independent specialists
They’re the dedicated enterprises who work ardently away from the main dealer network – so what are their thoughts on current market trends, the changing world of restorations and the rise of Porsche Classic?
“Anybody sitting on a table near us must think we’re a right weird bunch,” jokes Greig Daly, sales director at independent Porsche specialists RPM Technik. He could well have a point: topics covered during our two-hour conversation in a quiet country pub include G-series rubbers and 1972-spec wiper arms – without the caps – punctuated by the occasional, hilarious anecdote, a launch control at the start line of a regulation rally a standout case in point.
Those topics might be lost on the everyman enjoying a lunchtime burger and chips, yet to a Porsche enthusiast such chatter is surely par for the course, especially when in the company of two of the UK’S most prominent independent dealers. Greig, a genuine life-long Porsche fanatic, is joined at the table by fellow RPM Technik director, Darren Anderson, another devout Porsche enthusiast and dyed-in-the-wool motorsports enthusiast. Across the table sit fellow connoisseurs of the Swabian sports car persuasion, Steve Wood and Mikey Wastie – the former a one-time competitor in British GT, the latter having spent years deservedly carving an impressive reputation as one of the most knowledgeable Porscheists in the industry. Both are now proprietors at Autofarm, having taken the business on from Josh Sadler in 2015.
Our lunch rendezvous provides the perfect setting for a relaxed group chat for our specialists, away from the spanners and spreadsheets associated with day-to-day life in the trade. Time to take an inside look at the Porsche industry from the independents’ perspective…
t911: Today it seems servicing prices between Porsche dealers and independent specialists is very competitive, and likewise the service experience itself runs more parallel than ever before. What’s the key difference between a main dealer and an independent specialist, in your opinion?
Mikey wastie: With Porsche, the framework is already set up: it’s all about a standard and a consistency. With the specialist, because you’re in control, you can shape it to what you want your business to represent. The customers who walk through the door either understand that and want to be a part of it, or they don’t. That’s probably why customers go to the RPM Techniks or Autofarms of this world, because they feel like part of what we call our ‘weird family’!
greig daly: Often we find the main reason behind a customer deciding between OPC or specialist is down to the experience on offer. Both are technically capable of course, so it comes down to whether the customer wants to be taken to a latte lounge while they wait to speak to a service manager, or in our case something we’ve found helpful is walking the customer around and showing them our diversity of cars
and the different departments. We find people buy into that. So it’s not the cost of the service or the hourly labour rate that’s most important for the majority of people now, it’s the personal approach and buying experience. Mw: Yes, these people drive the cars they do because they are enthusiasts, so we love to show them around. They might love to see a 2.7RS being restored or get to see an engine in bits, see what a piston looks like, for example – this is the sort of thing you won’t see at a main dealer. We’re more than happy to embrace that.
darren anderson: There’s a certain customer who chooses a specialist over a main dealer. Whether they are at the bottom or top end of net worth of vehicle is irrelevant. There’s no typical customer, but there is a typical enthusiasm for the way specialists present themselves and the way they manage the service they’ve come in for.
steve wood: We find it’s a relaxed person who’s always wanted a Porsche and has bought one for the right reasons. They end up becoming part of a family to us!
Mw: There’s also a flexibility enjoyed by independents. I can think of a case only this morning involving 1972 wiper arms, the ones without the caps so you can see the nuts. They’re no longer available, you have to get the later ones. That’s Porsche’s solution: get the later ones. I’ve therefore had to go to America to get the correct early arms. So, at Porsche, would that guy having his car restored have had that opportunity, or would he have just had later arms fitted? Because we’re not pigeon-holed within the Porsche network we have the greater flexibility to do what we think is right. That’s the difference.
gd: I’m with you on that. Some guys who have a car and want it restored, they may say they want it original. Then it gets to the engine side of things and Ollie, our engineer director, might suggest a couple of ideas which could say, boost performance or reliability – or both! – and they decide they want to do it. There’s no room for that within the Porsche framework.
Mw: That’s no criticism either. Porsche have set their stall, and that’s great because customers know what they’re going to get. Specialists can offer something different.
t911: Do you view Porsche Classic as a threat?
gd: It’s great they’re doing Porsche Classic because for the mainstream person who decides they want an old Porsche, it highlights the fact they’re collectible, interesting and supported by the manufacturer. For a main dealer I imagine it’s quite a challenge on staff – they may have old textbooks to refer to in order to fix a problem on a classic Porsche, for example, but in the years since there may have been new techniques developed to sort them which are much quicker.
This could prove a challenge for Porsche Classic partners in, weirdly, having to catch up with what we already know in the independent network!
Mw: I like the fact Porsche Classic means some of the parts that were no longer available are now being made again. However, there are quality issues – we see more now than we did five years ago. As a prominent example, you’ll get a Coupe roof skin through for an early 911, which was about £1,400 to begin with. We priced the refit on a customer’s car accordingly: within six months the price had gone up to nearly £3,500, and when we did get the roof skin through, the pressing was shocking. So, I’ve then had to go back to my customer and explain a £1,400 roof is now £3,500, which he’s not happy about, and then I’ve had to put on rework costs.
The positive side though is you couldn’t buy a roof before, which was a bigger problem than buying a roof that isn’t perfect. The issue is the price increase – you guys must have it [gestures to Darren and Greig] too, watching the prices jump up at a far quicker rate than we’ve ever seen before. With that in mind, I’d have expected a slightly higher quality than what we’re seeing in some stuff.
da: It depends on where Porsche is going, doesn’t it, as they might be gauging the demand for these parts and then when they have a lot of stock, they might produce it differently and cheaper. Overall, Porsche Classic has to be positive for the market in terms of both specialists and main dealer, because it’s highlighting those models and the fact they support their older models right the way from cradle to grave.
There are still a lot of Porsche out there, and there’s a lot of hard work done by specialists to keep these cars going.
sw: Thing is, the value of the cars went up so much that now there’s a lot of people restoring the cars as they’re worth it financially, and that’s probably what lead Porsche to realise there’s a market there for this.
Mw: Yes, and before Porsche Classic you were kind of on your own with restorations, but now there’s some support there. To do it you obviously need the parts, that’s the main thing.
gd: It validates why we exist, basically. It’ll be interesting to see how a main dealer handles a restoration when it comes in and what sort of process they’ll have.
t911: What new market trends are you noticing?
gd: From our point of view it’s increasingly hard to sell the later classics, like late 1980’s and 1990’s cars, because as Steve was saying their values have gone from say a 964 Targa being £10-12,000 in 2012 to £40-50,000 now. So while that car may not have had a restoration in that time, a customer’s expectation when they come in to us and talk about the car is very high. However, when it was valued at ten grand the expectations were understandably lower. Because of that, from a sales point of view the cars we will put our names to are getting smaller and smaller, unless they’ve had a restoration and are a lowmileage example. It’s a double-edged sword as we get a lot of ‘new’ guys to the market who perhaps always buy new cars and have come in and said ‘that car’s well used’ and you have to say ‘yes, it’s 28-years-old!’ There’s a re-education of that buyer. It’s all changed a lot in the last few years in that the first question a lot of people ask is: “Which one’s going to go up in value, buddy?” It doesn’t work that way.
sw: Going off what you said there, Greig, we think it’s easier to sell a car that hasn’t had a restoration, as we know the exact condition it’s in, whereas if it’s been restored we need to look at who has restored it, how detailed they’ve been and what’s underneath. Sometimes you think a car’s complete but a lot of details are incorrect, for example. So, sometimes a car that hasn’t been restored is actually worth more than one that has.
Mw: You’re right, Greig, regarding educating people. We’ve got a new wave of customer coming in now. People who have had new cars and have seen the prices going up, they’re thinking ‘if I buy a new car the value goes down, but if I buy a used car the value goes up,’ so they look to get into a classic. However, they think they will make the sort of huge, quick turnaround that we witnessed with the 911 R, which was unprecedented. In the classic market, if you’re looking at chopping it in two years for a big profit, that won’t happen. However, if you’re going to buy it and keep it for ten to 20 years like the older guys with the 2.7RS, 2.4S, then hands down you are going to make money, because you’re in it for the longer term – and you’re going to get the use and enjoyment out of it, too.
sw: There are people who own these cars who are actually disappointed with how prices have gone up, believe it or not. I speak to these people about why they’re getting out of the cars now and their answer is pretty uniform: ‘I never bought it to make money. I bought it to enjoy, but its value means I don’t want to drive it any longer.’ It’s a little sad.
da: GT3S are a prime example of that. GT3 drivers have always bought them to drive hard: on track and then home again afterwards. Then overnight the prices go up and people stop using them because to achieve these perceived values buyers are asking: ‘has it been on track? Has it been over-revved?’
Mw: Same with 964 RSS – buyers are asking about provenance, but ten years ago they were all hardcore track cars!
da: This is also the reason our CSRS have benefitted, because people have spilled out of the GT3 market and realised they’d like a lightweight, track-focused car where they don’t have to worry about value.
Some are even jumping out of 991s and buying a 996 they can modify and have some fun with, because no matter how much money your 991 is, you’re not going to get the same analogue experience as a car from the 996 era, for example.
Mw: The cost of donor cars is so high we don’t do backdates like we used to [Autofarm were experts in turning SCS into quality 2.7RS backdates in
the 1980s and 1990s] because it’s just not financially viable. Now, it’s happened with the 964: where Singer creates these perfect cars from a 964 base it’s pushed their values up considerably. If only we kept all the parts we took off those backdated cars… There are a handful of people still modifying the blue chip cars though who just don’t care about the value of them, by and large – they work hard and want to enjoy them exactly as they were built for.
gd: You have to salute those guys as well because they’re a rare breed these days. Ultimately, this is what the 911 was made for when it was first built in 1963. They’re not like a Ferrari; they’re made for driving regularly.
da: You’ve also got to look at people’s aspirations, I guess. There are people out there who have a very clear idea about what they want their car to do for them. They know that buying a car and fettling it might not stack up financially, but they know doing it will provide a car that gives an experience unlike anything else. That resonates with us because at RPM Technik the bespoke projects are the work we like doing most – particularly when a customer comes to us with a budget and leaves it to us to engineer a solution for them and give them recommendations as to how we can make something that will tick the precise boxes they want their Porsche to tick.
sw: We’ve seen it that some guys actually prefer the project side of the build. We give them the car at the end, they drive it and then they ask us if we can start something else. They just love being involved with a different project to focus on.
Mw: It’s the same as racing: nobody ever does it to make money, you do it for the experience.
T911: With regards to the classic 911s, are people still modifying them or is it all about restoring now?
gd: I think it’s quite model specific.
Mw: Yes, it depends on what they’re looking for. Sometimes a customer will start looking for a car but through the process of talking to them you start to educate them out of what they initially set out to achieve, basically through bringing them up to speed with the market, what cars are out there, what to look for, for example. You might therefore have a guy who starts by looking for a backdate and actually ends up buying a really nice 3.2 Carrera. We always go back to our first question, which is: ‘Forget the model, what do you want the car for?’ A lot of people don’t actually ask themselves that.
da: Absolutely. The kingpin to how we approach our business is asking that very question. People come in and some think they know what they want, but when the right questions are asked they realise they want something different. That’s sales, servicing, projects, everything. The mantra to our business is engineering exhilaration. The entire process is treated like an engineering exercise, starting with ‘what do you want to achieve?’ We then help the customer in achieving that with the ultimate aim of them getting the most possible enjoyment out of their car. Fundamentally, if you don’t ask the question, you’re
giving them something, but it’s not necessarily what they’re after.
Mw: Quite often this person will think they know what they want because they’ve spoken to a friend or…
da and gd: Or read it on a forum!
Mw: Yeah, but when you drill down further into that, there’s often no experience to call upon to back that assertion up. That’s where we as a specialist come into it: we help them with their experience – it could be driving other cars – to help them reach a more informed decision. That’s a key part of our business: we’re all enthusiasts and what gives us huge job satisfaction is delivering a car that’s right for the customer.
sw: We find we get so in-depth with our projects, for example, that there’s a lot of hours spent on the job that we actually can’t charge for. It’s therefore doubly important that we’re happy with what we’re producing, as the cars are out there for a long time afterwards.
gd: I find from a sales side that if it’s not restored properly it just doesn’t sell. We therefore took a decision a few years ago to be far more stringent on restored cars that we’d sell. It’s all well and good saying it’s had paint and an engine rebuild, but if there’s no pedigree to that, it’s the difference between it sitting on the forecourt for months or not.
sw: Also, cars restored 20 years ago are done so in a completely different manner to now – even Josh [Sadler, founder of Autofarm] says that.
“There’s no typical customer but there is a typical enthusiasm for the way specialists present themselves and the way they manage the service they’ve come in for”
gd: It’s simple economics: if the car’s worth £5,000 you’re not going to spend £20,000 restoring it. It’s a different playing field now.
T911: There’s a uniform standard of work in the main dealer network that’s put in place and stringently maintained by Porsche. The independent specialists network by definition can’t have that, so is communication among different businesses in the sector important?
da: Yes, knowledge is key. On the diagnostic side of things there’s more of a reliance on Porsche, though. We’ve just signed up for the Porsche Partner Network [A B2B service platform that allows Porsche to communicate with partner companies], which amounts to huge sums of money, but it’s all up-todate information and, crucially, offers support, which is imperative for the new cars in particular.
Mw: I think that’s going to get harder as the cars become more electronic. Everything is being moved away from a program on a laptop that you can plug into the car; everything’s coded so that it dials in. In ten year’s time, the small guy, the one-man specialist, just won’t be able to talk to the newer cars. You will have to be affiliated to Porsche.
gd: But then I come back to the Classic scheme we talked about earlier, which presents a flip side to what we’re saying. Say you need to identify an issue on a K-jet [K-jetronic mechanical fuel system used on various 911 models 1974-1984], in that instance you’re going to be relying on the knowledge of the individual attending to the car – a computer can’t fix that.
T911: Looking outwardly, what are the biggest changes to the industry you’ve witnessed in your time?
sw: Knowledge, again. Thanks to the internet there’s a greater knowledge and understanding of the cars – customers pick up a lot of information now. Some of that information is good, some of it is not great.
Mw: Yes, there’s been a noticeable increase in consumer information, but there’s also been a rise in consumer misinformation. It can put you on the back foot as customers may come in to our workshop and have already diagnosed the perceived problem with their car. It comes back to starting again and asking the right questions as it could well be something else, but that’s just what has been read on a forum. With the older stuff, to me diagnosing issues involves a lot more intuition. You mention K-jet, or MFI: you listen to it, or look at it and you’re already on a natural path to diagnosing the fault. In a 1970s 911 a misfire could be one of five things. In a modern car however it could be 35. You can’t therefore adopt the same approach to both eras of car.
sw: Josh says this to me quite often: he thinks in the past Porsche have looked defensively at the independent specialist network. Now, they realise these people are spending a lot of money on parts and diagnostics, for example, so they accept that we’re there, which is a really positive thing.
da: I should hope so – we spend a truckload of money with Porsche, as we made a decision years ago to use genuine and not OEM parts. I should think that aside from the bodyshop, we’re the biggest client of Porsche Reading’s trade department.
T911: Where do you see your businesses going in the future?
sw: Mikey and I have spoken about this as we’re known for air-cooled cars. Hopefully there will be enough oil in the wells to keep them going, but we are now starting to look at models coming out of the dealer network too. Any Porsche that turns up outside our door, we want to be able to have the knowledge and expertise to be able to deal with it – even hybrids.
gd: I think for all specialists to a degree we have to accept Porsche is more of a volume manufacturer these days, so there’s more there for everybody to look after, essentially.
da: For us it’s our own CSR programme and developing that. Not just in terms of equipment, but also models: what model is suitable to use as a base car? We’ve done a regular 996 and 997 CSR, we’ve done a 996 CSR Retro, and coming soon will be a 996 CSR Evo, which is very exciting indeed…
Thanks
RPM Technik’s Darren and Greig can be contacted on +44 (0) 1296 663 824 or via rpmtechnik.co.uk. Autofarm’s Mikey and Steve can be reached via +44 (0) 1865 331 234 or via autofarm.co.uk.