We are still a couple of months away from April Fool’s day, but a Porsche AG dealership in China startled everyone when it posted an advertisement on a social media platform for the latest Panamera with an unbelievable price tag. While the German sports sedan currently has a starting price of 998,000 yuan (around $150,000) in China, the dealership’s online ad reportedly was offering it for only 124,000 yuan (about $18,000). Predictably, hundreds of people who noticed this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity sprung into action to grab the deal of the century and put down a 911 yuan (roughly $135) reservation fee. Realizing the serious blunder, Porsche acknowledged that the dealership in the northern city of Yinchuan had made a mistake and the online ad contained “a serious mistake in the listed retail price.”
However, this story has a happy ending for a customer for whom Christmas might have come a month late but brought an incredible present. According to a Bloomberg report, Porsche actually offered a deal to the first person who made an online reservation. The German manufacturer said it “negotiated an agreeable outcome” with that person regarding the one vehicle the dealership had in stock; although, the company didn’t choose to reveal the actual details of that deal.
Nevertheless, we can only make the assumption that it must have been an offer that was too good to be refused. For everyone else who paid the reservation fee, Porsche contacted all of them individually to explain the honest mistake made by the dealership and apologize for it. With 93,286 cars delivered in 2022, China is the single biggest market for Porsche followed by North America at 79,260.
