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Porsche Australia price cuts in excess of $36,000 irks customers

Have you ever gone to the store, only to become irked after learning that the new [*insert widget here*] that you bought just last week has gone through a price drop? If you're particularly thrifty, even if it's only a couple of bucks, you probably brought in your receipt to see if the store would issue you a credit for the difference. Now, imagine that the widget in question isn't a minor purchase, it's a Porsche - and the price drop isn't just a few bucks - it's thousands.
That's the unhappy scenario that recently faced a number of Australian luxury car buyers and the uncomfortable conversation awaiting the German automaker. According to GoAuto, Porsche Australia recently whacked up to $36,000 off the price of its models in order to jumpstart sales Down Under - the Panamera range itself saw cuts between $5,500 and more than $36,000. The aggressive price cut was a strategy designed to drive sales of more than 3,000 cars locally, a yearly goal originally set for 2018, but now hoped for as early as 2016.
Australia is known for its comparatively high car prices, so the dramatic price cuts were undoubtedly welcome news to potential Porsche shoppers. However, around 50 existing customers were understandably agitated by the reductions because they purchased their cars just before the adjustments took effect. Not only did they stand to lose out on the deals, they also had good reason to fear that their new cars' residual values would take a beating.

Production Porsche 918 Spyder images leak out of Chinese patent office

A few images of what looks to be the production Porsche 918 Spyder are here to say hello, courtesy of a patent office in China. If these provide an accurate look at what the hybrid supercar will look like, there are a few differences between it and the latest examples of the pre-production prototypes our spy shooters have seen.
The jerry-rigged turn signals inside the headlight enclosures and on the front fenders on the prototype are replaced with more polished units inside the headlamps located underneath the main beams. Behind that, the door handles have been swapped from horizontal latches on the door to vertical openings located just behind the door shutline.
We've also seen a Martini-liveried version of the 918 Spyder that has extra carbon elements that don't appear on this car. It was at the Nürburgring with carbon lips on the front fenders and another carbon element that hung from the rear fenders and ran down to the rear diffuser. When we saw the car on our Deep Dive piece, the front lips were gone but that rear piece remained, and we can't tell from the brochure and options sheet that we've seen so far what it comes with. The wheels from the concept and the green brake calipers, minus the polycarbonate covers, should be the standard fitment while the ten-spoke magnesium wheels will be a 29,750-euro (about $39,000 US) option.

eBay Find of the Day: Your choice of new, unregistered mid-2000s supercars

If you didn't quite find what you were hoping to see under the tree this year, maybe it's about time you buy yourself something nice. Something like an unregistered 2005 Porsche Carrera GT. The car has never been titled and has just 83 miles on the odometer. With one owner since new, the Carrera GT is likely to be as nice an example as you're likely to find outside of a museum. Porsche only built 340 of these machines back in 2005, and with a 610 horsepower V10 kicking at your spine, you can lap Santa's sleigh next year. Currently, the Carrera GT has a buy it now price of $457,325 with around six days left on the auction.
Not flashy enough for your tastes? Stroll on down to West Hollywood and you'll find a similarly untitled 2004 Ferrari Enzo up for grabs with a sticker of $1.8 million. Technically a Euro-spec car, the Enzo isn't legal to operate on US roads, but could be modified to satisfy Uncle Sam with a little effort. The seller calls this car the "last brand-new Enzo in existence" and with 175 miles on the clock, that may be a true statement. You can head over to eBay Motors for a closer look if you're feeling spendy.