Porsche Australia says it is displeased with the profiteering and flipping that has occurred on its limited-edition vehicles such as the 911 R.

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The limited-edition and numbered Porsche 911 R, which is essentially a GT3 RS with a manual gearbox and road-focused body work, has seen prices more than double on the used car market as some owners have chosen to sell their vehicle immediately after purchase for a profit. At the time of publication, there are three publically listed 911 Rs on Carsales, with the cheapest at $825,000, more than double the manufacturer list price of $404,700 (before options and on-road costs). Speaking to CarAdvice at the launch of the new 911 GTS today, the company’s director of public communications, Paul Ellis, said that while it ‘displeases’ the company greatly, there is not much that can be done about it. “We have to be very careful with limited edition models to make sure the right customers get the product but consumer laws in Australia are every specific, you can’t go into an area of illegal behaviour,” Ellis said.

Ellis admitted that not much will change regardless of the lessons learnt from the 911 R situation. “No, because even when we had the R, we thought the right customers were getting the car.” As for stopping those that chose to flip their vehicles for an immediate profit? Porsche’s hands are tied. “You can’t dictate, you can’t mandate post purchase what someone does with a product they own. It’s illegal. You have to be very careful of consumers laws in this country, we have very specific laws so we just have to be careful and there would be elements of it that displease us.”

The current-generation Porsche 911 GT3 RS also saw prices soar above MLRP when the car was first released as demand outstripped supply, this seems to have now rectified itself with a market balance, but the R remains at sky-high prices. Next in line for Porsche’s super special models will be the 911 GT2 RS, which saw its unofficial unveiling with the Forza announcement last week. Global order banks for the vehicle are likely to outstrip supply substantially. The last type of its kind that was on sale in Australia last year, a 2010 997 GT2 RS, was listed for $949,000 - or roughly $400,000 more than its purchase price. The situation is not just unique to Australia either, with the message against speculators coming all the way from up top, with the company’s head of GT road car development, Andreas Preuninger, recently telling Car and Driver that he doesn’t much appreciate the profiteering nature of some owners.

“I don’t like this business of people buying our cars to make money on them. That was never our intention. The purpose of limiting a car is not for it to gain value. We don’t want to be laying money on each car’s roof when they run out of the factory.” The likes of Ferrari have certain qualifiers in place that stops buyers from purchasing super-special vehicles without first being approved, but even then, limited edition models such as the F12 TDF, 458 Speciale and Aperta have now well and truly soared in price in the second-hand market. MORE: Porsche news, reviews, comparisons and video