Porsche dealerships moving faster than Chuck Leclerc in Texas

Charles Leclerc of Monaco during the US F1 Grand Prix. Picture: Getty Images

Before we look at last week’s US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas – and the weird effects it had on drivers, cars, spectators and race officials, and look forward to the Las Vegas Grand Prix which strangely enough is in Las Vegas at the end of November and so after this weekend’s Gran Premio (Grand Prix) de la (of the) Ciudad (city) de (of) Mexico 2024, and the following weekend’s Grande Premio de Sao Paulo 2024 (work it out for yourselves) – we are going to talk about Australia’s favourite topic, property!

Twenty readers and one son, you know there are only two convos about property and they depend on which suburb you live in, and whether you have an investment adviser, a tax adviser, a legal adviser, a bean counter, a wealth adviser, an estate planner adviser, a tax optimisation adviser, an insurance adviser and a travel adviser for when Rob Heferen, originally from Deloraine, Van Diemen’s Land – soon to be of 15 Sydney Ave, Barton – in what passes for our national capital, comes knocking at the door with a few of the laddies and lasses and others from our ATO, asking “where’s the lazy $30m you owe us?” Or you ask your next door neighbour who does the books for the local Chinese restaurant still offering the Australian Chinese menu.

If you are in the second category your conversation has to focus on which of the kids (Ollie or Taylor) or both, you will have to sell to pay the mortgage.

If you frequent uptown (serving serious coffee and native ingredients) on Cottesloe’s Napoleon Street, or Speedos (modern Australian cuisine in a light-filled space with wood-panelling, beach views and a casual vibe) on Bondi’s Ramsgate Ave, you talk about whether you should buy the $11m house for the toy boy, toy girl or other, or the $7m one.

If you’re a true petrol head and don’t have licence plates that spell out a version of your name in letter and numbers like, Spankme2, then you’re talking about the great Porsche (Porsche if you are a battler and Porsha if you have a toy sell-off).

Of course, Porsche is owned by VW. Think you’re doing it tough? A few years ago, VW shares were $400 each. Today they are $156. As we say in the business section, VW stock is badly underperforming the sector and has a few cashflow issues.

Can I whisper negative $4.4bn? Most of the VW Group’s luxury cars are going backwards. In fact, Bentley deliveries are off 22 per cent. Lucky Porsche; while they are also going backwards, the German’s margins are still the highest in the company at about 16 per cent.

Most of this margin would come from the Porker service and parts departments in Australia.

So, it may be good news that US auto giant Penske has bought Porsche Centre Melbourne in Collingwood from Porsche Retail Group Australia to add to the two Porker dealerships it bought in Brighton and Doncaster (Victoria).

Just to confuse you (and don’t we always) Nick Politis, chairman of the mighty Sydney Roosters (who were badly dudded in this year’s real grand final, you had to watch it in 4K on Kayo) paid about $50m for the Brighton and Doncaster properties.

OK let’s go slowly. Legend race car person, team owner and car billionaire Roger Penske bought the Porsche operating businesses and Nick (who has a few other gigs as well) bought the land and buildings.

Roger now owns 24 Porker dealerships. He runs 362 great dealerships around the planet and, unlike others we could mention, the Penske share price has gone from $33 to $255 over the past five years. You can be sure, unlike other car dealers in Victoria, Roger will back his brands.

Which leads us back to the Perth-based Autoleague which owns Berwick Jeep and sold a serious lemon to readers seven and eight, Helen and Jerry Chaberka, and then ignored them.

Anyway, we wrote to Autoleague boss Dan Kawai and asked him if he would like to comment on Helsie and Jezza’s problem.

We got the same reply as the Chaberkas. Now Dan’s company has a dominant position in the car biz in WA and in places like Berwick where Autoleague has the Mitsubishi, Nissan and SsanYong dealerships as well. And lucky cane toads! You have the Autoleague-owned Carplace out at Eagle Farm. Anyway, we’ll tell you even more about Danny and Autoleague next week.

Talking of electric car brands including what we recommend, hybrids: If you make or sell electric utes then our friend, Richard McNay, has a deal for you.

Remember in May 2023 we mentioned that Richard and Aaron Black drove from Melbourne to Alice Springs, raced in Australia’s toughest – the Finke desert race – and drove back home; all in an old red Commodore ute.

Rich wants to do it again and is looking for a vehicle, and a very small budget to equip the car with the required safety gear. If you are a Chinese EV ute maker (are there any others?) and want to get a name for reliability (unlike Jeep), speed and sand, then send me an email and I will hook you up (no, not that way) with Rich and the team.

We mentioned the Austin Grand Prix and the weird effects it had on drivers, cars, spectators and race officials.

So how weird is it that the best race last Sunday and the one the cameras followed, was between third and fourth? Anyway, better aero resulted in the Ferraris blasting out of the corners putting Chuckie Leclerc 8.5 seconds in front of Sainzy second, with Mad Max next, Leaping Lando fourth and Aussie Oscar fifth.

In a weird decision from the stewards, Leaping Lando Norris copped a five-second time penalty in the last few seconds of the race, so went from third to fourth.

Everyone looked weird in cowboy hats. Yuki Tsunoda looked weird and slow in an NFL shirt. Hamo spun out early. Lando Norris lost badly. Weirdly, Chuck thinks Ferrari can still win the world championship.

So, coming into Mexico, the constructors’ championship sees McLaren on 544 points, Red Bull on 504, Ferrari on 496, Mercedes on 344 and Sauber on 0.

The drivers look like this: Max Max 354, Leaping Lando on 297, Chuckie on 275, Australia’s only hope on 247 and my hero, Val Bottas on 0.

jcp.com.au