The Truth About Buying a Porsche in the UK - Salesman Reveals ALL! | Ep 78 | Drive Torque Podcast
Drive Torque Podcast
The Truth About Buying a Porsche in the UK - Salesman Reveals ALL! | Ep 78 | Drive Torque Podcast
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70:04
Car
Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 is a famous sports car made by Porsche. It's known for its unique shape and powerful performance, making it very popular among car enthusiasts.
Company
Michelin
Michelin is a well-known company that makes tires for cars. They are famous for making high-quality tires that help cars perform better and stay safe on the road.
Term
aero kits
Aero kits are parts added to cars to help them move through the air more smoothly. This can make the car faster and help it handle better when driving quickly.
Term
Riviera blue
Riviera blue is a bright blue color that some Porsche cars come in. It's a popular choice for those who want their car to stand out.
Car
Porsche Panamera
The Porsche Panamera is a fancy car made by Porsche. It has four doors and is designed to be both fast and comfortable for driving.
Term
Oak Green Neometallic
Oak Green Neometallic is a special green color that looks shiny and metallic. It's one of the popular color choices for Porsche cars, making them stand out more.
Car
Porsche Carrera T
The Porsche Carrera GT is a rare and super-fast sports car that many people admire. It has a powerful engine and is known for its amazing performance.
Term
lightweight packages
Lightweight packages are special features in cars that make them lighter. This helps the car go faster and handle better on the road.
Part
magnesium
Magnesium is a type of metal that is very light but strong. It's used in cars to help make them lighter, which can improve performance.
Part
titanium
Titanium is another type of metal that is very strong and light. It's used in cars to make parts that need to be tough but not heavy.
Part
carbon ceramics
Carbon ceramic brakes are special brakes that are lighter and work better than regular brakes. They help cars stop faster and handle heat better, which is great for high-performance driving.
Part
carbon reinforced plastic
Carbon reinforced plastic is a strong and lightweight material made by mixing plastic with tiny pieces of carbon. It's used in cars to make parts that are both light and tough.
Part
carbon buckets
Carbon buckets are special seats made from a strong and light material called carbon fiber. They help make the car lighter and keep you snug while driving fast.
Term
carbon fiber
Carbon fiber is a strong and lightweight material used in cars to make them faster and more efficient. It's often used in parts like the body or frame to help reduce weight.
Car
Ferrari 430
The Ferrari 430 is a fast and powerful sports car made by Ferrari. It was built between 2004 and 2009 and is famous for its speed and handling.
Term
car configurator
A car configurator is a website tool that lets you choose how you want your car to look and what features it should have. You can pick colors and options easily.
Term
GTS
GTS is a term used to describe a sportier version of a car that is designed for better performance and handling. It's often seen in high-performance models.
Brand
Bugatti
Bugatti is a luxury car brand from France that makes extremely fast and very expensive cars.
Company
Rolls Royce
Rolls Royce is a luxury car brand from Britain that makes very expensive cars, known for their comfort and high-quality materials.
Company
Lotus
Lotus is a car brand from Britain that makes lightweight and sporty cars, known for being fun to drive.
Company
Koenigsegg
Koenigsegg is a car company from Sweden that makes super-fast sports cars, often with unique designs and technology.
Term
allocation
Allocation means how many cars a dealer can sell from a specific model. If a car is very popular, there might be fewer available, making it more special and sought after.
Car
Ferrari Purosangue
The Ferrari Purosangue is a new type of car from Ferrari that looks like an SUV. It's made to be fast and sporty, but also has more space and comfort than a typical sports car.
Concept
electric Ferrari
An electric Ferrari is a future car from Ferrari that will run on electricity instead of gasoline, making it more environmentally friendly.
Term
carbon pack
A carbon pack is a set of car parts made from a special lightweight material called carbon fiber. It makes the car look nicer and can help it perform better.
Car
BMW F80
The BMW M3 is a fast and sporty car that comes from a regular car called the 3 Series. It's popular because it combines luxury with exciting performance, making it fun to drive.
Brand
Jaguar
Jaguar is a car company from England that makes luxury cars, known for their stylish designs and fast performance.
Term
timing belt
The timing belt is a rubber belt in your car's engine that helps keep everything moving in sync. If it breaks, your engine can stop working properly.
Car
Dodge Avenger
The Dodge Avenger is a regular car that was made to be affordable and practical for everyday use. It's not super fast or fancy, but it gets the job done for many drivers.
Car
Lamborghini Huracan
The Lamborghini Huracan is a sleek and powerful sports car that looks amazing and drives really fast. It's popular among car lovers for its style and performance.
Car
Bentley Flying Spur
The Bentley Flying Spur is a very fancy car that is all about luxury and comfort. It has a powerful engine and a beautiful interior, making it a favorite among wealthy buyers.
Car
Porsche Cayenne
The Porsche Cayenne is a fancy SUV that can go fast and has a lot of space inside. It's popular among people who want a stylish car that can carry their family and gear.
Car
Bentley Bentayga
The Bentley Bentayga is a super fancy SUV that offers lots of space and luxury features. It's designed for people who want a comfortable ride with a lot of style.
Car
Porsche Taycan
The Porsche Taycan is a fast electric car that looks like a sports car but runs on electricity instead of gas. It's designed to be both powerful and environmentally friendly.
Car
Lamborghini Countach
The Lamborghini Countach is a famous supercar that looks very unique and has doors that open upwards. It's known for being really fast and is a dream car for many people.
Car
Porsche Macan
The Porsche Macan is a smaller SUV that is fun to drive and has a nice interior. It's a good option for people who want a sporty feel in a vehicle that’s easy to handle.
LIVE
We're not all good at what was that part? Oh, oh, we got to start the
podcast. Yeah, you go buy some beer then and we'll be here. Yeah,
we're not going anywhere. We got to start the podcast. We have
should we do it now? Maybe we should ease in our ease now. I
didn't get that. You have to understand that I've only been
here since January. Yeah, a lot of things. I still don't speak
it English, not yours. Colonials for you. Yeah. Yeah. Oh,
whose fault was that? Well, you know, start on that one.
Look upon you creation started that right? So it's not my fault
entirely. Anyway, anyway, welcome back to another episode of
the drive talk podcast. Firstly, I'm in a Christmas jumper
because this is going to be the last podcast going out before
Christmas and I didn't get the memo. Happy holidays, Merry
Christmas and all the rest of it. We are joined by a very
special guest here. Oh, no, he couldn't make it. But I know
right. Miss Anthony Lewis. Good. Anthony. I had the pleasure
of meeting earlier this year. We went through the ordering
process of the Michelin 911. He works Porsche in Reading. He's
a YouTuber. And I'm going to let Anthony tell us more about who
he is and what he does. Welcome. Do I have to? Yeah. Well, I
point to talk about this here for the beer. Fair enough. Fair
to get exactly my time. I mean, it proper chugged it down. I've
still got it's the nerves. Don't yeah, that and don't hand me
free beer. But that's a story for another day. Another podcast.
My name is Anthony Lewis. Is there a camera I'm supposed to be
looking at? I mean, there's you got a couple fine. My name is
Anthony Lewis. I am a Porsche sales executive at Porsche
Center Reading. As the accent gives away, I am from the
States. I am an amateur YouTuber much like Joe himself. I like
you already. And yeah, I am I'm very fortunate. I am very
thankful as well for your guys hospitality to have me here and
just have a conversation about, you know, the stuff that we
all that it drives us all and and and all of that good stuff.
Well, mate, it's a pleasure to have you on because I know going
back to that ordering video is an hour long. I've been thrown
in the deep end a little bit there, been told that I was
going to speak to someone about ordering the Porsche, the
Michelin 911. And I wasn't sure who I was going to get. And I'm
not just blowing smoke up your ass. But when I met you, I was
like this guy, firstly, you're just really nice to talk to. But
you're a proper, you're a proper car guy, proper Porsche guy as
well. And and you would assume most people would assume that
most sales men or women are car people. But that's not really
the case. So yeah, I mean, we hit it off. I really enjoyed all
that ordering process. And we've talked a lot since then, we've
met up for coffees and stuff. And and I actually went down to
see the other day dropping a press card on. And I just thought,
you know what, you would be a fantastic person to have on a
podcast, because you're very opinionated, you love your cars
and you've got a voice for radio.
And I'm also American. That's what he's banking on sells this.
He just he's like, he's got some more American
subscribers. No, not just you were thrown into it that day.
That was like my second week. It was a reading. So also for
anybody that's listening, I just recently moved to the country.
So I've been here since January. It's now end of November. So
when when I met Joe, I was probably second, third week at
Porsche Reading. And I was comfortable doing it because as
I said, I'm an amateur YouTuber. And I did this job in the
States. I worked for Manhattan motor cars Porsche Manhattan in
New York City. So the specking process, the talking to
customers, that part is honestly, it's the fun part. It's the
most fun part about the job. The admin and the rest of it
isn't as much. But you know, it comes along with it. So yeah,
I was I was thrown in there were like, Hey, he's got nothing to
do. You know, he just got here. Have him have him go spend time
with with the YouTuber. And I'm just, you know, clacking away.
But genuinely, I think that that the the things that we talked
about in the way that we did it is how I spent cars with with
my customers and the conversations that I like to have
the opinions that I like to offer the the the the process
should be fun, right? Because also for a lot of people, it's
the first time. Yeah, obviously, you're very well versed in
cars. And so are you. And so it's one of those things where you
should take some time to really make it fun. I it's the most
it's the most fun part of the job outside of handing over the
new car. So yeah, no, I had a blast. It was a good time. It
was a good time. Yeah, I mean, I've got so many questions for
you. I mean, what I think for me that the outcome I want by the
end of this podcast is to unlock all the secrets to specking
like the perfect car.
Wait, don't ask him too many questions, because I know off
the record, although this is on the record, he likes aero kits.
So yeah, I mean, who's spec the aero wheels on the mission in
911? Well, I think that that was nothing to do with him. But
yeah, but because when we, I mean, we feature a lot of
Porsches on the channel. And I guess, although we're specifically
talking about Porsche, because you work for Porsche, it kind of
will map into lots of different manufacturers, because they will
have similar kinds of options and stuff. But we feature lots of
Porsches on the channel. I'm lucky enough to own a couple. But
the press cars we get are always very well options. And I don't
think that's a just a Porsche thing. BMW do the same thing.
The magic bartender's just arrived.
You got to open the mate. Oh, you legend. Yeah. And now you're
behind. Yeah, I know. I'm down. I was being well behaved as
first. Oh, you led. Look at that. Thanks. For those of you that
are just listening and watching the podcast, Patrick has just
walked in and delivered some beers and sodas for us. So thank
you. Excuse us being rude and interrupting, but I'm sure you
absolutely understand. Here's the season. So yeah, so we drive
press cars and then normally what the press teams do is they'll
put lots of options on. So as people review in the cars, we can
see them and talk about them and so on. However, lots of the
options on cars think, really, would I spec that? And some of
them you go, I'll definitely spec that. So it would be nice to
kind of break that down. Almost you kind of must have
options. Sure. The ones that are kind of discretionary and very
personal taste and then there must be some options where it has
a negative effect of the car, whether that's I mean, dog dick
red interior, for example.
Fall in. This guy is straight in. I think it's referred to as
Bordeaux. But no, no, no, no, the really bright one. The bright
red. Oh, when the wheel and everything. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I was looking at buying a used 911 this year and it was
every time I'm calling me. No, no, he didn't know. But don't
worry, he ended up going somewhere else and it blew up on
him. Fair enough. So there you go.
Expected.
Twice. What do you get? What do you get? You look at the picture
online and you go, oh, it's a nice external kind of gentian
blue or something. Oh, yeah, it's nice. You see a few of the
external and then you click to the interior picture and it's
just like, it looks like the inside of a womb.
Well, it's supposed to make you feel at home, right? It's where
we all started. It brings us back to those first moments in
life. I'm gonna do interior bright red. Do you go?
Yes, but at the same time, it's their money.
Oh, yeah, true. It's their money, right? And, you know, from
the, from the wildest specs to the even the most standard
specs, I can kind of, I can kind of weigh in on both because
Joe, you've visited recently.
Oh, yeah, this is an interesting one. Yeah.
So we have a, which I think sold actually. Yeah, but it
doesn't surprise me. It's so one with a blue leather.
Riviera blue. Don't disrespect it. It's got a name.
Riviera blue, right? So it's very, very bright blue, right?
It's Smurf blue as far as like most people are coining it.
And it's a white car, right? So massive contrast, right?
Massive contrast. But you open this thing up. And I remember
I was telling Joe when we were standing by it. Can you imagine
how that car looked new when you got to see it for the first
time when it rolled off the production line or when it, when
it showed up at your centre and you saw it and were like, wow.
Right. Now taste is really subjective, especially when
you think of certain fashion statements throughout time and
throughout the world. Some of them just don't make sense, but
they don't need to make sense to us.
Bit like me and you. We've got really cool trainers.
Who's we?
Well, you've got even cooler spec and then, and then PED.
Look, listen, the reason I've got these is I'm going on Safari
in two weeks. Anyway, carry on, Anthony. Just say he's going
straight from here, by the way, to to Safari. Yes, he growl.
I'm breaking him in because I only got him. Yes, he's gone from
Heathrow to to Kenya. Right from here. Right. Yeah, his
helipad. Yeah. So we've all got different tastes. Yeah. Correct.
Right.
Well, listen, the brand, right? Yes, exactly. It's brand snub.
Don't you dare insult Michelin? By the way,
the brand whore. Thank you, Michelin. Support by Michelin.
If you haven't noticed. Sorry, carry on. Yeah, Michelin.
No, Michelin's a great tire. I'm just poking. That's the right
answer poking some fun. Anyway,
so yes, to your point, you're going to see some wild spec,
right? But it's not up to you to like it. It's not up to you to
love it. It's up to whoever purchases that car. And that's
the extreme spec. And I remember there was a there was a
situation where I was in Manhattan, and the Panamera,
the new facelifted one had just landed. And it was launched in
one of the most popular colors, Oak Green Neometallic, right?
Oh, exactly.
That's cool. Especially on a Panamera. Yeah. You spec it right
that car is hot, right? So we had one up on the second landing.
And I took a person who had some questions about a Panamera.
We're walking around this car and they were drooling, right? I
had to go get napkins for them. Just just sopping wet out of
the mouth foaming at the mouth. And they said, you know what? I
want one. I really think I want a Panamera. I said, great, you
know, is this something you'd be interested in? No, I want a
black one. Wow. And it's one of those things where people can
appreciate something and like it but not like it enough to own
it, right? Yeah, which is also just a wild kind of idea. It's a
car and most of us are going to be out of it between three or
four years. It's not a wife or a much more important life
decision or even a house or anything like that. Yeah, if
you don't like it, you're going to get somebody else will love
it, right? So what's the big deal? So yeah, Porsche, what I
really love is one of those companies where if you think of
it, I mean, if you want to do it, go for it, you're going to
pay for it rightfully so, but you're going to get exactly
what you want. And that's why, although like 9 11's here in the
UK, especially in London, you go in, you know, there's one on
every street in certain parts of London. But every single one is
going to probably be slightly different. And I think we talked
earlier on about the majority of German brands offering like
configurable, what they called when you go in a configurator,
and you build your car. But Porsche, you know, you can either
love or hate the fact that they offer you a thousand options,
but it is so much fun. We've all wasted so much of our life on
Porsche configurator, building, building our dream spec,
whatever it might be. But it and but at the end of the day,
that's what makes every single one different. I think you're
talking about the press cars, and it must be really difficult
for a press team to actually spec, because you know, it's like
sometimes you're like, oh, I want something with nothing on it,
or I want a car with everything on it. I want it, but they're
never going to get it right. But I did have a Carrera T the new
one six speed manual the other day, bought a car. But that was
in color. Cartagena. Cartagena. Cartagena keeps bothering
me. Watch this. Cartagena. It's a place in Mexico or something.
It's in Colombia. Hopefully. Right. But he kept saying
Cartagena. I said, oh, yeah. Well, there you go. See, it's
such a bad color that even even I can't pronounce it. But no,
to me, that color was like, Oh, but the car was so good. So it
was like a real split. Like, Oh, my God, just get in the thing
because it's amazing. Oh, yeah, this is amazing. Get out of
absolutely. But but but then someone's going to love that
color one person maybe. But it's it but it but it'll look
fantastic in your thumbnail. Okay, I don't know who to shop the
color out. Well, it's one of those things where again, the
press cars aren't there to impress any of us, right? The
press cars aren't for us. It's not the car you ordered. It's a
showcase. It's supposed to grab your attention, right? Same
thing with the amount of spec that they have, especially when
we're in this generation of car where we're talking about
lightweight packages and why sac this and you know, magnesium
this and titanium this across all of the brands, if they didn't
absolutely spec these cars to the nines, well, then, you know,
what are they going to showcase? Right? Hey, this is a car
that you can have. And if you want it can have some equipment
on it. So yeah, those press cars are always heavy.
I see you've just mentioned, I'm going to have to ask this
question now then because I've literally just got out of the
GT3 992.2 press car. Oh, yeah, the wing one. Right?
No, he says that with a wing. Although the touring press cars
really nice. But the GT3 had I mean, when you read all the
bump because it's got the curb weight and then you can drop
the curb weight by quite a lot. What's a bump? Bump. Sorry.
All the press material and the you know, yeah, bump. Sorry. I
didn't realize I was going to have to translate. Yes, we're
both speaking English, but we're both speaking to two nations
divided by a common language. Large ocean. But yeah, exactly.
Yeah. So yeah, so that car had some really punchy options. So
it had the carbon ceramics, of course, which were like, nine
grand or so. And I think, okay, if I saw wing one, I kind of
get that. That's great. They're lighter, less unsprung
mass, get that. It then, oh, yeah, he knows his stuff.
First time he's ever said that about me. He read the bump. But
the two, the two really punchy ones. And this the question I'm
going to ask is, is how many people really, from a driver's
point of view, would notice the difference? Right? Is it had the
magnesium for magnesium wheels, which if I remember rightly
were 13 and a half grand. There are thereabouts? They look
spectacular. And they reduce essentially like the RS style
they reduce the weight by like eight kilos, I think, again,
unsprung mass. And then it had the Visak pack, which from what I
could work out was carbon reinforced plastic bonnet wing
roof, door cards, cage, which looks spectacular. Which you
can't get in the States. Oh, yeah. But that was 19 grand. Sure.
And then it had the carbon buckets, the foldable carbon
buckets, which again, a lighter and that they were like five
grand. So those four packages were like a big chunk of money.
40 grand or something. And don't get me wrong, the car looked
amazing, drove amazing. But my at the end of spending a week
with it and doing 600 miles with it, I'm thinking, if I was
buying one, because they're pretty punchy to start with,
sure. It is speccing those things. Do most people expect
those things? Do they really need them? Or are they doing it
for resale? Are they doing it because they can? Are they doing
it so that when they go down the pub, they go, my car's got
13,000 pound magnesium wheels and a Visak pack? Or is it a
combination of all those things?
The easiest, excuse me, the easiest answer to that question
is yes.
You can come again.
It is, it is. And just to dive in just a slightly little bit
more. You guys have FOMO here, right? Yeah. Okay. We don't
have to, we understand that one.
We're on the same page. A lot of it is FOMO, right? Especially
nowadays, I think when and I was thinking about this on the way
up and on the way over, where car journalism is nowadays, and
where, where we get our information, it's, it's from a
kind of like a shock and awe type of situation.
Are you good? Yeah, you're right there with a bottle.
He's had two bottles. He's had one.
It's like an inbuilt system that he's got. It's like to stop
and get him to drive to two beers.
Did we just experience his first beer? Is that?
I think so. Oh, man.
Oh, no, you wait until later. Anyway, sorry about that.
I think, I think a lot of, I think a lot of car options are
shocking awe. Now at this point, yes, to your point, no, this
option saved me this much weight. This car is faster by
point five seconds. And all of that, that kind of goes with
it. So a lot of it is unnecessary. And I'm a big less
is more guy and Joe and I had a conversation much about our
love for the 911 T. It's just the most epic car that you can
buy out of a showroom nowadays. And when people hear epic,
they're like, well, it's not a revuelto. What's what's epic?
How do you, how do you assign a 911 T a term like that?
It because it's the most fun car to drive. So when you do look
at cars that have magnesium, this and carbon fiber, this and
this and this and this. A lot of it is Riso, right? You don't
want to be one of the cars on the market that doesn't have it.
But at the same time, when I approach my customers with that
thought process, I still say, well, it's just going to belong
to a different market, right? Just like the yellow cars and the
pink cars and the green cars, it will still it will just be in a
separate market. There is no Porsche knock on wood that isn't
desirable. But some of them just may be desirable by a slightly
quirkier person or quirkier line of sight.
You look at sorry to interrupt, you look at the forest,
actually, and Pat's a big fan of this, the forest, the non
visac forest is there's hardly any. But when you see them,
they're actually, and I agree with Pat on this one, they're
actually prettier, because they haven't got the two tone like
the bonnet and carbon, it's all you know, it's all painted one
color and and actually they're much rarer. Like if you look
online, finding a non visac four RS is is is much harder.
I said that sorry to cut you off. I said the same thing to you
when you were in the showroom at Reading about that spider
RS that we were standing. Yes, I love the spider. Oh, that was
a non visac. It was a no, it was a was a visac. You said yeah,
yeah, that's right. And and I remember telling you if I could
build this car if I could own one of these absolutely wouldn't
be because I want more of that lovely color. Yes, I don't get a
visac pack on a spider RS anyway, because you don't get all the
benefit as many benefits. Well, to your next point, or to kind
of also answer the question, I think nowadays, for some reason,
I just had that thought of you remember that top gear episode
with Jeremy Clarkson, where he went to specter Ferrari. Not
seen that one day. It was old, old, old. I think it was a 430
maybe even a 316 he was fighting for his life to not order
red. Yep. Right. But he was sat with his with the salesperson
whoever it was. And he's losing sleep and and all sorts of
stuff like that. But thinking about how cars were spec'd and
ordered back then, compared to how they're ordered inspect
nowadays, it's too easy to click a box. Yeah, when you're on a
configurator, it's too easy to tick. Well, I must have it, right?
It's just Oh, I have it. Tick, I have it, right? So it's not
necessarily the thought process of will this benefit me? Is it
better? Does it better the car? Does it better my enjoyment?
Tick, I have it. Yeah. And also, I truthfully believe that I
truthfully truthfully believe that with human nature, we think
more is better. Right? Because if you guys have ever had the
conversation, maybe amongst yourself or amongst other
people, when someone says, Well, yeah, I'm coming in, I'm
interested in a C4S. Okay. Well, why do you feel that you need
four wheel drive? Oh, it's four wheel drive? I didn't know.
Oh, right. Okay. I just thought four was better. I'm getting
it. I'm getting a sense that there might be someone in this
room that thinks that higher numbers are better. Well, he likes
bigger badges, GTS. And then he needs GTS interior pack. Of
course. And he needs GTS stickers everywhere.
It's a race car driver. Yeah, look at his shoes.
This guy, this guy, you've been doing your homework. This guy,
he's just ready like a book, man. He just breathes lap time.
He just breathes lap time tense. I'm surprised he hasn't got
his Porsche. You know those factory jackets that Porsche, I
nearly wore it just to wind you up. He wanders around and he
probably he probably like walking up the stairs like broken
into sectors. Yes. I can do that better. Yeah, I'm too tense.
I was really enjoying our conversation. I'm so sorry. We
really are. Oh, no, you're not. Oh, this bit. Well, I hope
that I hope that answered the question as far as it's a bit of
FOMO. Yeah, it's a bit of it's better if I have it. It's a
better of I'd rather have it than not. And also, especially
from where I used to work in the States, Manhattan Motor
Cars, the place that I worked, we were in my main building, we
were Porsche Bentley Lamborghini and Bugatti. Yeah, that's
interesting. We need to talk more about sure. But within the
entire group, shout out Manhattan Motor Cars, if anyone's
listening. Yeah, guys. We had Koenigsegg. We had remats. We
had Lotus. We had Rolls Royce, right? So obviously, all of
them can tell he's a cargo because he said it right.
Right? Yes. Um, but it's one of those things where, yes,
guy. Well, it explains the sweater. Yeah. I just I don't
mean to say this in any sort of, you know, kind of any type of
way. But when you're talking about a certain level of wealth,
what's the difference between, you know, 200 and 240
grand? You know, my, that was my, my next point I was going to
say is, to me, the base price is a aspirational could never
afford it. So every pound over that is like, if you're getting a
GC3 allocation, there's a good chance you've got a good amount
of cash and you bought lots of cars, and it really doesn't
matter. Yeah. Just like when you, I mean, we, you know, we can
talk about Porsche press cars, but Ferrari press cars are on
another stratosphere. Give us some numbers on it. So I had the
two Ferraris, they got the pure Sangui. Sure. They're FUV.
Okay. The press car I had this year. What's that? Fuck you.
No, no, no, it's a Ferrari. They don't, it's not an SUV. It
looks a lot like that Mazda. It does. It looks a lot like
especially in the red. I don't know what it is. It looks a lot
like that Mazda. Guys, I really like my relationship with
Ferrari. Sorry about that. Yeah, yeah. He's dying. He's
really got his fingers crossed. He's going to be invited up to
the electric Ferrari launch, along with millions of others
have been already. There you go. But anyway, so the the pure
Sangui press car. So three options that are on that car,
just to give you an idea, I'm going to start with the the
cheapest of those. It's got the painted shields on the front
with nine and a half grand bargain. There's an amazing video.
There's an amazing video like a time lapse showing of the guy
actually paint it. It's quite amazing. I got to have one.
Good to have him on the back as well. The paint that's rotating
mass. The paint was an extra 23,000 pounds. Was it not going
to come with paint? No, it would have had paint on it. But if
you wanted the blue paint, oh, it was 23 grand. It would have
come in primer aka crayon and then and then truck for you
people listening in the state. Not his day. I feel like I
should move to that side of the couch because I feel like we're
ganging up on him. No, you just gave me some. No, no, no,
just that they do that to me all the time. Yeah, he's just a
whipping boy. And then and then the last thing it had an
interior carbon pack and the carbon had like a little gold
weave in with it. And I thought it was a misprint on the spec
sheet. But that interior pack was 60 grand. 60. So what was
the what was the the price of that? Oh, it was it was about
15 grand shy of half a million. And the base price was at 350.
Yeah, so I'm 150 grand sanguine. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, let I put
out it. You haven't driven one because for I don't think they
are unbelievably good to drive. They have the infanombs. No.
Is it okay? And this is not just because you're sitting here.
Turbo KN turbo GT. Oh, one of my favourites. Oh, is it better
than the Ken? Okay, because it's got an NAV. But twice the
money. But yeah, more than twice the money. It has some
really clever tech in it. The suspension is really, really
clever. It needs to be because it's a big heavy thing. Yeah,
I know, but it doesn't have it's got the same suspension as the
F80 basically. Oh, we're still talking about SUVs. Anyway, can
we move on? Let's get on with that. Yeah, we don't have to
talk about we could talk about anything. Just not as a nice
thing. I reckon I'm really just trying to sell half a million
pound. We are going to talk about KN electric pretty soon. Yeah.
But before we jump too far forward, I want to just can we just
talk about your life before you came over to the UK, because
you've not even been here a year. No, no, approaching a year,
but I haven't been approaching a year. So can you tell us about
Manhattan and that dealership because I'm intrigued. I love
the fact that there's more than just Porsche there. And just
set us and then and then combine that and and talk about the
difference between average customer back there and and the
average customer in UK if there is a difference and and why why
you think that might be there's definitely a difference. There's
definitely a difference as there should be. But Manhattan is a
very interesting place. New York City is a very interesting place
and cool place. Why? Because every you walk around every corner
you see a movie set. Okay, you know what? And fair play, because
a lot of things I'm jaded to. There's a lot of things that I'm
jaded to. It's probably like us. It's probably like us, especially
me with London, I grew up spent 25 years in London. I still
appreciate bits of it. But you as a tourist probably go in and
go, Oh, wow, there's big Ben is this and so it's it's by the
same with you when I go to New York. I've only been a couple of
times. I'm like, Oh, my God. Wow, this is just like being
Ghostbusters. Okay, dated himself there right after tomorrow
I'm waiting for the big waves come in and I feel like he just
tried to reference it wasn't the Michelin man in the Ghostbusters
movie. No, it was the Pillsbury Doughboy. Correct. But you're
not I think Michelin missed a trick. If I'm being honest, I
was between two brands now. Anyway, anyway. So yeah, I've
been in the automotive industry my entire life. I cut my teeth.
So they say if you guys have that term, I grew up as a car guy.
My father was for his career. He retired recently. He was a
Jaguar Land Rover technician. Cool. From England. He would have
been busy them. Very. I was never hungry. And I never I never
wanted busiest job in the world. Absolutely. Fixing Jaguar Land
drivers. Absolutely. You're so accurate. I can picture my
childhood home and the imagine the amount of oil stains in the
driveway. Just because it was unreal. So I grew up as a Jaguar
or just a car guy. But you know, mainly around the Jags off
because my father grew up in England. He had an apprenticeship
here and then moved to the States. What does he think of the
Type 00? You know what? Fortunately, he got out before
Jaguar disappointed him. You know, it's like it's like that
child who's like, Oh, so you you're going into accounting. All
right. No offense. I need accountants listening. But it's
like, you know, your dad wanted you to be a doctor. I just want
you to know that. So I did grow up as a as a car guy. And he
taught me everything that I know, because for my most of my
career, I was a technician. Yeah, I used to fix cars. And I was
really fortunate to be able to just be around the right people
at the right time, because he set me up with one of his long
time friends who owned a mom and pop shop, we would call it
just somewhere you'd go for your tire, your timing belt, your
oil changes. And I learned the ins and outs of how cars worked
through that. The the owner of that shop, his son worked in a
Porsche performance shop, just a privateer performance shop. And
once I got bored working on Toyota's, he's like, Well, hey,
why don't you come, you know, check out what I've got going on.
And the things that I learned throughout that experience is
honestly, what has brought me here to the UK, the culmination of
information that I've gained over the years. And throughout
that, you see different stages of, you know, what the car market
is like, what car people are like. And eventually I became a BMW
technician, a factory chain BMW technician. And that's when I
started working in Manhattan, I worked for BMW Manhattan for
about nine, 10 years. Before I moved into sales with BMW BMW
motorcycles, Joe, we've had that conversation. And then I started
working for Porsche for Manhattan motor cars for the past four
years prior to me moving into the UK to do the job here. So
there's a lot of similarities. I remember when I was moving over
here, obviously terrified. But it's like, Okay, at least we speak
the same language and the cars are the same, right? The steering
was on the other side, but the cars are the same. And I'm, I'm
confident in my product knowledge. I get here and I find out
that we don't speak the same language, because there's 14
different versions of the English language, depending on
which part you're from. I could tell you some stories. I
probably wouldn't be able to understand them. Depending on
the accident. I in my before I did YouTube, I was a trainer in
telecoms. And I did a lot of work in the States. used to go to
Irving a lot. Okay, not here in and San Diego, because Qualcomm.
And I used to find teaching in the States more difficult than
teaching in countries where English wasn't the first language,
because the language barrier. And I was teaching once. If you got
into your cockney rhyming slang, if you get on the dog,
yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I, I use lots of
colloquial terms. And it used to get me to so much trouble. I
go, Oh, you know, said one day, I said, it's a bit belt and
braces. And they're like, well, I said, you know, belt and
braces when you wear so, so your trousers don't fall down. You
wear a belt and braces. And they're like, trousers, right? And
pants, pants, right? Yeah. Braces, suspenders, no, no, no,
suspenders are tights for ladies. Those are tights. Yeah. And
it was just like, oh, and then at lunchtime went, right,
let's have some lunch. I'm absolutely Hank. And there's
just this faces looking at me going, what, you know, Hank
Marvin? Starving. Hank Marvin, starving, right? Got it? And
then they're like, Oh, yeah, okay, Hank. And then I explain,
you know, cockney rhyming slang, apples and stairs, pears,
double strug, Hank Marvin, starving. And then they're like,
who's Hank Marvin? You're correct. Yeah. I was in the
shadows. Cliff. Anyway, there you go. And that was that. You
used to get that all the time. So yeah, very. So that is what
I'm dealing with on top of, you know, MOT Scotland, Ireland,
MOT, DVLA registration, because when I first met you, I was
talking about plates. And I think even then you're like,
what plates? Right? And I was like, no, well, the number
plate, obviously now you know, it's a big part of your job.
But there's there is a lot. It's amazing, isn't it? How
they're very similar. But there's so many differences.
There's a lot of differences. There's a lot of differences.
But again, I came over with at least the confidence in
knowing that I know the automotive industry, and I
know Porsche to what I feel to be adequate enough to be able
to have conversations like the one that we're at. The other
thing is we totally bugger up all our cars by putting OPF
filters on. You don't have that in the States, right? So all
Porsches in the States sound epic. Yeah. All the ones over
here a bit like, unless you unless you're from California,
because you know, they like to
have that sonny's fault, isn't it?
Yeah, well, he didn't help.
Oh, wait, what? California got got OPF filter.
Well, not necessarily OPF, but they're very strict on any
sort of modification. You can get states ref what they call
we think America's like one big country, but not really. It's
like 50 states that kind of all
it's Europe that speaks one language.
Yeah. If you think about it, because each state does its own
its own thing, each state will have its own jurisdiction,
police, multiple versions of police. New York alone has, you
know, the police that I have interacted with in my life. You
know, you've got your local PD, right? Long Island has Suffolk and
Nassau County, right? Because it's two different counties of
Long Island, then you're going to have NYPD, New York Police
Department. Yeah, the ones in the films. Yeah. Yes. Yes. So
wait, that's three. Yeah, but then you'll have an in a Pogue
song.
Just ignore him. You and I just ignore him carry on a sheriff.
You have sheriffs. We have sheriffs. We have state troopers. Oh
my God. Those are the guys you don't want to get pulled over
by. You have cool police cars, though. Not when it's lit up
behind you. We're not like, wow, that's a nice crown. We have
no, we have like voxel astros. We have the basically the
crappiest car you can buy. All your police stickers on your
police cars are a state. You're the funniest thing. Yeah. It's
the funniest thing. Yeah. We have some cool cop cars, but
largely you don't want to interact with one in the
States, depending on the state that you're in, because I've
got some stories from multiple states of one. Anyway. But back
to the question at hand, the differences between the markets
is it's great. It's, it's, you know, you have to you have to
imagine a city like Manhattan is very, very wealthy. And the
the store that I worked for with some of those brands to your
point, right about the GT three, you know, 30,000, 35,000
pounds worth of options. It wasn't uncommon, especially with
how our dealership was set up, set up rather the, the Porsche
center, the Porsche store was the first one, but each dealership,
each brand was kind of individually its own dealership
within one building, right? So the Lamborghini had a showroom
Bentley had a showroom, we got a showroom and Porsche had a
showroom. Would you rotate or would you, would you sort of
So by brand, by, by brand law, I should say, you have to be
certified for a brand. I can't just go and say, yeah, I'm
selling Lamborghinis now, if my customer, if my client was
mine, right, and he was all of a sudden interested in a Bentley
or interested in Lamborghini, I would carry that over, because
I think most of us have enough of the brand knowledge,
especially being around them 24 seven to carry those multiple
conversations. And you know, we're involved in the other
brands, product launches and new vehicle releases. So yeah, it's
one big happy family. But if someone comes in and says, you
know, I'm looking for a Bintega me, the Porsche guy is not
gonna say, cool, I'll take you the Bentley people. Yeah, you
know, my customer, I can, I can assist. And if you think about
it, which is crazy to think about, you, you know, you mentioned
238,000 pounds for a for a GT three with all the kit. Imagine
that in the States, someone's, you know, specking all that up.
And somebody else walks through and just purchased an
Avenger door. Yeah, I was gonna say, I'm just sitting there
going, the Porsche dealerships, the cheapest car you can buy
correct. Correct. So it wasn't uncommon where someone would go
and speck up a Huracan or a Vuelta because those were there
while I was still there or a Bintega, a flying spur, Bentley
GT GTC, big dollar cars, 300 and above, right? And then just say,
you'll take a turbo s. My wife would love one of these. My kid
needs a first car. Yeah, let me get them a Cayenne Cayenne
GT has 100 grand 120 grand. But when you had just spent that
much money, you know, a couple steps away up the hallway,
wow, it's all relative to again, the level of purchasing and
obviously Manhattan being a big finance, a big finance city, a
very, very wealthy city, you would do some of the some of the
things that you see, and what they spend money on is is a bit
ridiculous from my perspective, not not to put anybody with that
type of wealth down. Because I think that if we all had that
type of wealth, we would be would make some really silly
decisions on cars, right? It reminds me of this one customer
that I had. And he was a really nice guy. And I met him through
the service department, he came in with his Bintega. And he walks
up, I'd like to speak about a Porsche, I saw this, you know, he
shows me a picture on his phone, he saw this, I really like this,
what is this? And I was like, that's a 911 Dakar, what you guys
pronounce as cool Dakar Dakar. Yes, because how it's said
anyway. So he's, he's like, Hey, can I get one of these? I
said, unfortunately, no, you know, it's a really limited
production car, like, let's do some homework and see if we can
find one, but we just don't have one of those lying around.
You're like, if you buy 10 tie cans, then we can have a
discussion. No, because in the States, we didn't do that. Oh,
that's my next question. I'll lead into that. But so he's like,
hey, can I get a Dakar? And I'm good. Excellent.
Working on it pronunciation. And um,
Guy sounds like a legend. We did find one, right? And he's
like, Okay, so how does this process work? I've never bought a
car before. And I said, Well, you haven't been taken process.
Sorry. Just saying how does this process work? I've never
bought a car before, right?
Don't worry, don't worry, he'll get it more before you know,
listen, if it's hard to understand, just put subtitles
on it. Yeah, exactly.
So I've never bought a car before. How does this work? I was
like, well, but you have your Bentayga, you know, you I see
you all the time. You come in for service. That's how we met.
So get my boss that gave that to me. Wow. He's like, Yeah, no,
that's not my car. Just my you know, my boss thought I needed
a car. He was getting a new one. He's like, Yeah, just have my
have my old Bentayga. Wow. So he had never bought a car before.
So we go through the process and I actually find him a car. It
was available. And I said, Here it is. This is what it's
going to cost you. And not in these exact words, but, and I
know we're all watch guys, I basically give him his bill,
right? Because in the states, depending on where you're going
to register the car, it's going to be assigned a certain amount
of tax, right? So even certain parts of New York have different
tax rates. So it's whatever the car is built to plus 8.875% in
New York City, but it could be 6.625%. If you're registering it
to Long Island, or if you're cheeky and you have a Florida
address, it could be even less or Connecticut or this or that.
And I give him the quote. I said, Sir, this is how much money
that car is going to cost you. It's a lovely vehicle. He's like,
Wow. He looks at his watch. He's like, I watch costs more than
that. I was like, Sir, sign here. Press hard. Press hard. I'll
call you when the car comes in. And that was it. And that was it.
That was it. That was it. It's just another level, isn't it?
Yeah, we're from a very large bank in Manhattan. And stuff like
that was an uncommon. Imagine driving a Dakar around around
New York. Perfect New York City car. Perfect with all the
Potholes New York City car. Yeah, it was the one that you didn't
have to worry about speed bumps, potholes, roadworks or what
we call it like to call construction. Yeah, no, that that
car was absolutely epic. And honestly, we ended up wrapping it
a special collar. We did all bunch of stuff with the roof rack
on it. He was really, really happy with it. Yeah, wow, that
cool car. Yeah, but to your other point, we in the States, and
obviously, this is when I was there, things could have
changed. I'm pretty sure they haven't. But you do not need to
buy 10 tech ends to to to get your specialty cars. Okay, in the
States, obviously, it's a little bit more of a free market.
Right. So it's just, it's it's car plus x. x is whatever the
market value of the car is, whatever management, dealer
group, whoever decides that they want to sell that car for it
could be for instance, a 911 turbo s, it could be MSRP.
So you're selling above list plus eight plus 80,000 pounds or
dollars, I should say, plus 100. So that's not so over here, we
obviously get people buy them and then flip them. Right. But
you still could do. Yeah. And what's your thoughts on that?
Because there's so much pushback. And I think, probably, I
don't know whether Porsche or Ferrari get it worse, actually,
with the kind of having to buy a certain number of cars to get a
special car. Right. What's your thoughts on that?
You know, it kind of hurts a bit as a car guy to, to think
about it, right? Because, rightfully so, if we had the funds
and the car was available, we would buy the car immediately.
And you would also still see the customers in in Manhattan in
New York City, who weren't the super wealthy, who would be like,
I've worked extremely hard. I saw that this car cost 200
grand. I am ready. And you have to tell them, no, it doesn't, it
doesn't work like that, at least not buying it here. So, you
know, as far as my personal, you know, thoughts, it's, it's
tricky, because we are car guys, we get attached to these cars,
they're not just pieces of metal. You know, they're not just
something to get us from point A to point B. There's plenty of
cars we would love to have. And if we could afford them, or if
we had the money, we would buy them tomorrow. But at the same
time, it's a business. And at the same time, it's, it's a free
market. And things like that are done in a lot of different
aspects of the way that we spend our money. So if that is who is
in control wants to do it, then it's tricky, right? Because you
say, Oh, well, okay, well, I'm just going to do some shopping.
I'm not going to buy it from you. And then you call around and
it's just the same game.
I guess it's no different. You can't walk into a Rolex shop by
Rolex, right? Right? Yeah. It's one of those things where
it kind of creates a demand or a value in the car that kind of,
I don't know, it's frustrating. I kind of get it in one respect,
but it's annoying that my thought is if you've got the money,
then there's, you know, you shouldn't I think we're we're I
think we're a bit unique in the UK, because we're right hand
drive and right hand drive markets for someone like Porsche is
very small markets, right? Ask Japan, Australia 76
countries in the world that drive on the left and on the
left hand drive. How many on the right on the left hand side? So
that's us. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, how many of those are big?
Let's say Porsche markets for a minute. What's the stat for
the rest? Yeah. Oh, a lot. But people just made it sound like
awesome. No, no, no, no, but he's a good politician, right?
People always say it's us in Japan. That's it. And it's not
No, I said us Japan and Australia probably the major
South Africa. Yeah. But it's a lot of Africa, actually. But
I don't know. It's not it's not as much as left hand drive
markets, but it's not. It's not tiny. And I'm not defending. But
I think I think the difficult thing is it's like, Porsche
obviously limit how many we can get Germany. And then it kind of
works for them in the sense that if we could all have what we
could what we want, then that's no longer something the
special, right? So there's always, there's always that added
thing, the stress of weight. I want one of those, but I can't
quite have it or whatever. So and I think only Porsche BMW try
and do it with some of their models, and it usually just
falls really flat. And it doesn't work. I want an M3. Well,
you got to buy an M1355. Yeah. And then the very next week,
it's on the full court discounted at 20 grand off and BMW.
Yeah. No offense. Original Tony Lewis, if you're watching
this, because
he is original. We got Anthony Lewis. Exactly. Anthony
there is a nation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Why is it because
we'd say Anthony? Yes, I know. And you know what's funny? You
guys can't figure out how to say my name, or at least maybe
hear my name. I have a list. Yeah, but but so I'm Tony and
Sony. I'll tell Anthony. He's not phony. He's Anthony. They'll
say. So what's your name? Anthony. And they're like, okay,
Andrew. It's like big. Okay, Anthony. It's like Tony. If they
don't hear Anthony, they just hear something else. All right,
Eric, I'll call you later. I'm like, it's not what I said my
name was, or a lot of them will just use my last name. Like,
all right, Lewis, I'm like, oh, whatever. That's fine. But you
guys have nerve because British names and that's not even a
conversation of willing to have British names. Oh, you know,
Henry, whatever, whatever the fuck, you guys have like, there's
no John Smiths here, right? Or or like Matthews, like
everybody like Achilles Achilles. I mean, if I said I
started Greek, isn't it really? It's like a great hero.
Great God. Moving on. What's the next topic of conversation? I
think we talked about translating.
We've talked about so we talked about Manhattan. But is there
any what was the most did you what was the most ridiculous
car you sold there? Or what what has been the most ridiculous
car spec option wise that you've sold since you've been in the
UK? What like, can you think of a standout without naming
anyone? Just give us a bit of an anecdote.
Well, I will say that that Porsche customers are
definitely more tame. I think we all know that compared to
especially when you would see, you know, for instance, we were
we were a Koenigsegg dealer, we were a Bugatti dealer, we were
Rolls Royce, we were Lamborghini, right? And you would you
would see, because I think it once it gets to a point, you
know, of 300,000 dollar cars and above, you're not like,
um, you're not worried about, you know, the the $20,000 in
between or the $10,000 in between. I did a tour of Aston
Martin a few years ago. And it was just when they were starting
to make Valkyrie. And they're saying that one of the Valkyrie
customers had bought at auction, and a meteor, a bit of moon
rock, 80,000 pound bit of moon rock. And he was having that
ground down and put into the paint that was going to be used
to paint his Valkyrie.
I mean, that's a little bit a little bit. It's it's it's more
it's more commonly the camera angle didn't capture that. Yeah,
yeah, there was there was a there was a hand gesture made. But
no, you will see, I will say that the UK is much more tame,
right? Yeah, I think it's tied into the weather. That's that's
just all you're gonna say gray is in there. I mean, yeah,
yeah, I'm not gonna have right. Lovely. I moved here for the
weather. Excuse one second, though. One second. We talked
about the weather because when I first met you, it was a horrible
February March when you first moved over. I remember we did the
ordering video was absolutely bucketing down. You know,
bucketing down, bucketing down rain. Yeah. I've been here for
but I'm sorry to say this to you. You've experienced potentially
the best summer we've had in at least 10 years. So don't expect
anything about that next year. I brought it with me. I brought
it with you. You put it with you. Yes. So you're welcome.
Man, everybody and the you and we get lovely summers. Keep on
selling tycans. Otherwise, it's gonna keep getting as good as
that. You're in the market. He's got plenty. I've got a
lovely turbo less. Yeah, for 50 grand with your name on it.
Cross Turismo as well. Cross Turismo. Oh, mate. Don't we
because we got the McCann and we have brought a cross Turismo.
We drove it down to Cornwall and we're both sat in this
comment. This is really nice. And you know what? That's the
funny thing and we might have bought the wrong car. Well,
especially with Porsche. It's one of those things where
obviously they make very good cars, right? And when I find
myself in their EVs, you get the customers that come in all the
time. Well, that's not a real Porsche. It doesn't make any noise
or why did they make this? And I'm just like, that's really
simple minded, but I just short sighted. Right. But I
understand that that's that's your kind of, you know, approach
to them. But when you do get to drive a Taycan and the McCann
and inevitably the new Cayenne EV, they are amazing cars. And I
think what it really does with the EVs is they really open up
that that that world where now you can have a special second
car. If if you're so able to do so, you know, you can have the
Taycan and the McCann or whatever the EV of choice is
because they do whatever you need them to do perfectly, right?
You never have to warm them up. You can warm them up from an
nap. You're not you're not scraping ice off in the morning.
They're ready to go. There's less road noise. You're less
fatigued when you arrive wherever you get. And now my Sunday
car can be a little raunchier. Because how well the Taycan and
the EV does, you know, all of all of what it's supposed to do is
get me to and from the train station to and from work, keep
me dry, pick up groceries, pick up, you know, the kids and stuff
like that. So I really it's it's honestly it's weird to like
EVs as a car guy. Can I can ask you I'm gonna it's a bit of a
punchy question. What does that mean? Punchy as in, well, you'll
find out when I ask you the question. It's like a fire away.
So does it then so I agree. So I think Taycan, whether it's the
normal one or sport across to Rismo, and I think the new
McCann EV, they drive beautifully. The we always say they
drive like a Porsche. He hates EVs, but even quite I feel like
he hates them because he feels he should go and that was what
I was saying. But but they drive like a Porsche. Yes, they
don't have the noise and everything. Are you surprised at
the depreciation issues with Taycan because it's still a
Porsche and I am I've I was surprised I thought they would
go down but I didn't expect them to tank like they have done.
And I wonder what your thoughts were.
I'm not necessarily surprised because obviously I answer this
question pretty often.
Yeah, I'm just about to order 150 grand Taycan is going to be
worth in three years, right?
Porsche exists in a special space. And I think that because of
that special space, we feel that all cars are protected the way
that the 911 is protected. Yeah, right. And the way that the
718s are protected. Also, I already said that because I've
got one. Also, we've just gone through the bubble, the bubble
of COVID where people have forgotten about depreciation,
and so many people still live in that world of 2021, 2022,
where it's like, why is my cars appreciating?
Well, the magic word equity. Yeah, I always appreciate it,
except for those two years where, you know, there was a
certain yeah, anyway, an effect. And that's when the Taycan
was, you know, that's when it was new. Correct. So it's, yeah,
it's like a double combo. I think it's one of those things
where, you know, if the Taycan is still young, it's still a
kid, still a child, right? 2020 was the first year that we
saw them. So it was five years ago. And it still is in, I think
a not necessarily a realm where it's proving itself, I think
it's proved itself. But it's it's definitely a car where it's
never lost on me, especially from where I worked at Manhattan,
where you would see quite easily every day, you would see
million dollar cars and above, right? I remember at one point
we had a the new Lamborghini Countach in our showroom quite
some time, lovely car, right? My lovely car, we had the
Ventador SVJs, we had Koenigseggs, we had everything, right?
And these are cars that reach a price point where it's like,
what is that? And I wanted it to never, I wanted it to never be
lost on me that that that it's still a car, right? Obviously
loose term and it's capable of some incredible things. But the
essence of a car is to get you from point A to point B, safe
and dry, right? So when you do look at cars like the Taycan
compared to many other EVs on the market, we're in different
air, that car is in different air, it's at forms at a level,
it's designed at a different level. It's, it's from a company
where we don't concern Porsche doesn't concern itself
necessarily with with certain metrics, they are going to
create an epic product. But I do think that because of its age,
because of where EVs still are as far as, you know, only
recently, the the conversation about range anxiety has begun
to become background noise, right? Only recently has has
charging points. And you know, how far can this get me has
started to become less of the conversation, and more of an
afterthought because the cars are getting so good.
Plug into a 350 kilowatt charger in the Porsche Stanton. You
don't have to stay there very long. 15 minutes, 20 minutes,
right? 25 if you if you if you need to.
No, I'm just being realistic here. Listen, I'm not I'm
one second. Goodbye. All right, I'm back. Just had to pass
Peda bottle opener. Listen, I had a, I had a Taycan sports
Taycan Tabera sports wheels made the other day press car 190
grand as optioned. I mean, this was like three weeks ago. So
it's probably like 70 grand now. Here we go. But I went bet you
it drove on Michelin. It was I say that about it. Unfortunately,
it wasn't a mission ties. I took it to I need to charge it up.
And I don't have a charger at home. So this is why I always
caveat. Listen, if if I and Lou might be getting an EV very soon
for work. Once we've got that, we'll have a fast charger at
home. And I'm sure my whole outlook and electric cars and
living with him having something is something that we can go to
the shops and and she can go to work on be so much easier,
because it's just charging gets up in the morning. She doesn't
even need to go to petrol stations. I get that. But but in
this instance, I took it down to Porsche Silverstone, not the
experience center here. The other one went up turned up in
their lovely charging stations. Great. They had four bays. They
were all empty. Pugged it in. I think they were 250 kilowatt
there. Pugged it in. And it had 10% range plugged in. I was
getting about two 15 kilowatts to start with it. Then it went
190 180 by the time I was about 40% more down to about it was
going about 120 130. Bear in mind, there was no other cars
taking any juice, right? And these are state these are brand new
charges. They've just installed. By the time I got to and I know a
lot of people go Yeah, but you should charge your AV between
this and that. Well, no, like, that's not how it works in a in
a combustion engine car.
But it's a mindset change. I know. No, but no, but no, but you
claim a range. But actually, then you're told, then you're
told that you shouldn't really do or use that range, you should
actually use this range. So then and then you get down to it. And
I was there for half an hour, 30 minutes on the dot, because it
was part of my video. And in that half an hour, I charge about
60% of the range, which I worked out to be about 140 miles on the
new type that you know, because they're do about 280
realistically. So it's, it's not so much. I know people say, oh,
it's got 800 watt infrastructure. Firstly, you need to find a
charge that does 800 watt this. Is there any? No, 350 watt. But
then you turn up to 350 watt doesn't really give you 350
watt. It gives you 300 if you're lucky. And it only gives you
300 for a certain amount of time before it becomes 200. Then it
becomes one. It's just lots and lots.
Can I just I just want to such I just want to say so. I hear I'm
loud and clear. And I want to use this fact. I want to use I want
to use a British term and tell me if I say no. But I think he's
just waffling. He is.
No, I'm just sending you facts. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I
think I think it's
right. So the 80 20 rule, right? Yeah. There's no reason why you
can't go beyond 80 20. It's a time benefit rule when you're in
public charging. Yeah, stick between that's your quickest way
to get on your way. Yes. And you get on your way 80%. And then
you drive for a couple of hours and you stop and then you do
another quick. I know I'm a small
when you're at home.
Charge. Yeah. Yeah. No, I know I'm a small. That's got real
personal.
Real personal. Listen, no, I'm I know the internet and you guys
think I'm anti TV. But I'm just talking about something that
I've lived with.
Sounds very anti. No, I'm just talking about a real life case.
I'll give you an example. If I couldn't charge an EV at home,
yeah, and around an EV for a week, I'd be anti TV. Yeah, do
not buy an EV if you can't charge at the end. And the
problem is, I mean, that's fine if you've got somewhere to park
off street charging. If you haven't, then it's another
thing entirely. But if you're having to charge, my issue with
public charging isn't the speed because I think actually now
the range of ultra rapid charging is really good. Yeah, it's
the cost. Yeah, because you're probably paying 80 to 90 pence
per kilowatt hour. And that's too expensive. Yeah. So, you know,
bring the cost down and I know Porsche with the Porsche charge
card, it's down at like 30 30, 39. Yeah. And that's about there
or thereabouts for me. But yeah, but we got onto this. No, the
positive side of it. Listen, once it once it's charged, yeah,
then Joe's happy. No, no, and I am and it was a great listen. And
I'm not trying to put down electric cars. I'm not trying to
put down Taycan. Although I think personally, it's, although
it's, it's a brilliant package. It's packaged badly in terms of
ergonomics. That's just my own, that's my own opinion.
Loughlin. Try sitting in the back of any kind of Taycan.
Absolutely not.
I think it's fine. I'm five nine. Yeah, well, it's all
to be that time. I've forgotten my point now. No, but luckily,
but no, it's great to go to the Porsche Center and I'll tell
you what, and I'm sure it's exactly the same with with
Reading. They were lovely. Someone actually came out while
I was there offered me a drink. Yeah. Yeah. And it was really,
and so the experience that side of it was much better than
going to a petrol station or
Well, as far as Taycans are concerned, and, and then I've
got some questions for you guys, which is a little off topic,
but we'd love to just pick your brain about some stuff.
Never have guests ask those questions.
As far as, and they'll be, they'll be way off topic, but
there were three beers in.
It's fine.
As far as Taycans are concerned, right? And as far as charging
EVs and all that stuff, I think, and this is something that I
personally tell a lot of my customers, especially when you
said, Well, what about the values? We do have to approach
Taycans much differently than we're approaching regular cars
and other cars, right? If we all bought a 718, a 911, whatever
it is, we would plan on keeping that car for as long as we
could, right? Taycans, McClellan EVs, Cayenne Bevs, we
have to approach these cars and with the other brands as well.
But obviously, I can speak most confidently about Porsche.
Don't worry about the value and the majority of these customers
are on a PCP. Yeah, right? And I don't think that's not because
they can't afford purchasing the car by by no means. I think it's
strategic. And when I do look at the Taycan and how much J1 versus
J2 has increased in range and charging efficiency. Look at the
Macan. Now we've got the Cayenne EV coming out. These cars are
going to be making such leaps forward compared to the 992,
which is in a long litany of cars that has have already
existed. So if you use the PCP, a way that a PCP is supposed to
work, where at the end of it, you hand your car back and you
start fresh, depreciation is never your concern. No, it's
your down payment in your in your in your motion. Someone's
going to pay for it. And they make amazing used cars. Taycan
car. So if anything, I know that we follow trends and we follow
these conversations of, oh, they lose so much value and they
lose this. Look at how much car you can buy for x for 60 grand
for 50 grand, 50 grand, because EVs are fast to begin with, but
then you're getting a Porsche. Yeah, people think the
battery is going to die. And they don't that the batteries are
lasting. We get 10 year 10 year correct 10 year. And not only
that, but that's and that's just their their coverage. That's
just their warranty. It's going to be a long time before you
start to see a depletion in state of charge, you know, any any
any state where the battery isn't doing what it's supposed to
do, right? Compared to and you know, you're talking about
inefficiencies and we'll move on. But this that the third, you
do if somehow we find a way to not compare them to some of the
necessarily poor petrol vehicles that are out there cars
that throw transmissions that are known for that throw engines
that are known for that. No, no, I'm not
not. All right, I owned a 9 11 99 2.2 for like, like you said,
my father was very busy with Jaguar Land Rover and those are
built here. All right, answer. I don't know if they're built
here. They're in England half a symbol assembled here. Yeah.
Well, ever since not very well in car only. What's that? No.
Yeah, but that was my joke. They're not actually fully built.
They're just like half assembled. But all manufacturers
have some cars that have their issues. Yeah, of course. Yes.
And it's and it's how it's how the brand approaches them. And
one of the things that when customers do come to Portion
Center ready, and they do ask me these questions about, you
know, well, you know, is it going to be this is going to be
that I've heard this I've heard that and I always point to the
workshop. Yeah, literally point to the workshop. And I say
there's a reason why that workshop is so big. This this
showroom is lovely. The front the front of house, all of this
is really lovely. But the workshop is probably bigger, right?
Not twice the size, but maybe one one and a half. You can see
as well. And it's there because these cars are very, very
heavily engineered. They're built by humans and we're the weak
link. Yeah, and there will be an issue. So it's not necessarily
is the car going to break. It's when the car is going to break
and how are you taking care of and how is the vehicle taking
care of once that happens is is more important than I think
trying to find a flawless car that's not going to have any
issues. Yeah.
We're very quickly, very quickly approaching the hour. And
we've got dinner in a few minutes. But wow, can we can we can
we finish on? Before we turn the cameras on, we're talking
about a particular car that was specced and Sondavunch. Oh,
and Sondavunch. Yeah, maybe those two. Let's just cover
those in a few minutes. I only have found out about Sondavunch
special wish. I love you know the German thing. So the Sondavunch
and then so PDK Porsche Doppelge. Yeah. Twin clutch. Don't call
it a TCT. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, but you
can't disrespect it because it's a place. All right. Like
that's always been my thing. The same people that say Porsche
versus Porsche. Yeah, I have a stickler with that because it
was his name. Yeah, right. And if somebody called you Joe
Achilles, right, you'd be like, or someone email me Joseph
or Anthony. Well, that's that. I figured you'd need my
you assumed. Yeah, whatever. I've met someone at my mini
dealership and she was like, oh, you you're mates with that Joe
Achilles, aren't you? Exactly. I'm sure I'm sure he would want
you to correct him. I know you didn't because you probably
spent I spent a lot of time in France, like road trips,
whatever. Whenever I check into a hotel, and I'm like, yeah,
Mr. Achilles, and I'm like, Mr. Achilles, Mr. Achilles.
Anyway, here's your car. Go. Yes, it's Sandovan. Sandovan special
wishes is a very, very, very cool part of the Porsche ordering
inspect process and especially with essentially rather with
special wishes, it allows you to really create some some very,
very special cars. And if you Google it and you look through
the history, there's that really, really popular chroma flair
GT2 RS, right? One of the most expensive special wishes cars
ever. Porsche just redid a 993 this past year through their
special wishes department. It's just about that. Okay, you just
had that festival in Dubai. There was that was the second gen
can. Yep. Was that a son of it? Most likely similar. Yeah,
we'll remember do it on any Porsche. Yes, you can. Yes, you
can. So if you see like videos of the special wishes
department, you'll see, you know, a 911 speeds are sat next to
McCann, right? Wow, next to a box or sat next to a Panamera. So
it is more so like, here's a perfect example, you guys have
been on the configurator, and you know, when you the first
couple steps are your color, your color of the car, and you
see paints a sample, then you see pan to sample plus, right?
That paints a sample plus is one of the one of the kind of
steps into looking into what Ken Porsche do, right? I love this
the color of my my drapes and I would love for for, you know,
you to paint the interior or the exterior of my car in this
color. Yeah. So special wishes is just one of those things
where if you can dream it, you can think it and there is a
price threshold, they will not open the door to the special
wishes department in less in the States, it was $15,000.
Yep. As a minimum. And at that point, the pricing just
becomes whatever Porsche says. Okay, so if they want to charge
you 1000 pounds a letter, you know, to have your name put here
in a certain part of the car. Well, that's what it costs. If
you want a specific stitching or a specific color in your
interior, specific shade of color on your wheel or whatever
it is, that's just what it costs. And the reason why you guys
were asking me and for the listeners that are listening
to this, I was sharing a video before that, sorry, I was
sharing a story before we started this podcast about the most
expensive special wishes car that I ever saw go through
Manhattan, New York City, Manhattan motor cars, and I
won't give too many details, only because you know, if I did,
you somebody would figure it out. But it was, it wasn't a
turbo, it wasn't a turbo s wasn't a GT three, it was more of one
of the standard versions of the of the 911. And it was the most
expensive version of that car in the world. We're talking about
a GT, did it have GT? Yes, but we're talking. So okay, in
terms of retail to what it ended up costing, what are we
talking three times the price?
Easily double.
Easily double. And you have to think about that being double in
equipment. And not equipment in the way where you're adding
things like we talked about before with the sports chrono
and carbon fiber, you know, roll cage or lift. No, it's more I
want this to be this color. Right? I want this interior to be
this I want this paint to be this I want the shade of the
wheels to be this I want the mirror caps to be this I want this
very specifically so it's not necessarily how can I be very
extravagant because also in Manhattan when you would be near
the Lamborghini showroom, yep, you see extravagant. Yep, come
out of that out of that show, pinks and purples and yellows and
all sorts of stuff. Wild colored stuff. But this is more so
with Porsche kind of circling back to the beginning of the
podcast with the with the you know, you said dog dick and
dick red. Yeah. Yeah, we can cut that out. It's fun. And
bright blue, you know, colored interiors, it's whatever you
want. Yeah. And if you do want it, there will be a price but
you can have it. Is that so that's an interesting question. So
Ferrari have a very similar thing. But they have a limit. As
in the if you wanted a Ferrari in candy pink. Okay, they won't do
it. Okay, there's certain lines that they just
heads off for a Ferrari California with the GTS interior
pack. Yeah. And they've been like, it's so not even a Roma.
Nope, nothing. I'm Alfie. So are there SF 90? Desperate to
get rid of anything that you couldn't have?
I think mechanically, it would get tricky, right? Like don't
build me a turbo s target, right? I think it would it would
get Oh, that'd be cool. Here we go. Oh, his first lottery
winnings. He's going to turbo s target. Why don't they do a
turbo s target? Let's not get into that. Or we'll save that for
the next podcast. Yes, if you got if I'm fortunate for you guys
to have me back, we are actually you're definitely giving us
a because I think dive into it. Well, no, because I don't we
don't want to miss dinner. Yeah, no, I'm starving. Yeah. So
guys, what we need to do is if you want Anthony back, Anthony,
Anthony, firstly, we're going to put Anthony's details in the
description below because he actually has a YouTube channel
that you used to work on a lot since he's been over here hasn't
done much but motorbikes and cars is really good. Put his
Instagram down there and his email address. Sure. If you want
to go and spend 400 grand on a base Carrera. But I really I've
really enjoyed I've really enjoyed having you on here. I
think you've been you've been super entertaining and I'm sure
that the you know, our viewers and listeners are going to going
to say the same thing. Please let us know in the comments
below. We would love to have you back on in the new year just
say when absolutely. And as this is the last podcast before
Christmas. I know not everyone celebrates Christmas, but Merry
Christmas and happy holidays as you would probably say in the
States. I think that's happy holidays, man.
When's Thanksgiving? It's that tomorrow. It's tomorrow. So even
though this will come out after that, happy Thanksgiving.
There we go to the Americans. Happy holidays. There we want we
want to encompass everybody. Happy new year, gentlemen. Thank
you very much for the free beer. And we're going to take you out.
We're going to set you up. We'll feed you. I'm locking the door
when I when I get back into my place. But no, genuinely had a
blast. Always love talking about cars. And I know that we'll
continue the conversation. We will. But if there is ever a
space for me to return. Yeah, more than happy. Thank you very
much, guys. Thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Cheers.
Cheers everyone. Oh, is it now? Is it now? Still don't know
what that means.
Still don't know what that means. Is that cocking rhyming
slang? Got what that is.
About this episode
Exploring the ins and outs of buying a Porsche in the UK, Anthony Lewis, a Porsche sales executive, shares his insights on the ordering process, the importance of personal taste in car specifications, and the unique aspects of the Porsche brand. The conversation dives into the fun of customizing vehicles, the impact of options on resale value, and the differences between the UK and US car markets. With anecdotes from his experience in Manhattan and a humorous take on the quirks of car buying, this episode is packed with valuable tips and engaging stories.
Original notes
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Joe Achilles and Peter Greaves (Petrol Ped)
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