I'm done with Porsche - Page 3 - Boxster/Cayman - PistonHeads UK

Bear with me .. I'll get there. I bought my first Porsche about 6 years ago, a brand new Macan S, ordered on spec before they were actually in the country. Its been great, always serviced by Porsche main dealer and extra warranty taken out, all at considerable cost but Its done 120,000 miles without fault. Buoyed by this I bought a used 981 Boxster S as a bit of a toy. I found a very low mileage 2014 model utterly pampered with full Porsche service history with 13k on the clock, its currently at 15k. Recently just before a service was due I got a Cooling System Fault warning so I got the dealer to look at this during the service. Turns out it was a vacuum valve, fixed for £600 on top of the service. Tough luck, things break. 100 miles later, same warning, back to dealer who said this time its the vacuum pump, another £1000. Not happy obviously so I thought maybe Porsche GB would get involved and would be a bit sympathetic given they have had £80k ish off me over the years. After speaking to them I got a dear John email and found out they hadn't even bothered to speak to the dealer to dig further. Disappointed is a bit of an understatement, even a small gesture would have restored some faith but after a brief flirtation I will leave the brand and the Macan will be replaced shortly by something else. Shame really.

Ok

I think you will be better off taking it to an good independent garage mate. Shame your new car is messing you about.

That's what I will do from now on. I always stuck with the main dealer for the very reason I thought you would have some comeback in the future but it seems not.

Was the Boxster actually driven much...2k miles in how long?

About a year. I had some long trips planned, one to Italy last summer but that was obviously put paid to so the mileage I've done is a lot lower than I would have normally done.

Did you buy the Boxster off your OPC? Sounds like a seriously underused car which has been standing around.

No it was private.

Am I missing something? You have a 7 year old car, things are breaking and the dealer wants you to pay for them?

Billy_Whizzzz said: Am I missing something? You have a 7 year old car, things are breaking and the dealer wants you to pay for them? +1 Why on earth would you expect goodwill on a 7 year old car bought privately?

GT3ZZZ said: +1 Why on earth would you expect goodwill on a 7 year old car bought privately? Exactly. Old porsche breaks and is expensive shocker!

Maybe some folks think spending £80k over 6 years on 1 car purchase means automatic goodwill on an old car not even bought from them.

600 notes then another 1000 for the same fault and a vacuum vault at that? What did they do, rebuild the engine? eta, have you checked the vacuum pump has actually been replaced? is it visible as a new item?

mikewilliams79 said: GT3ZZZ said: +1 Why on earth would you expect goodwill on a 7 year old car bought privately? Exactly. Old porsche breaks and is expensive shocker! Haha bet you’ve been checking this thread every 30 seconds.... Sorry to hear of your probs OP.

Either buy the Porsche warranty or pay to fix bits as you go. Why would you expect a freebee on a 7 year old, out of warranty car?

Not a great deal of sympathy from most here. Sad. Wonder if they've been stung as badly/worse during Porsche ownership and are sharing the love? did you get an itemised bill? Edited by Oilchange on Monday 15th March 20:07

I’m confused The brand of car gas nothing to do with it. It’s very simple. You buy a car from an official dealership with warranty - if it goes wrong you have some protection You buy a 7 year old car privately, with no warranty, but presumably at a lower price - if it goes wrong, you have no protection or redress. Surely we all accept that?

Koln-RS said: Surely we all accept that? I think we do yes. As others have said I'm not sure why the OP hoped for goodwill on a car long out of warranty that was purchased outside the Porsche retail structure, although we all have different needs and expectations. No harm in asking of course but seems a bit extreme to reject the brand as a result of their declination - especially after such a great ownership experience with the Macan purchased new. Hope he has a happier experience with the Boxster going forward.

Mark V GTD said: I think we do yes. As others have said I'm not sure why the OP hoped for goodwill on a car long out of warranty that was purchased outside the Porsche retail structure, although we all have different needs and expectations. No harm in asking of course but seems a bit extreme to reject the brand as a result of their declination - especially after such a great ownership experience with the Macan purchased new. Hope he has a happier experience with the Boxster going forward. Not likely considering he is 'leaving the brand'.

Koln-RS said: I’m confused The brand of car gas nothing to do with it. It’s very simple. You buy a car from an official dealership with warranty - if it goes wrong you have some protection You buy a 7 year old car privately, with no warranty, but presumably at a lower price - if it goes wrong, you have no protection or redress. Surely we all accept that? Agreed. Would any other brand be any different. I don't think so

Personally if I didn't have a Porsche warranty I wouldn't be taking any Porsche to an OPC and paying £200+/hr labour rates. I best describe OPC 'workshop technicians' as 'fitters'. They don't investigate whether a part can be repaired, merely take it off and put a new one on. A respected Independent goes that bit further - and at a cheaper labour rate.

This still seems cheaper than warranties so self insuring has paid off, hasn’t it?

Imho any main dealers of any brand will try and pull your trousers down,most of the technicians employed haven't got a clue and rely on a laptop to tell them what's wrong not like your old school mechanics. Once a car is out of warranty have a good Indy look after it! Wife's Ford first service (an oil service) cost £190 and they didn't even change the oil and filter but they checked the tyre depth though lol. I now get an oil and filter change done at a national tyres garage for £50 every year and do the air filter myself which is more than a ford dealers will do, had an filter that had not been changed since new (4 years old ) on a secondhand ford once but the previous owner had been charged twice from the previous invoices that came with the car! I don't mind paying but as long as what I paid for was needed and has actually been done.

Simon-4q01f said: Bear with me .. I'll get there. I bought my first Porsche about 6 years ago, a brand new Macan S, ordered on spec before they were actually in the country. Its been great, always serviced by Porsche main dealer and extra warranty taken out, all at considerable cost but Its done 120,000 miles without fault. Buoyed by this I bought a used 981 Boxster S as a bit of a toy. I found a very low mileage 2014 model utterly pampered with full Porsche service history with 13k on the clock, its currently at 15k. Recently just before a service was due I got a Cooling System Fault warning so I got the dealer to look at this during the service. Turns out it was a vacuum valve, fixed for £600 on top of the service. Tough luck, things break. 100 miles later, same warning, back to dealer who said this time its the vacuum pump, another £1000. Not happy obviously so I thought maybe Porsche GB would get involved and would be a bit sympathetic given they have had £80k ish off me over the years. After speaking to them I got a dear John email and found out they hadn't even bothered to speak to the dealer to dig further. Disappointed is a bit of an understatement, even a small gesture would have restored some faith but after a brief flirtation I will leave the brand and the Macan will be replaced shortly by something else. Shame really. Have you tried resolving the problem with your OPC first, before escalating such a relatively small thing to Porsche GB? £ 1'600 in repairs (@ OPC cost!) on 7 year old garage queen is to be expected. Should they have fixed the problem wholly the first time? Ideally yes. For any further advice we are lacking information. Is the Problem fixed now? Where both repairs necessary? If so, where is the Problem other than it should have been diagnosed and fixed the first time. What do you expect? A Key ring? A letter of apology by the late Ferdinand Porsche himself? Or compensation for your time? Although written tongue in cheek, I'm seriously curious about this? (I wouldn't have written this last sentence only some years ago ....) Since you explicitly mention the expensive warranty you bought for the Macan, are you somehow disappointed that you couldn't benefit on it? Are you implying that because of this you should somehow be allowed to transfer it to you other 7 year old, privately bought Porsche? Escalating something to Porsche GB should only be done if absolutely necessary and after talks withe the OPC have failed. Calling for the manager straightaway is such a Karen move. (I don't necessarily presume you did so) As others have said, while you have bought one Macan 7 years ago you bought this car privately. Saying you are done with Porsche, even tough having had a great time with a faultless Macan over 7 years / 120'000 miles because of two minor repairs on a privately bought 981, again 7 year old car? Forgive me for saying this, but you can't be serious!

So glad I don't sell cars for a living....

Well you lot are a tough crowd with sarcasm in no short supply! I accept cars break down, mine has and I have paid and had it fixed. My issue though is that I asked Porsche GB to look in to it bearing in mind the fact it was supposedly fixed then went again in 100 miles later with the same fault. I don't know how the Porsche network is set up, whether the dealers are franchises or part owned by Porsche so contacting Porsche GB seemed logical to me. The disappointing bit is that PGB did not even have to courtesy to contact the dealer. Lesson learned really is for £200 per hour you don't get any extra benefit.

Porsche have had £300k ish off me over the years. But I recently had to pay for new tyres out of my own pocket. It's an outrage!

I think the party you asked to help was your error here. The OPC should have been your first port of call. Had similar (ish) on my Panamera - coolant pipes went. Working with the OPC, we asked for some Porsche goodwill on what was meant to be a large bill coming my way. Porsche refused, but the OPC stepped up and the eventual bill was around 50% lower as a result.

Does the Boxsrer have the Porsche Sports Exhaust? The exhaust valves for that are vacuum operated and the routing of the hoses is important. If it’s routed incorrectly movement of the engine can cause the hoses to pull off. It’s indicated as a cooling system fault because the taps to the radiators are also vacuume operated. Edited by paralla on Monday 15th March 21:12 Edited by paralla on Tuesday 16th March 09:33

It sounds like the issue is more they charged you to fix the problem but didn’t sort it, needing more work to be done after. I suppose the question is if they replaced the wrong thing first time around or if both jobs needed doing. If both needed doing you are not out of pocket, but if the first job was the wrong fix and changed unnecessarily, then I see that is annoying and I would want that reimbursed potentially.

this reminds of the Sussexes interview with Queen Oprah

SydneyB said: Well you lot are a tough crowd with sarcasm in no short supply! I accept cars break down, mine has and I have paid and had it fixed. My issue though is that I asked Porsche GB to look in to it bearing in mind the fact it was supposedly fixed then went again in 100 miles later with the same fault. I don't know how the Porsche network is set up, whether the dealers are franchises or part owned by Porsche so contacting Porsche GB seemed logical to me. The disappointing bit is that PGB did not even have to courtesy to contact the dealer. Lesson learned really is for £200 per hour you don't get any extra benefit. So you have not given the OPC (the garage you dealt with and who's name is on the invoice) the chance to do anything and went straight to Porsche GB? You have not told us, what exactly the problem was and wether both parts really needed replacing? If so, your only problem is that you had to go twice, is that correct? You state same fault, but clearly two different parts where replaced. Imagine the first fix @ £600 would have fixed the problem, but the OPC decided to replace an other part as well, bringing the cost up to @1'600. I bet you would have contacted Porsche GB too, or would have moaned here about it. BTW, is the car fixed now? And what did you honestly expect them to do? With the limited informations we are provided, neither the OPC nor Porsche GB did anything wrong.

And why have you changed your name from Simon to Sydney to confuse us all further?

I haven't a clue why my name changed on this, nothing deliberate and I only signed in on the same profile. The OPC were not interested, just hard luck that one problem came after another in their opinion so PGB seemed to me the next port of call.

Simon-4q01f said: About a year. I had some long trips planned, one to Italy last summer but that was obviously put paid to so the mileage I've done is a lot lower than I would have normally done. Hi Simon - Sorry to hear your issues. As some others have mentioned,if you hadn't purchased the car from the OPC then they are not going to show goodwill towards the car. Only exception maybe if you had had bought lots of high end cars from them (but it is still not their issue and I believe most of them would be just a franchise too). I am trying to find a Cayman R at the moment (anyone??), but I could be tempted into a nice Boxster S for the summer. So if you decide to completely throw in the towel and replace the boxster, then feel free to DM me on here. (Assuming your vacuum issues are now sorted;) )

AAAndy said: Hi Simon - Sorry to hear your issues. As some others have mentioned,if you hadn't purchased the car from the OPC then they are not going to show goodwill towards the car. Only exception maybe if you had had bought lots of high end cars from them (but it is still not their issue and I believe most of them would be just a franchise too). I am trying to find a Cayman R at the moment (anyone??), but I could be tempted into a nice Boxster S for the summer. So if you decide to completely throw in the towel and replace the boxster, then feel free to DM me on here. (Assuming your vacuum issues are now sorted;) ) Simon is now Sydney - better suited name for a boxter owner

Guys, you're being far too sober for this poor chap's needs. He came onto PH for a little bit of a rant and a sympathetic ear. All he is getting is practical advice and a stern talking to. Sydney, are u ok hun? PM me x

bolidemichael said: Guys, you're being far too sober for this poor chap's needs. He came onto PH for a little bit of a rant and a sympathetic ear. All he is getting is practical advice and a stern talking to. Sydney, are u ok hun? PM me x Nicely put, its not hard to understand where he is coming from, its my experience that no matter what or how much you buy whether it be cars or bricks, no one cares much. I know from my own loyal dealings, I am 65 and my sons tell me constantly those days are gone. I am seeing that they are not wrong. However it seems that the original fault was misdiagnosed and maybe thats whats irked him. My Boxster is under Porsche warranty and I still dont much care for the main dealers and engineers looking after it, I much prefer the skill of our local Indie, maybe I will let my warranty go this year and get my man in Norwich to look after me. There I have had a little rant now!

Roof down said: bolidemichael said: Guys, you're being far too sober for this poor chap's needs. He came onto PH for a little bit of a rant and a sympathetic ear. All he is getting is practical advice and a stern talking to. Sydney, are u ok hun? PM me x Nicely put, its not hard to understand where he is coming from, its my experience that no matter what or how much you buy whether it be cars or bricks, no one cares much. I know from my own loyal dealings, I am 65 and my sons tell me constantly those days are gone. I am seeing that they are not wrong. However it seems that the original fault was misdiagnosed and maybe thats whats irked him. My Boxster is under Porsche warranty and I still dont much care for the main dealers and engineers looking after it, I much prefer the skill of our local Indie, maybe I will let my warranty go this year and get my man in Norwich to look after me. There I have had a little rant now! sarcasm [ sahr-kaz-uhm ] noun harsh or bitter derision or irony. a sharply ironical taunt; sneering or cutting remark:

Roof down said: bolidemichael said: Guys, you're being far too sober for this poor chap's needs. He came onto PH for a little bit of a rant and a sympathetic ear. All he is getting is practical advice and a stern talking to. Sydney, are u ok hun? PM me x Nicely put, its not hard to understand where he is coming from, its my experience that no matter what or how much you buy whether it be cars or bricks, no one cares much. I know from my own loyal dealings, I am 65 and my sons tell me constantly those days are gone. I am seeing that they are not wrong. However it seems that the original fault was misdiagnosed and maybe thats whats irked him. My Boxster is under Porsche warranty and I still dont much care for the main dealers and engineers looking after it, I much prefer the skill of our local Indie, maybe I will let my warranty go this year and get my man in Norwich to look after me. There I have had a little rant now! While you are not wrong, as far as I can tell the OP's problem is an entirely different one. I think he lacks some in depth understandings of the technical aspects of a car (nothing to be ashamed off at all, I'm no engineer either) but thinks he is entitled to some special treatment because he bought a Macan from his OPC 7 years ago and also an expensive warranty he didn't needed in the end. Now he wants to talk to the manager because he is not happy, but the manager doesn't care. Or at least this is how it comes across to me. @OP Simon or Sidney If you are interested to resolve this, please be a bit more informative. What do the two invoices state has been carried out? Why not put up a photograph (with the dealer's name redacted), this way maybe we don't have to guess whether both repairs where necessary or could have been diagnosed at the same time. How and when did you contact the OPC? In writting or did you phone? Did you talk to the head of the service department? How did the OPC respond? I'm still trying to get of the bottom and to be helpful, but from what you have posted so far, you are only trying to slander Porsche.

Oilchange said: Not a great deal of sympathy from most here. Sad. Edited by Oilchange on Monday 15th March 20:07 I think it's about different perspectives, spending £80k on a luxury brand car can be a huge deal for some and they're understandably disapointed when something goes wrong and they have to fork out

WCZ said: I think it's about different perspectives, spending £80k on a luxury brand car can be a huge deal for some and they're understandably disapointed when something goes wrong and they have to fork out It’s not about sympathy, it’s about this bizarre expectation the OP had that he shouldn’t be wild get goodwill for a car not bought from them However, I would be challenging a misdiagnosis in terms of cost to customer and have successfully done this in the past

WCZ said: I think it's about different perspectives, spending £80k on a luxury brand car can be a huge deal for some and they're understandably disapointed when something goes wrong and they have to fork out Did you actually read the original post? The ~£45k Macan S the OP bought brand new from Porsche in 2014 has been flawless over 7 years/120'000 miles. Infact so much, that the OP bought an other Porsche, this time a low mileage 7 year old Boxster bought privately (I assume anywhere around £25k, is that about right OP?) This is about a repair of this used, privately bought Boxster at OP's OPC. From here on we lack more information.

sealtt said: It sounds like the issue is more they charged you to fix the problem but didn’t sort it, needing more work to be done after. I suppose the question is if they replaced the wrong thing first time around or if both jobs needed doing. If both needed doing you are not out of pocket, but if the first job was the wrong fix and changed unnecessarily, then I see that is annoying and I would want that reimbursed potentially. This really annoys me about main dealers - they just keep throwing new bits on until the fault goes away, it might be the first thing or the third but you've still stumped up for bits and labour that weren't needed. The difference between fitters/technicians and mechanics I suppose...

OP I can understand your pain. Its a just bad luck you had a good one and now a not so good one

Chamon_Lee said: OP I can understand your pain. Its a just bad luck you had a good one and now a not so good one Not sure it's a case of luck. It's about expectations. He bought one brand new and another that's 6/7 years old, then it sounds like he's been stiffed to the tune of £1600 by an OPC and is a bit aggrieved because they wouldn't give him what he wanted for a car he didn't buy from them. FWIW - I still think he should have spoken with the OPC - not Porsche GB - to discuss the initial £600 that apparently didn't fix the issue.

I don’t understand how on earth you think Porsche U.K. should help you stump up for a repair of a car bought outside their network. Sounds like you’re the one being unreasonable and not them...

le_gazman said: I don’t understand how on earth you think Porsche U.K. should help you stump up for a repair of a car bought outside their network. Sounds like you’re the one being unreasonable and not them... Because he has a Macan on a 3 year lease, doh!