I’ve been thinking about this for a while and Deanna’s little “experience” in the Giveaway Porsche yesterday got me to thinking about it again. I’m wondering how fast a person could go during a Porsche test drive? It’s kind of a spin off of Kramer’s experiment with the Saab salesman on Seinfeld. I can hear Kramer now, talking to that salesman when he tries to walk away at a stop for some snacks…
Listen to me. When that car rolls into that dealership, and that tank is bone dry, I want you to be there with me when everyone says, “Kramer and that other guy, oh, they went further to the left of the slash than anyone ever dreamed!”
First of all, how many could actually get a Porsche dealership to let them test drive a Porsche? This has gotta be a feat in and of itself. Heck, I can barely get them to acknowledge me when I pull up IN a Porsche, much less a more average car. They seem more interested in giving me the cold shoulder than actually talking to me about the fine machines on their showroom floor.
Second, how fast do you think you could actually get a Porsche on a test drive up to? These days you’re lucky if you can get any freeway time in a new car test drive much less an open spot that lets you really hit it. Think they have some kind of unwritten limit about how fast people can go in them on test drives? My daughter got a pretty wild ride in a new Lamborghini that she claims reached 100 mph at one point.
I’m curious if any of our PorschePerfect.com readers has ever test driven a new Porsche and, for those who have, how fast you went? AND how fast could you have gone?!
RICK: (Seeing the turn-off up ahead) There’s the dealer!
KRAMER: Hey!
RICK: We did it! We pulled it off! I can’t believe it! Where’s the needle?
KRAMER: Oh, it broke off, baby! Woo, hoo, hoo!
RICK: Oh, Mr. Kramer, I gotta thank you. I – I learned a lot. Things are gonna be different for me now.
KRAMER: Well, that’s a weird thing to say..
RICK: I wonder how much longer we could have lasted.
KRAMER: Yeah, yeah. I wonder.. hmm.
(They both eye each other, then Kramer slams on the gas, attempting to go even longer. They both cheer and scream out)
Be a great video and/or story if someone actually pulled this little experiment off.
Ryan, for quite a few years, I was a car salesman, and we had our share of sports cars. The fastest/scariest test drive I experienced was in a 1991 300ZX twin turbo.
There is a highway here in CT that is like an interstate, but many of the entrance ramps have stop signs, requiring you to blend into 65 mph traffic from a dead stop.
The buyer went from 0 to 60 to 100 to 125 in the blink of an eye, passing people on both sides and the break-down lane. I’m in the passenger seat with someone I’ve only known for 20 minutes. I finally got him to slow down and pull off the next exit.
I got him to stop the car, then I pulled the keys out of the ignition, got out of the car to switch seats w/ him…while we were switching, I jumped in the car, locked the doors and took off…left him there.
Five minutes later I returned, picked him up, brought him back to the dealership. He bought a car from me out of guilt, but not the ZX – turns out he had shitty credit, so I sold him a beat up Mitsubishi Diamante.
My point is, don’t waste a salesman’s time unless you’re a buyer – these are people just like you with bills to pay. Not to mention that most Porsche dealers see this stuff all the time, and know how to size you up.
If you’re a “whale”, they’ll put you in a GT3, and find a way to get you up to those speeds in a controlled environment like a track or autocross event, with the assumption that you’re actually going to buy the car. But don’t walk in to a dealership as a non-buyer just to abuse the inventory and waste someone’s time…after all, that’s what rental cars are for.
btw, the fastest “test drive” I ever did w/ a Porsche was 145 mph on I-95 in CT from Madison to Clinton. I was behind the wheel of a car we had in inventory that I was supposed to be bringing to a client…a 968 Turbo S, which actually IS a rare Porsche.
The client only drove it around the block, then bought it full sticker price.
i got a mustang GT up to 115. the dealership was right on the interstate so it was easy access. i was over 100 before he even
noticed how fast we were going and then he just said – you might want to slow it down. it almost seemed like he said it out of obligation rather than actually caring one way or another.
well ryan let me borrow the give away porsche and i’ll take it over the carrera motors in bend, i’m sure they REALLY need to sell a car these days. i can bs with the best of them and i’ll take a 4s out and see what it’ll do.
I have “sort of”. When I was looking at cars last summer, the guy let me take out a Boxster and a Cayenne Turbo. Alone too! The guy threw me the keys and said be back within a half hour i think. It was sick, i went over 100 on each respectively. Probably could of gone faster but did not want to try something stupid in a vehicle I didn’t even own! Though this wasn’t an official Porsche dealership. It was a small, family-owned import type dealer. I’m guessing a Porsche dealership would be much more strict, at least from reading above.
I dont know about that but maybe you have better luck at a Porsche dealer getting the keys passed over to you if you take on Kramers persona of H.E. Pennypacker 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4CaeujELo4
I was at Lime Rock today talking to the owner of a new Cayman S (pics coming soon), and he did a qualification process over the phone, then the salesman showed up at his office with the keys, and left the car with him for the afternoon – a different definition of the term “don’t ask, don’t tell”.
ruthless- totally understand where you are coming from. you just get a bunch of tire kickers and get used to people just coming in and wasting your time
Ryan, I tried to e-mail you this link, but it said it was “filtered out as spam”. Thought i’d share with the group since were talking about test driving Porsches.
https://www.porschedealer.com/firstmile20/?uri=firstmile19
Good stories all.
My guess is they wouldn’t let you take it up to where Deanna takes cares on test drives.
every dealership probably has it’s own rules.
would like to find out
very nice.
@ maria – very nice? what are you talking about?