Warranty - would you? - Page 1 - Boxster/Cayman - PistonHeads UK

I've just bought a beautiful 2004 986 Anniversary, and I pick it up next week. The dealer would also like to sell me a warranty, and mindful of the cost of replacement engines I am considering it. Would you pay £700 for a 2 year warranty on a 986? It's just had a new clutch and no issues with the IMS or RMS were found. It's done 68000 miles and has full service history.

Depends on the cover the warranty offers and value of claim limits applied, also excess level? Some warranty's are not worth the paper they are written on, some are excellent.

As above, most warranties would clasify bore scoring as wear and tear. Imo the only one worth considering are either an OPC one or a maintenance plan with someone such as Hartech.

Personally wouldn't bother on a relatively low value car. Porsche warranty isn't available on cars over 10 years old.

I'd keep my money. It's eleven years old and the warranty company will be keen to point this out in the event of any claim and likely to refuse based on whatever issue being classed as wear & tear. So, weighing up the cost along with the risks of things going wrong coupled with the likelihood of the warranty paying out I'd feel in a better position with £700 still in my pocket. I appreciate some people may feel happier with a warranty from a "peace of mind" perspective but in reality that's likely only a placebo effect anyway.

I had a 3 year Warrantywise warranty on my Cayman S, I got this at trade price through a dealer friend, this is the platinum warranty and i increased the labour rate to £100-00 p/h max 5k single claim and all claims up to value of car (circa 15k) cost me £1600-00 for 3 years and I sold the car after 20 months, I feel it helped me to sell it easier. I only made on claim for a new radiator but they paid out straight away. I would say go for it and if you can get one through a dealer, you might get a better deal. Edit: They did tell me on the phone that bore score would be included, as it covers wear on the platinum cover. Also, perhaps on reflection a £700-00 warranty isnt likely to be all that good. Check the claim limit value and check the items covered. Edited by wilpert on Thursday 2nd April 19:02

OK, ignoring a complete engine failure due to the IMS bearing failing, what are the biggest repair/maintentance costs on a 986 that *aren't* wear and tear replacements?

No. Save your money.

Tyres and brakes (if you pay someone to swap them). Can't predict what will fail on a car. My sound package plus amplifier died a few weeks ago for example. They're a known issue (design flaws, Porsche are good at those). €400 for a new one from them. £150 for a second hand one or €120 to get it repaired in Norway with a 5 year warranty on the part. 2 min job to take out and send off. Yours may last forever. Likewise the track rod ends on early cars are known to be made of cheese. Mine's got a tiny, barely perceptible amount of play in the passenger side which hasn't got any worse in 2 years. I keep an eye on it. When it gets worse I'll replace them. Basically it's a car, don't be afraid of it because it has a Porsche badge on it. If you treat it as something special then you'll pay through the nose for it. If you treat it as a normal car and deal with problems sensibly as they come along, it need not be expensive. As for warranty, generally speaking, they're not worth the paper they're written on. If you take Porsches over any length of time you'll be reamed so hard on servicing that within about 5 years, you could have paid for an engine rebuild that might never be required. In that respect it's a gamble. But again, you only read about the bad things on the internet. There are tens of thousands of Boxsters/Caymans out there that I suspect have perfectly fine engines in them. If an engine failure does occur after that time, you just take it in the chin, take it to Hartech and get a proper job done without going through the bulls t of dealing with Porsche. Edited by juansolo on Friday 3rd April 10:02

londonbabe said: OK, ignoring a complete engine failure due to the IMS bearing failing, what are the biggest repair/maintentance costs on a 986 that *aren't* wear and tear replacements? Good advice from juansolo. If you are handy with a spanner then there are a number of components that fail relatively frequently that are a reasonable diy job. These include, radiators, a/c condensors, gear linkage cables, exhaust clamps and manifold nuts, window regulators and discs and pads as already mentioned.

In addition to the above I have also replaced waterpump and thermostat on my 550 Anniversary. I removed the front bumper and cleaned between the aircon condenser and radiator and they are both ok. I replaced all the suspension arms too.

Erm, Porsche warranty isn't an option on a 2004 car.

anonymous said: [redacted] Ha ha! Such a load of half truths and sh'it....it's like talking to the OPC service manager! OPC engine rebuilds are £6.5-£7k (I've got the receipts!) Warranty over 5 years would be about £6k and won't cover all the stuff that WILL wear out. Servicing costs would be double an indie PLUS all the unnecessary work they do PLUS making you buy Porsche parts like their "special" batteries etc.

anonymous said: [redacted]

Oh I do the pads and discs myself. Even a specialist quoted me £800 for that. I dread to think what an OPC would charge. Though to be fair, not many people like to get their hands dirty for that sort of thing.

Thanks for the helpful replies, and the 'banter' :-) The warranty is through AutoProtect, and now having researched them, quite frankly, their reputation precedes them. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php... That and the examples of repair costs you've suggested have helped me decide to decline the warrantly. If the engine does ever go pop I'll just buy another and have an LM Engineering bearing fitted. And if it doesn't then I have nothing to worry about! Who are the best specialists in the London area (east, where I am now, and west/Surrey, where I intend to move)? I don't see much point in keeping this car in the OPC network.

Eporsch are my local and my 550 has been there a few times.

Wise. I'm oop norf so can't help you regards a specialist. But in London, I can't imagine you'd be short of them

I think I agree with the non warranty route, especially if you can do some jobs yourself. I have the OPC warranty for 2 years and so far after 9 months of it, have had battery and tensioning rollers changed at a cost of £450 (not covered by warranty) plus steering pump, window regulators and a/c condensers changed under warranty. I still have a slight grating noise which the OPC can't diagnose, so I hope that gets sorted under warranty eventually. On balance I could have changed the whole lot myself, apart from the steering pump which wasn't the cause of the grinding noise. I'm only 9 months into the ownership of this 8 year old Cayman so I haven't had to pay for a service yet. At that point I suspect the economics will swing towards the warranty not being worth the extra I paid for the car. We'll see....