With a starting price of $92,400, the Porsche Panamera can hardly be considered cheap. That’s why when a Porsche AG dealership in Yinchuan, China, posted an online advert for a four-door performance car, offering it for 124,000 yuan, they received a huge down payment from customers.
The ad turned out to be too good to be true. The 124,000 yuan price tag is about $18,000, which is roughly the price of a Nissan Versa. The actual price listed for the Panamera in China is 998,000 yuan.
Realizing what had happened, the dealer quickly removed the misinformation and admitted to having made a serious mistake. Then Porsche AG got involved. The parent company reaches the first person who makes an online reservation. No details were provided, but the company indicated it could negotiate an “approved finish” on a single dealer-owned vehicle.
A spokesperson for Porsche AG spoke Bloomberg and acknowledged the incident. They indicated representatives from Porsche also personally contacted all other online customers to explain the situation and apologize. Reservations paid for promotional rates are expected to be refunded within 48 hours.
Although the dealership and Porsche AG took swift action to restore the situation, it still caused quite a stir on social media. Activity on Weibo, a Chinese blog and social media platform, soared as people took to it, expressing dismay and disappointment.
Last year Porsche delivered 93,286 cars in China, down from 95,671 in 2021 due to the effects of global supply chain shortages. Overall, the country accounts for a third of the luxury automaker’s 301,915 global sales and generates nearly $12 billion in revenue.
The Porsche Cayenne is by far the best selling Porsche, with a total of 95,604 global deliveries in 2022. It is followed by the Macan, which sold 86,724 units, and the Porsche 911, with 40,410 deliveries. The Panamera accounted for 34,142 sales, trailing the Taycan, which sold 34,801 units.
