Engine Failure 324 Miles Into Ownership

Greetings, I purchased this 2003 C2 as-is in November after saving for a 996 for several years, and shopping for a good one for several months. The car seemed incredibly solid and well taken care of. I loved the spec. Seller was very rigid on price due to the maintenance history. I had an oil change done 209 miles into ownership. We found no debris in the oil filter, or on the magnetic drain plug. Car seemed fine. A scan revealed that it had a stored P0430 code. I figured a cat might just be starting to go out, since this code was not active. Two days later, while cruising on the highway, the engine let go. A local Porsche specialist scoped cylinder 5 and found that it had turned into a glitter factory. There was metal throughout the intake runner and cylinder. Valves were bent. The engine would only turn 180 degrees. Their guess is that the timing chain for bank 2 or a camshaft failed. So, now I am stuck with a $15k minimum repair (if buying a used engine) on a car that would not have even survived the trip home. The dealer claims there is no way that they could have known the engine was about to fail. I found out after committing to buy that the car belonged to the co-host of the dealership podcast. Last oil change was in the spring, with about 4k miles on it at the time of purchase. It seemed somewhat odd that the car would be sold without an oil change. I have a sample of this oil, and will be sending it to a lab for testing. Here is a summarized list of the maintenance that was done before I took ownership. The car has 109k miles on it. Struts - 107k Rotors + Pads - 106k Oil - 105k Coolant - 105k Water pump - 105k Fuel Tank Bleeder Valve - 102k Fuel Vapor Control Valve - 102k Clutch - 101k TOB, Fork, Pivot Ball - 99k Plugs - 97k Comp/leakdown/cam dev - 97k Alternator + Tension Roller- 95k Trans fluid - 92k Brake + Clutch fluid - 92k Motor Mounts - 92k Air filter - 91k Idler Rollers + SERP Belt - 91k IMS Bearing - 86k Rear Main - 86k Coils - 86k Injectors - 86k Ultimate AOS - 86k Clutch Slave - 86k Coolant Expansion Tank - 72k Thermostat - 72k I'm very bummed. The day this car showed up was one of the best days of the year for me.

@Gravey996 - that really sucks. So sorry this happened. Seems like it was well cared for given the list of maintenance items. Would be nice to know what caused the failure. Any plan for an engine teardown?

Wow, that is a bummer. It's a pretty car. Sorry that went bad on you. Seems like you did a lot of things right and it had good things going for it. UAOS is nice to have. Must have been something else. Gut check. How was it shifting? Looks like they were chasing something with the clutch system for a while. Let us know what you do.

Damn man, sorry to read that.

Sorry to hear about your experience. Your car looks fantastic with the sportclassic wheels and the color. That is a lot of previous service . I hope you are able to have some sort of a solution. I'm a newbie to these cars but it is possible to check the cam deviations to have some warning to timing chain problems. It doesn't sound like the dealer had done that. Maybe they are willing to help you out ?

Sooooooo sorry to hear this. I can feel the kick in my own pelotas. It is a beautiful car (lots of maint.) and I hope you find a way to keep her rolling and bring on some true happiness. 324 miles didn't give you that!

Was it within 30days of taking ownership from the dealer? Some states have laws regarding failure in such a short amount of time. Mine blew 48days into ownership so I really feel your pain. In my case it was a spun rod bearing. Again, nothing anyone could have predicted. interestingly though my indie diagnosed it as a failed IMS. It wasn�t until the motor was torn down for rebuild that it was determined that the rod bearing was at fault. good luck and keep us posted on your journey.

I'm not a fan of the light gray interiors. BUT that colour combo is fantastic. Also, my favourite wheels! I do feel for you though. It is stories like this that in a number of ways taint the whole Porsche 996 experience with the incredibly high cost of rebuilds. When I purchased mine in 2018 with 45000 miles, and PPI'ed it with bore scope too, Within days of delivery, it was at the indie for solution install plus all the usual stuff with the intent to avoid catastrophic failure. I drive my car very little due to time constraints. But every time I drive it, I listen for the tap tap of bore scoring. Takes a bit away from the experience. Stories like yours support the concern. All that said, your situation is a very tough pill to swallow. I'm not sure what I would do, especially since you have had the car such a short time and likely have not built an emotional bond with it, as gorgeous as it is.

Beautiful car, I love the exterior color. If it were me I wouldn't spend $15k on a used engine - I would call Slakker and see what the wait time is for them to rebuild. They advertise the rebuild for $22k on their website if you send them just the engine. $24.5k if you send them the whole car. I realize that is a lot of money to spend on a car you just spent a lot of money on. Other option is to sell it as a roller and someone will buy it for ~$7-10k.

Reading the companys website fine print, it looks like they are a consigner and not a retail dealer. Was this car purchased from them, or the previous owner? Does Switchcar appear on the titlework? "I found out after committing to buy that the car belonged to the co-host of the dealership podcast." Are they just buying cars, titling them in their personal name, and selling them as private sales? Avoidding any liability that retail dealers have to abide by? If so, thats called curbstoning and thats illegal in most, if not all states. Hell, consigning cars is not even legal in South Carolina.

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I think I'll be tearing it down, yeah. Car is going to sit in storage for a little while, I don't have anywhere to work on it at the moment and don't want to pay a mechanic to do something that I can do. Wife and I are trying to buy a house before the end of 2026.

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I believe it is titled to switchcars, I will double check. Previous owner had the car for 8 years though, so it wasn't a quick flip from that aspect.

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Yeah...8 days after it was delivered. Still has paper plates, my wife hasn't even ridden in it yet.

I thought SwitchCars had a good reputation - would've thought they'd do something to support you so soon after the sale depending on root cause and other damage - an oem shortblock may be the most cost effective option, especially if you are doing the work yourself lots of recent threads about that, example: https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...llation-4.html more rebuild choices now (LN/F6, Slakker, etc) nice to have options, sucks when it's so sudden and unexpected

I would do a factory short block. Where are you located? Best of luck.

What a terrible thing to happen. It says a lot about your character that you would share this tragedy with us and put up with the possible conspiracy theory! Here's mine. I spent some time today going over both the CarFax and the extensive service records and obviously we won't know until the engine is torn down, but here is what I am curious about. I know the CarFax only shows what gets input to it, so it could miss plenty. But looking at the records available, there is no service record for the first 11 years. So, who knows what was going on in its early life. Then in 2022, SwitchCars invoices the owner for work (in the pile of receipts) reported in the CarFax as being done by CAE Motorsports. I looked into CAE and they have some sort of "partnership" with SwitchCars. The work is to do the IMS bearing, RMS and UAOS. The labor hours for the IMS (15.5) look fine, but the UAOS labor is only one hour. Odd? And what concerns me more is that the IMS bearing wasn't registered with LN Engineering. I looked up the retrofit number using the VIN and there is no record. It's pretty clear these guys at SwitchCars knew what to do, so why wasn't the bearing registered? One reason you wouldn't register it is because to get the warrantee on it, you have to send the old bearing back to LN. If you took it out and it already had signs that it was failing, there would be no point in sending it to LN. And that happens. It has been done before. You get metal flakes in the oil, you realize you need to get the old bearing out, but at that point, LN won't warrantee it because you have now set in motion the ultimate destruction of the engine. Here are a couple of things you might do. Send us a picture of the engine bay. Ask the SwitchCar guys why the invoice is from them, but the work was reported by CAE. I would ask them about the warranty on the IMS bearing (as if you are going to look into that and file a claim with LN) as a possible cause of engine failure and if they agree that is a reasonable guess, then ask them why they didn't send the old bearing back to LN because now there is no warrantee. Sorry, I just played the you tube clip of the startup: 2003 Porsche 911 Carrera 1189 Walkaround I'd like to hear from others, but my engine doesn't have a loud clicking sound.

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The bent valves and glitter everywhere may make that an insufficient solution. If it were me trying that as a repair I'd send the heads to Len Hoffman or equivalent (if there is an equivalent).

I’m so sorry but in the YouTube clip your motor sounds very chatty I would go with a factory block and send the heads to Hoffman to breath some more power out of it or cut your loss and sell it i would buy and offer a partial trade of my 09 audiS4 cabriolet 47k miles

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My gut wrenched reading about your experience with your new to you car Gravey996. I couldn�t imagine the level of anger I would have about it. My 248K+ engine doesn�t make sounds like that

It seems phones capture crazy noises sometimes when none are present. I agree it sounds absolutely terrible, but that could just be from the phone and it's quiet in person.

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Nor should it sound like that. On paper, car deal almost seems to good to be true. A couple thousand miles ago car got new struts/brakes/etc. Then after many thousands of $$$$$ of very pertinent 996 work in the recent past, that a shop/caring owner very familiar with the 996 would do. But now the car is now for sale. Who does that, new rotors/pads, new struts, and all the recent past work like UAOS then puts the car up for sale..? Not many even know or would spend $$$$ on the UAOS outside of the 'in the know 996 community'... So what changed owners mind now ? to put car up for sale..? Unfortunately Heard that engine noise way to many times before engine tear down. Its unmistakable. Thats rod knock for sure. The big end bearing on 1 rod is already spun. Most/all seasoned engine savvy mechanics knows that knock sound that follows rpm. For a car shop to sell you this engine/car, someone there(or many) positively already knew about the rod knock. A car company/repair shop that sold you this car took advantage of you for sure as they knew the only outcome possible very shortly down the road. The m96 reciprocating mass is such a robust unit they can run for quite a while with a spun rod bearing. I've seen it. And rod knock is a way to common failure on the m96 from its oil instability problems. if a private individual non-mechanic type sold you this car, I wouldn't say the above. But a car shop knows better. Even a not deaf non car guy knows something changed on his ride after that noise started... It really suks they would do this. Sorry to be so blunt in your terrible situation. It just gets me mad they would leave you holding the bag like this. Just don't know how to say the truth of the matter any other way. Sorry this happened to you, Hope they make it right for you. jmho

Sorry to hear about your story. My engine has 200k miles and does not sound like this. Obviously the car had a problem... In Europe you have six months for used goods, to revert the sale. Examine if at your state/country there is such an option with a lawyer...

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Neither does mine. No puff of smoke. Just sounds bad *** from the get go. @996-CAB - the analysis and ammunition he's provided is amazing. It ought to give you traction to get this resolved.

If this is the co host�s 996 he talks about it on their podcast. He owned it for like 7 years and wanted everything handled on it. He daily drove it. He just bought a 996 GT3 which is why he sold it to or through Switchcars. I think he says he sold it to them. Seems like he did all the right things to the car but you can see the videos on YouTube. Feel bad for the new owner. https://youtu.be/rdm7zPkxWp4?si=1JRe2_avy0H265r6 Joey

Hey man, I'm genuinely sorry to hear this, especially after all your saving and shopping. That is absolutely brutal, and you have every right to be bummed.To put it behind me permanently and gain peace of mind, I actually bought a roller with a bore-scored engine for $7K and then had the engine completely rebuilt/upgraded with Hartech technology here in Canada for another $25K. I turned my 3.6L into a 4.1L powerhouse�and that's the only reason I trust the car now.Your heartbreaking experience, and countless others, is proof that the whole "the M96/M97 failure issue is overblown" narrative is simply false. Unless it's a Mezger, the engine in the 996 is fundamentally flawed and will fail. It's just a matter of time.There is honestly nothing you could have done differently. You bought a car with an excellent maintenance record. Do not blame yourself. The fault lies with the original design.The bright side is that you've hit rock bottom on the cost of ownership, and it only goes up from here. Rebuild it properly (like a Hartech/Jake Raby/reputable solution) and you will have a more reliable, stronger engine than stock, and you'll drive it happily forever. Your pain now leads to bulletproof ownership later

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Sorry to hear. Its a beautiful car. The previous owner did an extensive refresh list over the last 8 years. Kudos to him. I remember watching his video on your car. Unfortunately he may have done all of the right things, but what about all of the owners previous to him which may have set the conditions for whatever failed. No question, a good number of 996 owners back in the day tracked their cars w/ the factory AOS, without a deep sump and most importantly ran a half quart low in Mobil 1 oil, just begging for oil starvation. After 25 years, we have all of the upgrades needed to solve the problem. Glad you are considering tearing down the engine. Hope you post your project and findings. Since the previous owner has already refreshed the key bolt on parts, you may want to take a look at the factory short block and visit with Len Hoffman on headwork. If your engine got 109k miles on it over the last 22 years with all of the early owners flying blind, imagine how many miles you will get on a new factory short block or rebuild with all the knowledge we have accumulated on the 996 parts and procedures after 25 years. Good luck with the project and new house.

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All engine fail, Mezgers included. Nothing wrong with the M96 original design or Hartech and Raby wouldn't rebuild them. No question, an engine rebuild can take the M96 to an even higher level of industrial strength and durability. If you read Barry Harts white papers, he is complementary of the design. For sure, he found ways to improve on it, just like Jake Raby. And we thank those guys for building on the M96 platform to benefit all of us.

Doug at SwitchCars is too good of a guy to turn up his nose at this and look the other way. I think you should ask to go on the podcast.

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and LN won�t warranty replacement IMS bearings without looking at timing system and deviations and bore scoring. That process revealed issues for me that I fixed (expensive). In addition why did they sell 2k miles after putting in a new suspension. good sleuthing about the company and connections. I told the OP on Reddit (he posted there) that he shouldn�t just trust what they told him. Something is strange about this imo.

In the opening statement it was said the car was sold " as is " . Does that mean absolutely no warranty was given ? Not even 30 days ? Certainly a bad situation . Good luck with your decision . When rebuilt correctly with an increase in displacement these cars are magnificent to drive .

Without more info its tough to tell what really happened. But lets go thru a simple exercise of listing the 5 main failure points on a factory 3.6 M96 engine. 1. IMSB - Ball bearing shotgun spray 2. AOS - Hydrolock 3. Water Pump - Cracked Heads 4 Oil Starvation - Rod Bearings 5. Bore Scoring - Slow Death Chains are really not an issue in the 3.6. So the first question is what failed. The second question is what caused it. ADD: Let me also say that all 5 failure points can be easily mitigated with upgraded parts and/or better procedures, all of which we have learned over the past 25 years. But oil starvation, like bore scoring can slowly creep up on you. Both can be identified with oil testing.

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Exactly. Who does that? Someone trying to paper over a real problem long enough to sell the car.

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I think if you watch their videos you would see the co host loves 996�s and drove this daily but then his dream 996 gt3 he has been looking for came available which is why he sold it. He explains all the work and why he did it. He planned to keep the car long term so he did everything needed. He had it for 7 plus years. He even talks about in another video how much it costs too. I would hope a dealer like this wouldn�t pass an issue they knew about to another buyer. Just sucks this happened to the new owner.

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wonder what he paid for the car.

Good work 996-CAB..Wondering if the authorized installers listed on FSI are for the Solution or for all IMSB offered ? CAE is not on that list.

That is a gut punch. I think we all sympathize. Scammed by the dealer. Not a lawyer, but Texas has a consumer protection act from 1978 that involves dealers and honesty in a specific section of it. Your state may have similar. I�d discuss with dealer and make sure they know the next step is involving an attorney.

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In my mind, his comments make the situation worse because they clearly knew better. All you have to do is listen to the engine in the start-up video either on the SwitchCars site where the car was sold, or the copy of it I posted on this thread and then read post #21. You could hear there was something wrong with the engine and as someone who knew the 996, they can't say they never noticed anything unusual. Even if you don't know what's causing the unusual noise, we all knew it wasn't normal and they, with tons more experience would have also known. Yes, the OP should get a complete refund.

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he�s never had a Porsche before. The engine sounds seem telling to those who have experience.

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that�s an obvious knock. Was this video posted while it was for sale?! That sounds worse than advanced bore scoring. Beautiful car, what a shame!

Holy **** I cannot believe this car was sold sounding like that. That motor is so obviously toast I�m in shock. No one should have bought it and no one should have been selling it. While id never have bought this car, I�d most definitely lawyer up and get really aggressive with the seller. Don�t take this sitting down!

Greetings all, thank you so much for the support on this! I did take note of the sound on the engine in their listing video. I am myself a professional photographer working in the collector car space. Sometimes when I've filmed cars, they've sounded very bad due to the acoustics of the space, so I think I chalked it up to that. In retrospect though, it might have been a red flag. I have worked with every generation of 911 and know that they can sound a bit clattery, but again in retrospect, I work mostly with air cooled cars. I paid $29,250 delivered, pre-tax on the car. My wife took video as the car came off the trailer, and sure enough, you can hear that tapping sound. I just assumed this was normal. So, it seems we are all in agreement that this engine was on the way out when I bought the car. That is very unfortunate. I will keep you all updated. I am calling Doug today.

EDIT: accidental double post while waiting for admin approval

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as I�ve advised him from the beginning. Under no circumstances should he speak to this dealer directly again. They attempted to defraud him.

Oof. Sounded like mine did, but I knew it had severe piston slap and bore score when I bought it. You Tube

Just watched the videos - big yikes, that engine sounds terrible. Sounds just like mine did before I tore it apart and found a completely disintegrated lifter on bank 1. IMO there's no way the previous owner didn't know or at least strongly suspect something was seriously wrong, leading them to put it up for sale.

Sorry to hear this, OP! I don't follow Switchcast closely, but saw the podcast where the co-host described the car and said he sold it for a 996 GT3. The car seemed well-sorted from his description of his history with it, but man does it sound rough in that walk around. I feel like I saw a friend-of-a-friend's IG post about your purchase of the car (any chance you're in the Philly area?). I'm interested in what Doug has to say... They have a car currently for sale that I'm tempted by, but this is giving me pause. Again, sorry to hear about this, but thanks for sharing!

PPI on the car before purchase? A Co-worker of mine walked away from a car at this dealer after an independent PPI was performed. Not saying anything about this dealer specifically, more the importance of a PPI no matter who is representing the vehicle. Trenton O. Gibson [email removed] Highline Autos Direct: [phone removed] Office: [phone removed]

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Howdy neighbor! Yes, I am in Philly.

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Pretty sure the "attempted fraud " part has left the building

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I would imagine that this may not be an isolated incident with this dealer. I don�t know. I can say that a true well sorted 996 with relatively low miles will cost at least $40,000 one way or another

This is a screen shot of a video of car in question before sale,, from post #16. My cold idle oil pressure pegs the gauge @5bar on both my 996.1 and my 996.2 and pretty much stays there till warm. This car seems to be a hair over 4 bar totally cold on temp gauge.

Gravey, how is it going?

Would love to hear how this turns out. Switchcars bills itself as one of the good guys in the dealer space, I follow their podcast and both Doug and Tyler seem like geniune people. I don't think they owe you a total repair, but some good will towards the repair would seem like the right thing to do. My knowledge of 911's is very limited but I'm pretty mechanically savvy, that engine doesn't sound healthy in either of those videos. Yikes.

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They had to have known and if not it�s embarrassing. Clearly their seller knew.

I sub'd to this thread, hopefully you are able to get this resolved. I'll be watching the journey.

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Is this a joke? You really think that someone who sunk that much into maintenance and has a very public facing persona attached directly to a dealership that sells these cars would intentionally do this? I don't even know where to start with how dumb an idea this would be. I really doubt there was any malicious intent or intent to deceive here. Save $15k for a PR nightmare that is already probably costing Switchcars more than that? Seller owes buyer nothing. It is unfortunate but look at the contents of this forum. This happens to people almost daily it seems.

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Your comment is, respectfully, both hilarious and naive. I love how you've decided that "seller owes buyer nothing" without knowing anything about what happened except what you see here. This is a car dealer. We do not know the relationship between the seller and the dealer, but we do know what the engine sounds like and there are a number of other red flags here. My suggestion to you would be to not give the benefit of the doubt to the car dealer and seller and let them explain, publicly, what happened here. Under the law of any state, you cannot withhold material information and you cannot make misrepresentations. We do not know what the OP / buyer was told here. But we do know that he has no prior experience with water cooled engine porsches. For example, why were they selling this car so quickly after the seller put a new suspension on it? Why were they selling a car that clearly is worth at least $40k if they didn't think anything was wrong with it for only $29k? Why was that car engine making obvious noises that anyone with experience (like both the seller and the dealer in this case) knew or should have known indicated that there could be a significant problem here. Why was this dealer selling this car in that situation at all? Again, what exactly was represented to the OP and what was not told to the OP? While you might be correct that neither did anything wrong, this dealer follows this forum and has commented in the past, and yet we've heard nothing.

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Are you familiar with the phrase "As-Is"? Indiana has no cooldown period. The dealer owes the buyer nothing. If they didn't do their due diligence, that is unfortunate but it isn't the dealer's problem. I suspect Switchcars will probably do something to keep their good name, even though they really don't need to. Unsurprising there is no comment because it would be very strange to publicly comment on any of this before it is resolved. I'll state it again, your presumption that they would intentionally sell someone a car with a blown motor to save a couple pennies makes no sense when you consider the impact on their business it would have. edit: Somehow I got Indiana and Ohio mixed up. Same deal though.

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Are you familiar with the concepts of fraud and negligent misrepresentation? Just because Indiana has no cool down period (was this car sold in Indiana?), that does not mean that seller and dealers can make material misrepresentations and/or omissions to customers. What do you do for a living? You sound like a car dealer. I have no presumption (and the motor wasn't blown when sold, it was a "ticking" time bomb). I am merely pointing out what others have said here as well - there are a number of red flags. Interesting that you don't see any of them. And what may have happened here could have been negligent, not intentional. Stop putting words in my mouth. Again, we do not know what they knew or what was said. You say that Switchcars has no legal obligation here. Yet, again, you have absolutely no idea what was said, what they know, or anything else about what happened here. Remind me not to buy a car from you. Finally, if as you say Switchcars did nothing wrong, why is there no comment? They are so good at marketing themselves as trustworthy folks we can rely on. How would you feel if this happened to you?

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Dealer remains adamant the car was healthy, and questioned why I bought it if I thought otherwise. A good will arrangement was agreed on, though I will still be investigating this failure when the engine goes for rebuild. I am sending a sample of the oil that came in the car for lab analysis this week. The car is sitting in storage for the foreseeable future as the investigation continues. Larger decisions will be made as more evidence is collected.

I admire your level-headedness here. I’m honestly pretty disappointed by Doug at Switchcars on this one. He regularly publishes content with a big audience calling out bad behavior in the car world. Dealers scamming people, shady transport companies, industry pitfalls. I actually enjoy his videos and podcast for that reason. He positions himself as someone who pulls the curtain back. That’s why this situation stands out. Needing a new engine on a new-to-you 911 is a harsh reality. For a first-time 911 buyer who believed they bought a solid car from a reputable dealer, it really stinks (but yes, **** happens) The lack of engagement or explanation from Switchcars here feels inconsistent with the values Doug often advocates publicly. You can’t really have it both ways. They also do a regular live podcast where they take questions from viewers. It would be very easy for this to come up there. Someone could simply ask that they read about it on Rennlist and want to understand how Doug explains it. Maybe there is a reasonable explanation. I’d genuinely like to hear it. Whether this was coincidence or fault, perception matters. Situations like this create reputational damage, and Doug is clearly smart enough to recognize that. He’s on here. I’m not tagging them. But he could post here.

As-is, removes all liability from the seller. It works that way in most countries. I will always tell people the car/ motorcycle is sold as is. I can explain that its been reliable for me and will point out anything relevant but its up to the buyer to do their due diligence. Who can really guarantee the unknown? Car dealers can do it as they have insurance for that sort of thing.

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Good post. Switchcars cannot have its cake and eat it too. Why is Switchcars attacking the OP for buying the car "if he thought otherwise"? He clearly had no idea, perhaps in part based on their representations to him. And why doesn't Switchcars explain why that engine noise we can all here is fine and means nothing? So is Switchcars saying that we should all buy cars from Switchcars with engines that sound like that? As I've said, the OP should stop dealing directly with this car dealer and hire a local lawyer.

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Um, "as is" means nothing if you know something or should know something and make representations or omissions about it. No one is talking about guarantees. Dealers like Switchcars lean into customers touting their reputation, suggesting you can rely on them.

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Sounds like you have this sorted then, i hope you will be personally helping the OP sort it. Not a nice thing to happen to them but perhaps its a good lesson on talking to the right people etc.

Is the OP's silence, an indication that things are moving forward? Let's hope for the best and wait for some input.

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This you? I am going to get out of this pigsty, but my suspicion is this is what happened. Tyler (actual owner), did the deal through Switchcars to roll the sale price of the car into the purchase price of the GT3 to avoid paying sales tax on the full amount (if done through the dealer you would count the sale of the green car as a trade-in towards the purchase of the GT3). I doubt Doug has any thorough knowledge of the car besides that it has an extensive maintenance history, nor would have any reason to doubt Tyler's representation of the car given their relationship. I'm just going to note here again that I find it extremely funny that some people in this thread think that spending money on some suspension work prior to sale points to Tyler trying to cover up the condition of the engine by just throwing irrelevant receipts at it. Car sells through Switchcars and Doug inherits the PR nightmare that I guarantee if he knew was coming he would have told Tyler to fix it or sell it elsewhere.

Yikes, Wife and I have been watching switchcast passively for a handful of months. I really really really don't get the spidey tingles from the cohost, Tyler. I don't think his depth or breadth of knowledge is on the same plane as Doug, and nothing he ever said about the car made me think he was dumping it, even if he had put money into it recently. It credibly sounds like he was on a search for a GT3 for a long time. I think the OP posts the one piece of evidence that could sink his case about the dealer knowing for sure that there was a problem. In his own words: " I had an oil change done 209 miles into ownership. We found no debris in the oil filter, or on the magnetic drain plug. Last oil change was in the spring, with about 4k miles on it at the time of purchase. It seemed somewhat odd that the car would be sold without an oil change. I have a sample of this oil, and will be sending it to a lab for testing." If a bearing was toast in the dealership there would have definitely been debris. If the claim is that maybe the dealership had done a quick unreported change on the oil because of the debris, it would have to be proven forensically from the oil sample and or information on the oil filter. If I was the previous owner and I truly believed that the car was sound when it left, I would also be suspicious that the car failed immediately after the new owner had it serviced at a new shop. Switchcars deals in a lot of cars that my wife and I are interested in, and I would be particularly interested to see them come up with some kind of good will. My wife and I have had bad dealership experiences, and they seem like a place that would be convenient for an enthusiast to shop. My guess is they are not legally required to help based on "as-is" sales. Yes, obviously based on what they may have known, vs disclose, but unless you were in the room It's probably going to be impossible to prove what was known. For my purposes I would use an expert like Doug to help me avoid cars that are about to implode within several hundred miles, and if he's not able to do that, then I'd rather be on my own. If he's good at cultivating his collection (which I believe he has been) you would have some misses, but not in high enough numbers that it would hurt your bottom line to help out when you miss. If he's missing so often that protecting his name destroys the business, it's not a service that would be useful to me, and I'm guessing many others. If Switchcars thinks it's likely that they will end up in court, I would be surprised to see them respond. I'm also not a lawyer but I think there's a chance that if Switchcars offer any good will, they may make themselves liable through admission of guilt. They could run into offering what they feel is reasonably good will and end up getting sued anyway with the new owner using the goodwill offer as evidence against the dealer. It might be worth having your lawyer ask their lawyer if you could come to an agreement of good will and contractually releasing them of liability. It seems like they should at a minimum give you the profit from the deal, but if they were selling for a friend there might not be much meat on the bone. This seems like a case where it would be good if the new owner, and the dealer could settle privately. Reputation is worth a lot more than a 996 Carrera deal, but lawyers' fees can probably quickly add up to more than a used Carrera engine. Sorry to the OP for your first Porsche experience. I've been a Porsche addict for 25 years, but after the PCNA dealership didn't stand behind work on my wife's car, we're coming around to viewing all these engines as suspect. When I asked the service manager if he personally found it reasonable that a rebuilt GT4 engine would not make it to its first oil chance without major problems he replied: "things break". We have no future Porsche purchase plans and so far are enjoying our 2024 Corvette C8. We probably should have done that years ago.

Quotes source post: 20357043

Man, that is awful! So sorry to hear that! It sounds like a case of really, really bad luck from your description. A few years ago I had a BMW 1M Coupe that was 11 years old and had 28K. It was incredibly well cared for. I know because I took incredibly good care of it. So much so that it was the only 11 year old 1M Coupe with that many miles that still had the original plastic charge pipe that blows under full load. I sold the car to a young man that was stretching to afford it and I warned him....it has the original charge pipe and it has blown on every other 1M I know. I recommended he set aside $1K for it. He picks up the car at 3 pm and the next morning at 10 am he sends me a text with a warning light asking me if I had ever seen that light before. NO! I have never seen that warning light. So I googled it and sure enough it was the warning light when the plastic charge pipe ruptures. The next freakin' morning. So he inspects it and sure enough there was a crack. He said he floored it on the freeway in 6th gear and it lost power. But the 1M has a special overboost function for exactly that low rpm high load situation. Anyway, he was so crushed and acknowledged that I told him it might go sooner than later. I had also given him the car at a discount too. Anyway, I told him to drive the BMW dealership so we can get a quote and I drove him home. I paid for the repair. Even though I had warned him about it multiple times, I could empathize how horrible it would be to have your new car blow the day after you get it. It cost me $975, but I slept better that night. I felt awful myself even though I did everything possible to be transparent about it. Again, I'm really sorry. Did you contact the seller? Maybe he might offer some help?

Quotes source post: 20372889

That is me. And maybe you're right. But you can't deny that this experienced seller and dealer damn well heard the engine noise. I have no connection to the OP. I just happen to care about the little guy.

Quotes source post: 20372847

Don't know him. Just trying to help out on here.

Quotes source post: 20372676

Anyone that knew anything about these cars would have known the motor was toast. The seller HAD to know. The video is proof. Discovery would get at conversations amongst all parties involved proving that knowledge was transferred. I'd sue the F#$* out of these guys.

sorry to hear about this. I did not read the whole thread. yes the car had lots of maintenance...between 70 and 105 miles....seems like very little before. and buying a car as is should have been a warning to check it out with ppi especially on a 996. and that was not your best day when you took delivery, it was one of your worst but you didn't know it. stories like this on 996s are far too common unfortunately. good luck! try not to let this consume you.

Quotes source post: 20372643

Listen to the video. The seller knew what was wrong and hoped to hook a buyer who wouldn't recognize the tapping.

Quotes source post: 20373685

tapping?! 😆 that�s advanced bore scoring or a rod knock!

Folks bringing up the "AS IS" clause don't understand the situation. Doug frequently bills himself as the moral compass of used car industry, where it be in transport solutions, car sales, ethics, etc. As someone mentioned, you can't have your cake and eat it too. You are either are one of the "good guys" or you're part of the problem. I've strongly considered dealing with them as I'm itching for a clean E90 M3 but if this is an acceptable way of doing business I guess I might as well take my chances with any other dealer that talks the talk but can't walk the walk. And before anyone says I'm just bashing Doug or Switchcars, in reality I'm just disappointed. I enjoyed the podcast and I believed the business model.

They posted a video, no pre purchase was done, a post purchase inspection came back fine, what exactly is wrong here? This has no signs of deception/cover up/lies. Just an unfortunate situation and some hindsight. Worth talking with the dealer, I had a new to me car do something similar before and the previous owner offered to buy it back when I was just asking some questions about the rebuild/builder. I had no expectations of even a nickel from him as it wasn't his fault/deception, just a failed rebuilt engine.

Quotes source post: 20377149

There is a statute called, theft by deception. It applies in Ohio, Indiana and also in most other states. Selling as is does not alleviate the responsibility of the selling dealership and or owner to disclose known issues. The video clearly indicates that there is an engine issue. This is public knowledge prior to the sale and must be disclosed or it constitutes theft by deception! The dealership is considered an expert and knowledgeable about these cars. Swithcars is 💯 percent liable and there is no possibility that Doug did not understand what he was selling! It is called “Theft” for a reason!

You guys are absolutely off the reservation with your armchair expert opinion on the sound from the video. The only circumstantial evidence that the noise is related to a problem is that it actually blew up. There are hundreds of threads with tick noises on old Porsches. The responses range from �bore score imminent destruction� to �these engines make lots of noise�. No way to know without tearing it down. Plenty of engines make a racket and go forever. Plenty of engine blow up with little warning. He also needs the tear down evidence, and then you can potentially analyze the frequency of the noise to see if it corresponds to the actual failure. the issue at hand isn�t some kind of theft by deception that would be a dice roll to prove in court against an established dealer. the issue is that people don�t go to switch cars to buy as is used cars, they go there for the implied service that he offers by word of mouth as a guru.

Quotes source post: 20377253

But nothing presented shows/proves Theft by Deception as defined here. Without something definitive like a mechanic claiming they checked the car and informed the owner prior to sale, you would need multiple buyers coming forward with similar stories before having a semblance of a case here. Making an assumption that they KNEW the engine was bad is a large leap, especially with such a claim. What did the analysis say in regards to the rest of the oil? Did the viscosity/etc line up with a 4k interval? That would be about the only smoking gun, is if the analysis was in line with a <500 oci and they claimed no oil change before sale.

Quotes source post: 20377318

Bull****. That engine is toast and it was obvious. You are completely and totally incorrect on this. They got a buyer that didn�t know any better and happily passed the loss to someone else.

Quotes source post: 20377318

Auto Werks, is that a (your..?) automotive repair shop, or car dealership...?

I would like to clarify a few things: I've known the previous owner for years, I know all the techs who worked on it, I've put thousands of miles on it with him, and it's always been cared for exceptionally well. Techs who worked on the car were even interested in buying the car, based on their knowledge of the car. It shouldn't need to be said, but there was absolutely no intent to deceive in this transaction. The service records, clearly posted on the listing and available to anyone, showed that the IMS had been upgraded, that regular oil changes had been done, the cylinders had been scoped, and the camshaft deviation was measured recently and found to be well within spec. Compression and leakdown tests were done by the previous owner as well, again, within spec. All of this was published and available to anyone. The oil filters were cut open at every oil change and inspected for debris, and none was found, the OP even stated that they immediately did an oil change after their purchase, cut open the filter, and it was clean. The previous owner did this for his own peace of mind, and everyone who knows him knows that if ANY issue was found, he would deal with it ahead of time. After learning about the failure, we went back and reviewed the service records, re-interviewed all the techs who had touched the car, and essentially second-guessed ourselves to try and see if there was anything that was missed or overlooked, and through this became more confident in our position. If ever there should be confidence in purchasing a car, this was one of those times. Nobody thought otherwise until a freak failure happened, and of course now everyone's a keyboard detective/mechanic/attorney, looking for the conspiracy theory. There is none. Cars are mechanical items and they have weaknesses, and they don't always tell you when they are about to fail, sometimes they just fail. The reason I didn't weigh in on this thread earlier is 1) I was not aware of it for a number of days (some of you could have tagged me in the thread, instead of talking about me without my knowledge and then claiming I'm shady for not responding) 2) I wanted to discuss and resolve the issue directly with the OP, because ultimately it's between us and him. Based on our most recent conversation, the OP and I have reached a mutually agreeable resolution, and according to him, we made things right, although we had no contractual or legal obligation to do anything. It should also be noted that after the failure, the car was started and run by a trucker transporting the vehicle, which no doubt exacerbated the damage, although to what extent we will likely never know. Just one detail that's not being discussed here, and is somewhat relevant. My decision to extend goodwill had nothing to do with the opinions in this thread, if anything, what was said here could have hurt his cause, since all of you were throwing around some pretty wild accusations with very little knowledge of the situation. Some of you may not like my response, and may think that I'm "coming on strong". Well, that may be the case, but that is how I respond when I'm being accused of ridiculous things from people who haven't asked for my side of things, haven't communicated with me directly, and are making baseless assumptions having to do with fraud and theft. The internet is a wonderful and terrible place. Service records permanent link: https://switchcars.com/wp-content/up...10/Binder1.pdf

Quotes source post: 20377949

If you stepped forward with even some goodwill, I think this is case closed. I just didn't want to see you guys just wash your hands of the issue complete even if it is just a "used car, as is". Although I think some of the accusations are strong I think you responding to this thread goes a long way towards re-affirming how you guys carry yourself and go about business when things inevitably sometimes go wrong.