In China, the Porsche Panamera starts at 998,000 yuan, the equivalent of $148,660. So, you can imagine the surprise of prospective customers when a Porsche dealership listed a new Panamera up for sale with an asking price of 124,000 yuan, or $18,000.
The dealership in China’s northern city of Yinchuan accepted hundreds of 911 yuan ($135) reservations for the Panamera before it noticed the mistake in the original list price. Porsche told Bloomberg that the dealership had uploaded information with “a serious mistake in the listed retail price.”
The dealer quickly apologized for the mistake and informed the hundreds of customers who placed reservations of the blinder. However, there was one customer that will likely walk away from the incident quite happy.
Porsche has revealed that it is in contact with the first person who placed an online reservation and revealed that it had “negotiated an agreeable outcome” for the one Panamera that the dealership has in stock. While it is unclear what this ‘agreeable outcome’ was, it is likely some kind of discount although certainly not a price cut of the 874,000 yuan ($129,982) that was advertised.
Read: An All-Electric Porsche Panamera Is In The Works, As Is A Second-Gen Taycan
Speaking with Bloomberg, the German car manufacturer said it reached out to each customer individually and will refund the reservation fees within 48 hours.
China is a crucial market for Porsche so it’s important that it retains a good relationship with customers. Indeed, China accounted for roughly 30 percent of all Porsche’s sales in the first half of 2022, representing 46,664 units sold and $6.2 billion in total sales.
