I was stunned recently to hear that if you own a Porsche, which I don’t, and wish to sell it, you are almost force to use a Porsche dealership to sell it. The reason, if you don’t sell it by a Porsche dealership, they will not honour the warranty. I must say that I find that very anti-competitive, because essentially it stops people selling their Porsche privately, it forces them to take whatever the offer is from the dealer in terms of a trade-in price, and it also stops other dealers being able to sell any Porches that are still under warranty.

Who would want to buy a car that has a warranty, but is not eligible for it? It forces the person trying to sell it without going through the dealership to considerably reduce their price and keeps the price of Porches in the Porsche dealership, artificially high one would imagine. One then gets the impression from the media that when you buy a Porsche it loses very little of its value because the media compare the new prices to the second hand prices but, they are not comparing a new price to what you would get if you traded it in at the dealership. I am somewhat surprised that the Competition Commission has not looked into that, or indeed that it is acceptable, but maybe there is another side to the story which I am sure is going to be that only the dealership can make sure that the vehicle is in excellent condition – which of course ignores the fact that if you buy a Mercedes or BMW that is under warranty, it’s under warranty whether you buy it from the dealership or the guy down the road.