just added exclusive manufacturer leather
where you can change the leather colors,
let's say you want a specific kind of leather color
that doesn't exist or isn't available there, right?
You can do that.
You can do really commonly seat inserts.
But there's a lot of really small things
within Sandovan that is really unique.
So like they do the cross stitching package.
So that's actually a really limited thing
that we kind of need to cross our fingers for,
which is hilarious.
Special Wishes GT3 allocation, right?
It's incredible.
And then you got to try to get this out.
It's insane.
Yeah, like did you have to submit it, right?
And then it has to get approved, right?
It's not just like, oh, once it's,
there's steps in that process, right?
Correct, yeah.
So the first step is, you know,
what's the dream?
And then I send that to corporate Mason Durin.
He's our contact for Special Wishes
for the Southeastern Division.
And he kind of gets in touch with me
and the customer and we kind of go through the steps.
They usually send us a first batch of renders.
And then being that I've done this a few times,
I've said one card delivered and a few more in the works,
I kind of know what's feasible and what's not feasible.
So Mason will actually send our list of Special Wishes
to Germany and they'll do feasibility testing
is what they call it.
Okay.
And so a lot of it now.
Exactly, that's the same thing I was thinking.
Nine.
Nine.
There's a lot of nine.
Yeah.
Whether it's numbers or no, it's a lot of nine.
But yeah, no, it's a really unique process.
And it's not putting a stick in a GT3 RS.
It's all, you know, visual things.
Nothing performance based.
Yeah, you can't mess with the mechanical situation.
Correct.
So you're seeing this room for another level.
Did that say that?
Yeah, that's called recommissioning.
Yeah.
Yes.
That's a whole other level.
That is a whole other level.
But yeah, no, you can change the wheel colors.
You can change, you know, obviously the seats and the leather.
And you can go really bananas for sure.
But there's some crazy unique stuff.
And, you know, as long as you're interested in doing it,
you know, it's definitely doable as long as you're patient.
It's a very long process.
And they'll walk you through the steps.
We'll go through feasibility testing.
Most of everything has kind of already been done at this point.
So there's not really true feasibility testing that needs to be done.
And then Portia Corporate gives us kind of a ballpark on the pricing.
It's never 100% accurate until we get to the final spot.
Customer, I got to let you know we got to be plus or minus 50 on this.
Not that high.
Not that high.
But there are plus and minuses.
And then you kind of, we get into a locked date,
just how we would on a normal build.
And then the car gets actually,
the craziest part of the special wishes program is,
the car gets built completely,
how you would on the Portia website,
and then it gets ripped apart.
Yeah, because it goes to them and they got to do their thing, right?
Yep.
So they go do their thing.
And it's really crazy.
They'll junk.
Exactly.
Yeah.
I mean, essentially, yeah, they'll build the car to completion
and then they rip it all apart and build it how you want it.
So it's a really cool process.
So like we've got a car inside right now.
We've got a Copa Florio GT3 RS,
and that one's got the wheels paint matched right with a matte finish.
And that one's really crazy.
It's got the blue carbon fiber,
which is like kind of a newer thing they've been doing.
But yeah, I mean, the world's your oyster, essentially.
So there's definitely some production limitations
on certain aspects,
but most of the time it's pretty much the world's your oyster.
And is it also for like a customer that's coming in,
but is it also timing,
or does each dealership get so many special wishes?
How does that process work as far as,
like, oh, you have an opportunity for this?
Is it like, there's going to be three,
or is it just a window where special wishes is accepting
during this time frame?
And if you happen to be in that window,
you have a lot of ticket, basically.
Yeah, so it's not really a window thing.
It's really just like as long as you're patient.
So it's really far out in allocations
for special wishes.
Most of the time, they're usually about a year out
for the allocation month for the build month.
It's not when it gets delivered.
It's usually about a two-year process
for the car to get delivered and done in the States.
That probably makes sense, because they have a backlog, right?
So they're already projecting and foreshadowing.
Yeah, I think they're doing it for the whole world.
But one of those like kind of,
I was talking about earlier, the allocation
and an allocation, so the cross-stitching.
They only build 25 of those a month for the whole world.
Wow.
And if you want to do cross-stitching,
we've got to apply for cross-stitching.
So it's really cool.
And they do some other stuff like that,
the upstream because you've seen the chroma flare cars
and stuff like that.
Same kind of process.
It's an allocation and an allocation.
We ask corporate.
And as long as you're really flexible on time frame,
they can make it work, right?
So if you're not in a rush for the car
and maybe all of December is filled
for cross-stitching, but they've got a slot
so as your opinion, I mean obviously on price
because that's a specialized,
it obviously adds a lot more.
But is a factor for a lot of folks
because they don't have the patience to wait
for that program, is that part of it too
where people are like,
because from what I'm standing like,
is if you're long as your patient,
you can get what you want essentially.
So if I'm sitting there like,
hey, I don't really need the car for two years,
but I want all of these things,
am I correct in thinking that
is happening?
Yeah, it's really a patience thing
and obviously an okay with spending
the amount of dollars that it takes.
Obviously, yeah.
See, I was always under the opinion
where it was like, no, not everybody
even gets an opportunity for that.
It's like, hey, it's almost kind of like
be happy with your GT3 allocation
and get out of here.
And there's times where...
Because that's kind of like the word on the street.
If you haven't gone through the process, you don't really know.
A lot of times where it's definitely not doable,
you know what I mean?
I've got a particular allocation at a certain time,
but yeah, no,
if it's a far, far out one,
it's pretty easy.
It's not that hard, but you got to be flexible.
I've got a customer, we're doing leather to sample
on their car.
So it's not even a normal leather color.
It's a very unique...
They got to pick it out and dye it
and essentially make the leather.
They don't have it on hand.
They're just waiting for that.
So it's going to be a really, really cool car.
So, circling back to Mike,
and you probably know the answer to this too, Larry,
but just to...
I guess we've talked about this in the past,
but I still think it's just clear as mud still.
Do allocations
change as far as like...
Let's just talk about GT cars.
If you sell so many GT cars
and successfully sell them,
or is it based off other sales
like volume on that side,
how does it work as far as,
oh, I've got 100 GT3 allocations
for 2026,
but maybe 2027 I'll have 200
because I sold everything we had.
How does that number fluctuate
go up or down?
So dealers are allocated everything
based on what they call share of nation.
So basically the number of cars you sell
versus other dealers in the nation.
And that's broken down by model line.
We get allocated
GT cars once a year.
And
they basically
apply that share of nation percentage
that we have for 9-11
to the number of cars that were allocated.
And you get your number.
So if they don't build a lot, we're not going to get a lot.
If they build a ton,
we're going to get them out.
So it's very murky.
We really don't know until we get it.
So basically you're...
you don't know until you get awarded
your number, essentially.
We don't know until we get awarded our number.
The only thing we can do to really drive
that number up
is to increase our share of nation
of 9-11.
So sell more 9-11s.
We have a number of methods doing that.
One of them is going to this
company car sale that Porsche has.
So in this month
they have two of them, but
typically it's one a month
online.
All these cars run through the block
and we bid on them.
So internal dealer auction, essentially, right?
Correct.
That's run through Porsche cars in North America.
The cars are in various locations in the country.
Most of them are corporate executive cars
or
track cars.
Just a little bit of everything.
Marketing cars,
technician training, stuff like that.
But
transaction prices.
So every time you buy one of those cars
you basically get credit.
So if I buy a 9-11,
I get credit for selling another 9-11.
It's like I sold another one.
So it's going to increase that share of nation number.
But
because
when you buy these cars it counts
sort of as a sale, which also goes
towards your premier dealer number.
It goes towards your share of nation.
The transaction prices on these cars are
I bet.
Probably really competitive, right?
Because everybody has that same mindset you just said.
They're like, hey, this is an opportunity for us
to get maybe a cool car and also get
credit for selling that cool car and buying a cool car.
Right. And a lot of it is
for us, we want to hit premier
dealer every year.
We're trying to drive premier dealer metrics.
We're trying to drive 9-11 share of nation
because everybody in the world wants a GT3
and I'm never going to have enough of them.
So we want to drive that 9-11 share of nation up.
Consequently, when we go to a company
car sale, we'll spend
9-11's transact anywhere
from 20 to 50 grand over MSRP.
Wow. It's what we pay them.
We pay for it. And it's not like
That's in-house. That's in-house.
And it's not like
I go buy a base 9-11
coupe and I have the ability to sell it
for 50 grand over. It's not the case.
So
it's a significant investment.
That's one thing about this brand.
In order to
succeed, it's a significant investment
everywhere. It's a significant investment
in the facility. It's a significant investment
in the people. It's a significant investment
in the inventory. In order
to perform at a high level, it is
expensive. Everything has to be hitting
on every level. Got to pay play.
That makes total sense.
How long has that program been around? Obviously,
it's got to be semi-new, right?
Probably what, last 10 years that program
has been around? Something like that.
What they call the share of nation credit went away
for a while, because
dealers would, you know, because
the transaction prices were so high.
So, you know, Porsche
took away the share of nation credit and then they implemented
it again beginning of this year
they did. So it's
a great way to grow your allocation. It's also
an expensive way to grow your allocation.
But it's, you know, this is
a tough, expensive brand
to grow with. Yeah.
And then let's transition a little bit like
some fun stuff, some motorsports stuff
like that each dealer gets to do
and especially you guys, like, so you guys are a
man-tie dealer. Right. So
do you guys get credit as a dealership
with each man-tie kit that gets
sold? Is there incentive from Porsche to be like
oh, hey, man, you
you know, last year you did 30 man-tie kits.
Is there, what's, I guess
my answer is
they're dangling that carrot.
What's your reward as a dealership if you
execute what they're asking you to execute?
We're one of, you know, of the myriad
of KPI that Porsche
looks for us to hit.
You know, part sales is part of that
and that's where man-tie falls in.
So, you know, they want us
to, and again, talk about premier dealer, right?
That's what we're always shooting for. We want to
be in the top 25 in the nation.
So the man-tie kits
count towards tech equipment
and PLX purchases. Which tech
equipment and PLX is typically, you know, your
roof rails, stuff like that.
Stuff that you hang on the car after the fact
or shirts and hats.
But it's a big number. And what
man-tie does is allow us to hit it.
Now, I don't want to take away from the man-tie kit.
Those things are amazing. Super cool.
Love it.
But they're
they're expensive. But they help us
to hit those targets. Okay.
So basically it falls into that
parts area and like
because of the expense. I mean
it's not a secret. Everybody knows they're super expensive.
But that helps that number. You
achieve that number. Okay, that makes a lot more sense.
I was going to say, like, I didn't know if they had it
like separate where they were kind of like
alright, man-tie kits are like its own thing
and push the fish. It's about to turn
like get those man-tie kits out there.
No, not really like that.
But I mean, it's, you know,
you want to sell, you know, call it
three or four of those a year. At least we do.
I mean, every dealer is going to be a little bit different.
That's always cool too, right, for a dealership to have it
and like, you know, take photos
and kind of like brag on it too, right?
Because they look so wild and cool looking.
It's a great car to have in the community and everybody sees it
and it's just, it's just ridiculous.
They're like, oh man, what is that dude?
They're like, have you guys
done any three RS man-tie kits?
My first one is in my shop right now.
Oh.
Right there? Yeah.
That nobody can see right now.
Yeah, it's wild.
So what are your thoughts? I want to get both of your thoughts on this
with the whole
black window
carbon fiber situation with that car.
How do you feel, like, yay or nay on that?
Oh, wow.
I think if you're the person that is
putting a man-tie kit on your GT3RS
to take the track, I think you don't care.
Yeah, and that's true.
Right, you put it in reverse, the backup camera is still there.
My colleagues at Champion
have got a cool solution where they put a
back up camera, or a camera in there somewhere
like a, they put a new review mirror in.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, that's cool.
Where they actually sort of, you know,
alleviate that pain point.
That makes sense. How about you?
How do you feel about it?
The way is so massive anyways.
You can't see anything on the back of the stock car.
That's a good point.
You see a vague shape that's red.
You know what I mean?
There's nothing back. It's so hard.
I'm surprised you should sell the real
estate for that shark fin, right?
That should be advertising billboard as it goes.
If you ever get some anti-kit, should do that.
They're like, hey, I have space on this car.
You can pay me to advertise your business,
like whatever on that thing.
I think it's a really cool car.
I remember when they came out with that kit
and I think they were testing it on the Nürburgring
and I was like, there was already
a wild car like Larry was saying
and it's like, yeah, I guess.
I mean, you're already there.
I mean, might as well just keep going, right?
Yeah, I mean, they're trying to mimic this thing
a little bit with that shark fin.
So let's talk a little bit about
and Larry's been doing a lot of these
cool events at the dealership
and how do you decide
when and where and
the interest
of having an event
that you're hosting
for people because essentially
it's money out of the dealership's pocket
to kind of, hey, come hang out.
There's dealerships
I'm sure that do better
at that and then there's some dealerships
that probably don't do that.
So you guys are one, I feel like
you do a really good job of hosting
lots of different kinds of events
and how do you
come up with
do you want to try to do one a quarter?
How does that work as far as your planning goes?
Yeah, so Portia
corporate actually comes out with a plan
of kind of the events we need to do for the year.
For them, right?
And then obviously
we just do our own sometimes too.
Relate to that.
For us, for the customer
and obviously other local events around
kind of the county.
So this weekend was actually
one of the big ones that Portia
was like, hey, we're going to
you guys are going to do this. We're like, cool.
But it's really cool. They give us kind of a vague
kind of plan
and a few different ideas
and stuff like that and parameters for us to hit
on kind of what they want to see
and so we kind of take that and run
and they're usually actually really
they're usually actually very, very strict
on kind of what they want to see.
We're able to, you know, tweak and make changes.
Armorconi v. Launch Party last year
so they're watching but
not a lot of people know. You guys know they're watching
but we're kind of like
you're like, yeah, big brothers watching this.
So we actually wish to submit it.
They don't watch but we have to submit everything
to them.
Photos of the event, videos and stuff like that
and they kind of give us a guide and
kind of be free with it and make some changes.
But this year it was actually
it was essentially throw a giant
Porsche party and have fun.
We were ready. We were happy to do that.
It was easy.
It was a blast for sure.
It was a blast. So for like items
like this sitting right behind us, this
963 display
is it almost kind of like
going to the library when you're
in elementary school. You're like, hey, you know I'm having an event.
Here's my library card. I need to check the car out.
Can you send it to us?
Yeah, essentially, actually.
If you turn it in late, you know how this goes.
We kind of give them
the dates that we're looking to host the event
and we'll say, hey, we're looking for something fun
and Mike and I were kind of like
I mean, what's more
fun than a 963 race car?
So basically
there's a whole arm that you guys
reach out to and they assist you.
You're like, hey, we're having this party and they're like, yeah, see you on the books.
Okay, we'll see what we got for you.
Is that kind of how it goes? Yeah.
It's pretty cool though that there's like
basically a
hey, we want to try to do this or get this car
and they help you with that. That's nice.
Yeah, it's very cool. And they don't do it just like the race cars.
They do it with real
road cars as well. Like they have stuff at
travels, right?
They're like, oh, well we've got like a
I don't know, like something wild, right?
A 935 in your area
that's currently in Miami, but
if you need it in two weeks, we can get it to you then
Yeah, it's usually a lot further out than that.
We need to schedule everything, but
so we sponsor
big festivals of speed down in
St. Pete at the Vanuay Park. And so last year
we brought out
kind of before GT3 RS was crazy
and
we brought out a pastel orange one
from corporate, so that was really cool
to have that car out there
and show that and I guess a few years ago before I was here
they did the 919, so
very, very cool. Yeah, that goes back to what
Mike was saying, right? Got to pay the play
like at all levels, even if you're hosting
an event. So that 919
in particular, I want to say that
car cost like
15 grand to get here
and because of where we
had it, in the middle of
Vanuay Park, I had
to rent one of these big giant
forklifts and they
sent a guy down to operate
the forklift because the car was on a platform
and they had to forklift this
thing through Vanuay Park and put it
where I wanted it. Oh goodness.
And then of course when the show was over
reverse the process
and put it back into a truck. That was wild.
That's why this one sounds wild.
It's a little easier to...
That is your process. Because it's like
it has a whole thing that goes with it, right?
So like, wow.
Yeah, you don't think about stuff like that until
you really have to start doing it. Like you think about
something that's like a whole
display is built around it and you're like
well, you can't really have
a piece of it without having the whole thing.
The whole thing has to go somewhere.
Okay.
Wow, that is wild. But
I mean that's cool. Like in a way I'm sure it keeps
these guys super busy, right? Like juggling
all of those like events and all of those
like
I guess
next question would be is like
since you've been in the industry for so long
and you've seen so many arms of it
you know, I know
I don't want to give you a layup, but like I know
customer is
number one and we all know that and that's
like, but what was your favorite part of
the business that you've seen
that you got to be a part of
that you enjoy just personally
for you? Like being selfish.
You're like how I really like this part of the business.
Wow.
You know, this is a people business
and I have to say
that I've been lucky enough to work with
amazing people
that
teach me and challenge me
every single day. No matter where I've worked.
So
you know, much like
flying, this is also a business that will
humble you quickly if you get complacent
or you do something stupid.
So
just the fact that I have been able
to learn and grow and spend
a bunch of time with just really
amazing people. Not just at the dealership
level, but the manufacturer level
like the relationships I've built
and the friendships I've built
clients. I mean it's
just been super cool.
So that is definitely
my favorite part. That makes sense.
You wouldn't dug
tomorrow you used to work together right at one point.
Yes. That's pretty wild.
He's a riot.
Yeah, his career's gone
an interesting way right on his own
like entrepreneurial wise and done his own
thing. That's pretty cool. But again
the car community is a small community
right? So it does turn and
Porsche is specific. It gets even
smaller on the microscope
than other areas.
Especially the Porsche community. It's
super, super small.
There's not a lot of turnover here
so like me, I've been with it 20
years. I know
tons of people.
And there's
folks that
know that have been with the brand that have
been doing longer than me.
It's a wonderful brand to be
a part of consistently. It's not always
perfect, but it's consistently been a wonderful brand
to be a part of. Yeah, they always say a great measure
of a brand is not having a lot of turnover
right? I mean some of the biggest
corporate giants are measured on that.
Very low turnover rate. That means
worker satisfaction is high.
People enjoy what they do there
and they want to stay there and they want to spend their careers there.
So that says a lot about Porsche as a brand.
Yeah. It's not always perfect.
It's a hard business. It's a very,
very hard business.
But ultimately I think it's rewarding
and it's challenging and you can grow
and you know, even me
that I've been in the business for a long time, 20 years.
Yeah. I learned something new all the time.
Yeah, that's cool.
How about you Larry? So far I mean
I know you've been exposed to a lot of cool stuff
and so far what's your favorite
part?
There's a lot.
Being in it for only the short time
that I have so far, I mean
it's really cool
to help people
on the journey of like literally
building like their dream, right?
Their dream. Like it's
absolutely insane because it's like
if I look back like five years
I had zero clue
that I would like even be close to
touching these cars and being around these cars
and like, you know
it's crazy because
these cars are on my
wall, it's on a poster you know
when I was a kid and it's like
it's crazy to just be like, oh yeah
we just got a special with this
GT3RS right there and a Speedster
right there and a 4.0
and a 964RS.
It's crazy
but building the dream cars, helping people
just get there
whether it's their first one or their 50th.
It's so fun to just
kind of go through that process with them
and do all that.
I mean it's like a
kidney candy store. It's the one time
I think people kind of get the chance to be like
you know, wow.
They're happy, right? So it makes total sense
you're like helping them achieve their goal, we're helping them
get their special car and like you're pumped up
and you get some say in it
like, you know, they're in the room with you
and some guys and they're like, what do you think?
Do you think I'm kind of like
you know
this is like duck fur, should I do this or not?
You're like, it's a choice.
Yeah, no, for sure.
I mean I've had those
you're like, it's a choice.
Yeah, I mean and even building
everything from like a base
Cayenne or base Carrera all the way to
going to Atlanta and building special
which is GT3RS
it's, you know, I love being
part of that process and kind of
it's like, it's crazy. It's like
I'm 23 and these people are asking me my advice
and I'm like, I guess I do know
Look professional, look professional
Am I doing this right?
This is good, like so
Your mind's going off like 9, don't do that
9
You do not need that much carbon fiber
No, no, it's been
really cool to kind of be part of
the step in the process though for sure
I would imagine being a young man too
I think that would be super exciting
actually I should take that back, it doesn't matter
how old you are, I would be exciting to sit down
and essentially spend somebody else's money
you know, I don't mean that in negatively
but I mean we do that with our friends all the time
we're like, yeah you should buy it, you're like, yeah
you want me to just drop 250, no problem
I'm like, dude, I'm excited for you, you should buy that
that's a cool car and you're like, I get
as excited as, you know, the person
buying it for their own car because they are so cool
all those cars are cool and it's like
helping them spec it is just as
you know, close to exciting
as buying it yourself, I feel like
I mean I feel that way even with friends
you know, ascertaining new cars
and you know, seeing them for the first time
when they show up, you know, I get those feelings
I'm like, man this car is so cool
that's how Kevin got that damn car
it was over a couple drinks in her mezzo
and I was like, hey, you definitely need this in your life
one thing I love about this
is, you know, my sales team
gets as excited as the customer does
when these cars come out
like, you know, when the truck rolls up
and we know we've got a special car on there
my guys are out there taking videos up
taking the videos for the customer
I mean they are, but they're not taking videos
just specifically for the customer
everybody's like, this thing is cool
check this out
and I love that, that's the environment
I want to foster here
and everybody
that is an ambassador here, I see them posting
because I follow several of them
it could be a car, even like
a good client has a car
even if it's not new and they're like
hey, brand new touring just came in
and they picked up their allocation and just got delivered
and it's like, two really cool cars there
and I was like, whoa, dude, that's awesome
you know, and that's just as exciting
you're like, hey, I want to turn in my PTS
touring, you're like
you come to the right place
we'll take that
I remember
the first batch of the new
GTST hybrids came off the truck
I think we all left
and went outside, and I think I remember
like somebody, I think it was you
looking in the sale group chat
like, you guys need to be in here
I need at least one of you in here
can someone help me answer the phone
there's no one in here
we're operating
normal business hours everyone
and then everybody fights over who gets to go
put gas in it, right?
I'm going to put gas in it
you went last time
that's so cool
you know, cool stuff coming in
and let's talk about the facility
real short before we close
it's a beautiful facility
it's a new facility, I'd still consider it new
because it still wasn't built that long ago
how long ago was this built
so, construction was done
we moved in in 2022
it was a long time coming
we sort of started
literally the plans and everything were drawn pre-COVID
and then when we finally broke ground
in the midst of COVID, so it took forever
originally back at
I call it the mothership
at St. Petersburg, 34th Street North
and 38th Avenue North
that building has been there since 1953
forever
we built this in 2022
this is what they call
it's a Gen 4.5
so the new stores you see are what they call a Gen 5
facade's a little bit different
Darth Vader red lights on the outside that I like
that's very Porsche
dot point
4.5
they added a lot of the dark wood accents
that you see here
and the fitting lounge
near my office there
just different touches
to soften it up because before it was very
sort of cold in here
very cold in German
aluminum everywhere
very sterile
definitely softened
more warm
more modern German
not old school German
the classic display too
that was a new addition
classic display is awesome
we always try to keep something cool there
luckily we have a client that has lots of classics
that is generous with them
so obviously
moving here
it's a new facility, it's exciting
it looks and presents well
better business because of the new facility
like have you noticed an uptick
over the time like
from the old facility
obviously you did well it was Porsche
but have you noticed like hey it's out here
it's this thing and it's shiny
it's new like more people are excited
so we do notice
we do notice that
it's a destination
so most folks that come here
intending doing business in one form or another
we've noticed a lot more North County folks
because I mean
I've lived here a long time
driving from Clearwater Beach
to St. Pete
it is brutal
it's definitely more centrally located
getting here is a little bit tricky for the first time
but once you've got it
you know where it's at
it's actually been wonderful up here
we've seen our business go up
significantly
it's been a wonderful move for us
back to the pay to play
it was cost gobs of money to build
gobs
not only was the building gobs of money
but then when we did the upgrade
a year and a half later
that was another gob of money that we just put into a brand new building
which is insane right
it's insane but you know
it's wonderful because
must get 4.5 now
that was crazy
excuse me coming in
and they made that a premier dealer category
it was awesome
it's a wonderful environment
it's a wonderful environment
you're immersed in the brand
when you come here
I mean owning a Porsche
is an experience so it's like
you're not like any other automakers
that are out there
and Porsche has been a very good job
and a very good steward of doing that
making sure that it's a lifestyle
brand
these kinds of facilities
help that though
as opposed to like it's a different vibe
it's a different feel right
especially for a new customer
that hasn't been immersed in Porsche ever
if you have somebody new walking in the door
that's going to buy hey I'm just kind of testing the waters
I want to buy like a Cayenne
this is insane
I didn't know that there were dealers
who did stuff like this out there
and they wake up and things change
overnight for those folks
it's pretty wild
it really is a brand that if you invest in
it's worth it
Aaron you have anything else for our guests
I don't think I have too much
we've taken enough for their Sunday
Mike's got to get back up in the air
do his baller flying
he does like part-time
aerial ticketing
like he's got a radar gun
that's how he gets the cops on
he's like little did you know
I'm doing a part-time gig
I'm giving tickets out
no
thank you guys so much for joining us
thank you so much for what you guys do for us
absolutely I'm glad we got to do this
I appreciate you giving us your time
I don't have anything else for you guys
appreciate you guys
thanks Aaron
see you
we out
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