Porsche dealership is coming to San Luis Obispo

Porsche lovers and wannabes, rejoice! The premium car company is opening a dealership in San Luis Obispo.

Cardinale (CPC) Auto Group is planning to remodel the former Coast Nissan building just east of AT&T at 12100 Los Osos Valley Road.

According to a building permit application submitted to the city late last summer, the agent for CCP Auto Group that owns the Nissan and BMW dealerships in SLO will spend $4.5 million to remodel the empty showroom vacated by BMW now that it has relocated to a new site on Calle Joaquin. The application names Porsche as the line of cars to be sold at this LOVR location.

Sales agents at Coast Nissan, also owned by CPC Auto Group next to where the new Porsche dealership will be located, say the company expects to open as soon as spring.

CPC Auto Group, based in Monterey, owns 24 auto dealerships in California, Arizona and Las Vegas, including a Porsche dealership in Bakersfield. Besides Bakersfield, the closest Porsche dealer is in Santa Barbara.

Porsche would join a growing group of luxury vehicles sold in SLO that includes BMW, Mercedes and Volvo, among high-end European brands.

Porsche has enjoyed a big increase in sales in California, according to the New Car Dealers Association. Its latest report shows Porsche leading all brands in sales increases by percent through the first half of 2021, with a 64% increase vs. the same period last year.

The brand received more good news with JD Power ranking it as the top brand in customer satisfaction. The latest JD Power APEAL Study of customer experience with a new car ranked Porsche as the No. 1 premium brand for the third year in a row.

While the iconic Porsche 911 is probably the best known model in the sporty lineup, the German manufacturer has made a big push into the electric vehicle market this past year.

Reports say sales of the all-electric Porsche Taycan family in the first half of the year stand at 19,822 (up 342% and 12.9% of the total volume), which indicates that the company will sell about 40,000 of Taycan and Taycan Cross Turismo in 2021.

That would mean Taycan models would overtake sales of the flagship gas-burning 911 sports car this year.

Porsche is also introducing the electric Macan model, making it likely gas-powered models would continue to decrease by percent of sales.

In Europe, already around 40% of Porsche sales are plug-ins (about 16,000 out of 40,435 total).

The Macan is a small SUV that Car and Driver reports ”can dice it up with sports sedans on a racetrack and carry a reasonable cartful of groceries home from Costco.” Less expensive than other Porsche models, the car sells in the range of $56,000 to $66,000.

Like other car companies, Porsche is experiencing supply disruptions from the pandemic including chip shortages and other backlogs. Many dealers in SLO report few new cars on the sales lots.

In October Porsche warned its dealers in the U.S. that customers might have to wait an extra 12 weeks to get their cars, because they lack a chip used to monitor the car’s tire pressure.

When you get your hands on it, the iconic but pricey car is likely to set you back $100,000 for your ride, depending on the model.

The high-end electric Porsches are competing with top-selling Tesla for buyers. Tesla has a showroom in Santa Barbara and is rumored to be looking to open a showroom in SLO in the next year or two.

John Lindt is the editor of Sierra2thesea.net.

This story was originally published December 13, 2021 at 11:00 AM.