By Pradeep Paul

IF YOU think you see a lot of Porsches on the road here, wait till early next year. "You'll see the true impact of the bookings we are getting now only in the first quarter of 2011," says Porsche Asia Pacific managing director Christer Ekberg, in an interview with tabla!.

He says the latest Cayenne and the V6-engined Panamera have gone down well with Singapore customers and promises that the German sportscar manufacturer - even its SUV and four-seater are the most sporty in their class - will continue to deliver "customised luxury" in contrast to the "mass produced luxury" doled out by most of its competitors.

Here's more from Mr Ekberg:

ON THE RISE IN COE PRICES...

Of course it has an effect on all car sales, as is the intention with the COE in the first place, even if higher priced cars might be less affected as the COE price, in relation to the car price percentage wise, represents a smaller part. On top of that, customers of higher priced cars are normally less price sensitive.

ON THE VALUE OF BEING A PORSCHE DRIVER...

Our cars are developed to provide pure driving pleasure so what you get when buying a Porsche is lots and lots of fun... so much fun that many of our customers frequently set the alarm clock half an hour earlier than normal just to be able to take a detour to work every morning.

When it comes to reliability and quality, Porsche has for many years received the No. 1 position in the JD Powers quality survey which is based on thousands of actual owners' input. I would say this speaks for itself.

In Singapore, when you buy a new Porsche from our authorised importer/dealer Stuttgart Auto, you get a five-year warranty and a five-year free maintenance programme included in the price. These follow the car, so even if you sell the car after, say, three years, the car still has two years of warranty and free maintenance as an approved pre-owned Porsche.

ON THE PORSCHE OWNER'S CLUB...

Our Porsche Clubs consist of highly valued and very enthusiastic Porsche owners with a very special relation to our brand. We have more than 120,000 members in our Porsche Clubs worldwide, and they add tremendous value to our brand by taking very good care of both the Porsche cars they own as well as new Porsche owners who join the club.

ON HIS PLANS FOR SINGAPORE...

Our immediate plans include following up on the recent launch of our new Cayenne models as well as the Panamera V6 model. Both these models are contributing heavily to the new sales records being set in Singapore as well as all over Asia every month since May/June this year.

On top of that, "a state of the art" Porsche Centre will replace the present one in Leng Kee Road. Construction has just started and when it is ready, it will be able to showcase the complete range of models as well as our Porsche accessories on two floors.

Our next big event in Singapore is of course the SC Global Carrera Cup Asia-Singapore 2010. This race is a support race to the Formula 1 Sing- Tel Singapore GP at end of this month.

ON THE BEST PORSCHE FOR SINGAPORE ROADS...

Well, it entirely depends on your needs. If you are single or a couple, I would recommend the 911 Turbo, a great sportscar with incredible performance and, at the same time, easy to drive and extremely reliable and safe with 4WD. If you want a really fun car, the wind in your hair and love the sun, I would recommend a Boxster or a 911 Carrera Cabriolet.

If you need a Porsche for the whole family and you mainly do city driving, I would recommend the new Cayenne Diesel which has fantastic torque at low revs and is very suitable for city driving. It is the perfect family Porsche in my opinion.

This article was first published in tabla!