The shape of experience
- Hannah Tapping
- Oct 29
- 5 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Reshaping what it means to arrive, Porsche Centre Exeter, is redefining luxury as time well spent.
Words By Hannah Tapping
Luxury has always been a mirror to its moment. Once, it was about polish and prestige, chrome and command, a vision of the world as something to be conquered. Today, the meaning of luxury has softened, widened, slowed. It’s no longer simply about ownership but about experience; not just possession, but presence. In a culture where time is both rare and restless, the most precious thing a brand can offer is not an object, but a moment that feels entirely one’s own.
It’s this idea, of time as the ultimate luxury, that is at the heart of the new Destination Porsche Centre in Exeter. Conceived as a sanctuary rather than a showroom, it is a space where the transactional yields to the tactile, where conversation takes precedence over salesmanship and where every detail has been designed to encourage curiosity and connection.
“We’ve moved away from having traditional waiting areas and now have customer lounges,” explains Centre Principal Gareth Thomas. “People can come and have a coffee. They can charge their car, meet friends, even work from the centre. They are invited to use it to suit them.”
That phrase – to suit them – encapsulates everything about Porsche’s reimagined philosophy. This is no longer simply a glass-and-steel temple to horsepower, but an experience attuned to contemporary life. The Exeter centre feels more like a boutique hotel or a quietly confident restaurant than a car dealership. The lines are softer, the materials more organic, with wood and fabric where once there was chrome and leather. The scent of coffee replaces the tang of polish. “It’s about making it more relaxed,” Gareth says, “but still luxurious and professional.”
Gone, too, is a static grid of tightly packed vehicles. Instead, each car is given space to breathe, carefully positioned through the interior as part of the flow of the room. As if a nod to Porsche’s roots in motorsport, a ‘racing line’ guides customers through the Centre, “The cars complement the environment,” Gareth continues, “and we’ll never have more than eleven on the showroom floor at any one time.”
In an age where the digital experience often eclipses the physical, this move towards atmosphere and tactility feels a little radical. The space invites you to linger, not as a consumer, but as a guest. Here, Porsche has distilled the art of hospitality into a new kind of commerce: one that recognises that the most meaningful encounters often happen over coffee, not across a desk. There are lounges where customers are invited to sit down and chat over a coffee or a bite to eat. It is, quite literally, a conversation piece.
A shift from transaction to transformation is mirrored in the way Porsche now sells its cars. “It’s a lot more consultative,” Gareth explains. “When you’re buying a Porsche, there are so many different specifications, colours, combinations, you really do need to spend time getting it right.”
In a glass-fronted fitting lounge, this philosophy takes form. There, customers can run their hands across swatches of leather, examine paint samples under different light and experience a 4K visual walk-through of their chosen model; day to night, doors open to closed, every stitch visible. The experience is immersive and utterly personal.
Time, though, remains the constant. “It could take numerous visits, or it could be done in forty-five minutes,” Gareth admits. “It really depends on the customer. We have to spend the amount of time that’s right for each individual.” This flexibility marks a profound departure from the rigid sales systems of the past. Gone are the uniform scripts and stopwatch service models. “The motor trade used to have a very rigid sales process,” adds Gareth. “What we do here, turns that on its head. You’ve got to spend the time the customer needs rather than what is dictated.”
In truth, with the accessibility of information on the web, many Porsche buyers now arrive knowing almost everything about the car before they step through the doors as Gareth acknowledges: “When they come in, they may have already built the car online, but still want to have that personal connection when placing their order.” It’s a telling distinction. In a world of algorithms and instant purchases, that what’s valuable is not the click but the conversation and the reassurance that someone understands why you’ve made your choices, not just what you’ve chosen.
The result is an experience that unfolds like a story and one that continues long after the sale is complete. “If you are really able get to know your customers,” says Gareth, “it benefits the whole Porsche journey for both parties.” Handover – a word that, in most industries, implies a brief, perfunctory exchange – is redefined at Porsche Exeter becoming almost a moment of theatre. “We’ve got two huge handover bays and they are the biggest I’ve ever seen in all my time in the motor trade,” says Gareth. The practicalities – paperwork, compliance, signatures – are often handled remotely, freeing the space for something more celebratory. “It’s about tailoring that handover experience to the customer,” he adds, “and we are able to make it bespoke to why they’ve bought the car.”
It’s a reminder that, for many, a Porsche isn’t just a purchase; it’s a milestone and often a long-awaited dream. “Whether it’s a new Porsche owner or someone who’s had multiple cars over many years, you must treat each handover like it’s the very first one,” says Gareth, “and that takes knowing your customer.”
Two dedicated Porsche Pros guide each buyer through the technology at the handover, offering a masterclass two weeks later to revisit details once the excitement has settled. It’s another example of a human antidote to the complexity of modern engineering; time given, not taken. And for those watching on – partners, children, friends – there’s coffee, food and space to share the moment. “People forget that children are our future customers,” he smiles. “I’ve been in the industry long enough to have sold to parents and now to their grown-up children. They remember being here, watching the handovers. That’s the connection we strive for.”
Community, it turns out, is the engine behind the new centre. It powers not just sales, but belonging. “We want to make sure that the relationship doesn’t end when our customers leave the door,” says Gareth. From dinners to yacht days, golf sessions to bespoke experiences, the Porsche calendar is rich with invitations to connect, both with the brand and other owners. The approach is refreshingly inclusive. “There are no barriers,” Gareth insists. “Existing customers are more than welcome, but so are all future ones. We want people to come and visit and they’ll always be made to feel welcome.”
Already, the centre has opened its doors to everyone from business groups to yoga instructors, wanting people to use the centre as their own space. And crucially, they mean it. When a group of local budding teenage photogrpahers recently walked in, cameras in hand, they were greeted not as interlopers, but as welcome guests. “They were excited to photograph the cars,” recalls Gareth. “We treated them with respect and, in turn, they treated the cars with respect. Everybody’s welcome. It’s luxury, but it’s not exclusive.”
There’s something beautifully circular about this ethos. A brand long associated with precision and performance rediscovering the poetry of presence. To spend time at the new Porsche Centre Exeter is to witness a recalibration of luxury itself. In the end, it isn’t about the cars… not really. It’s about what they represent: the freedom to move, the pleasure of design, the art of attention. The cars are still there, of course, gleaming, elegant, unmistakably Porsche. However, they are no longer the whole story. The other narrative is the one that unfolds in the soft light of the lounge, in the conversation over coffee, in the smile of a young visitor allowed to dream. It’s the sound of engines as heartbeats; steady, familiar, human.
