So, what is the recourse for clients expecting these cars?
Technically the vehicles do not yet belong to the customers until delivery, they still belong to the automaker, so personal automotive insurance will not have kicked in.
Commercial insurance policies for auto manufacturers and the cargo companies would address the losses to them instead. Volkswagen Group maintains the vendor relationships for shipping cars, not each individual brand owned by VW, a spokesperson said.
So those unfortunate souls with vehicles lost at sea have generally two options: Resubmit the order for the vehicle, keep your deposit placed, and wait several months for the next shipment. Or cut their loses, emotional and financial, take the disaster as a sign of some sort, and order something different altogether.
“The dealer has promised to keep me posted with any updates on how Porsche decides to sort this out,” Porsche customer Matt Farah tweeted about the customized Porsche he had ordered in August of 2021, which was on the Felicity Ace. “Odds are a new build and hopefully not another 8 months wait for it.”
In the case of luxury vehicles, it is up to automakers such as Bentley, Porsche, and Lamborghini to do what they can to placate their high-net-worth clients.
Manufacturers do not want those $300,000 orders going elsewhere; those who spend that much cash on a rare vehicle are often lifelong brand loyalists — or aspire to be. That is what Porsche did with the Golden Ray incident.
“In a special decision and to uphold its commitment to its valued Brazilian customers, Porsche has ensured that those [911 GT2 RS] units will be reproduced in the order in which they were originally confirmed,” the company stated at the time.
The move to reproduce cars in the same order as they had been intended is extremely rare, requiring ample time and money — and delays for other vehicles.
In the instance of the Felicity Ace, Porsche will take similar measures.
“We are already working to replace every car affected by this incident,” Porsche spokesperson Marcus Kabel said in an email. “The cars will be as close as possible to their original, ordered specification.”
All told, the fire is expected to pose a $155 million total loss for the brands affected.
The cost of the car itself, which for American buyers would be the initial deposit, rather than the whole sticker price, since the car had yet to be delivered, would transition to a new car, if ordered, Kabel said.
If the order is cancelled, Porsche will refund the deposit, “although based on feedback from customers, most are looking forward to receiving reordered vehicles,” he said.
“On the details of the specific cases, this is between the dealer and the customer,” he said, since all Porsche dealerships are independently owned and operated. “We are working to expedite the delivery of a replacement vehicle as soon as possible. We are working on this as a priority; the first cars will be built soon.”
A Lamborghini spokesperson declined to comment on how the Italian brand would handle the losses.
A Bentley representative confirmed that 189 Bentley vehicles are on board the ship and that the customer cars will take priority for replacement.
Both manufacturers face a potentially bigger loss than Porsche, proportionately speaking, since they make far fewer, and far more expensive, vehicles.
For Farah, the best decision in this case was to reorder his same spec. “[Porsche] gave me the opportunity to make changes to the build, and I said, ‘Build it like I ordered it the first time,'” he said. Farah was unable to confirm how long the new build would take but said that Porsche told him it was “a priority.” In the meantime, he will drive something else.
But for Danielle Tringali, who had ordered a Porsche Macan last December–and now finds her SUV is still adrift in the Atlantic–it was not a foregone conclusion.
Tringali remained undecided for much of the week about the best course of action before ultimately deciding Feb. 23 to wait it out for a new Macan.
“My car has been reordered and is in production,” Tringali said. “Estimated end-of-June delivery sadly, though.”
