Are Luxury Car Dealerships Intimidating?

Online, you often come across claims like “Luxury car dealerships are intimidating” and “They check your watch, so you shouldn’t wear a cheap one.” I even saw a post saying, “If you turn up at a Maserati dealer in a T-shirt and jeans, apparently they’ll give you a really dirty look.”

>Come on, that can’t be true… can it? (laughs)

It feels like these rumors have taken on a life of their own—and become a source of entertainment along the way. So I asked my husband what it was really like when he visited a Porsche dealership for the first time.

A Stop on the Way Home from a Work Meeting

My husband’s first visit to a Porsche dealership was on a weekday in the winter of 2014. He had begun to think, “Maybe I’ll finally be in a position to buy a Boxster soon,” and when a work meeting happened to finish early, he suddenly thought, “I know—I’ll stop by a Porsche dealership on the way home and take a look at the Boxster!”

He called the dealership and said, “I’d like to see the Boxster you have on display…” They replied, “We have one here, so please come by.” So off he went. I asked him, “You went just to see the car on display—not to test-drive it?” He said:

“I’d never really had a chance to get a good, close look at a Boxster, so I wanted to see what it was actually like first.”

Then I asked, “What were you wearing? Did you think about your watch or anything?”

“No, I didn’t think about any of that. Probably just a regular shirt and trousers. I stopped by after work, so I don’t even remember what watch I had on.”

For the record, he drove his Mercedes-Benz SLK 350 to the dealership that day.

One Test Drive Was All It Took

When he arrived, he was greeted by H, the salesperson who still looks after us today. As they stood chatting and looking at the Boxster on display, my husband mentioned that he was torn between the Boxster and the Boxster GTS. H said:

“The GTS is definitely the one to go for. We’ll be getting a Boxster GTS demonstrator soon. Would you like me to get in touch as soon as it arrives?”

“Absolutely!” my husband replied, and headed home. A little later, H called to say the Boxster GTS demonstrator had arrived. My husband went straight in for a test drive—and came back thinking, “Wow, this thing is incredible. I’m buying one!” He placed his order in January 2015. (That was quick! lol)

Incidentally, I hadn’t been to the dealership even once before he ordered the Boxster. One day, he came home and announced, “I ordered the Boxster!” I remember being stunned: “What? Already!? When did that happen?ヽ(ﾟДﾟ )ﾉ!?” To be fair, we’d talked quite a bit about buying one before then:

→ Related article: Five things my husband did to win over his car-indifferent wife and buy a Porsche.

As his wife, I’d assumed he’d buy one sooner or later. I was just surprised it happened sooner than I expected.