Any downside to having an independent shop perform maintenance???

I'm about due for my 30k service. I can save a couple of hundred bucks by having an independent shop (that I know and trust) do the work. The only downside I see is that the work won't be logged into the Porsche database. When it's time to put the car up for sale, the potential buyer won't find the service history through the Porsche database but I can obviously provide records. Anyone think this will hurt the re-sale value ?

Keep your invoice, paperwork, and documentation. If the Indy shop has a "stamp" they could still stamp your maint. record book. It won't be a Porsche Dealership stamp, bit it is better than nothing. I would "guess" it will not negatively impact resale value, but I no actual basis gfor this "guess."

As long as you document you are fine. Also, there are a couple indy's back in Vegas that were AUTHORIZED by Porsche to perform warranty work so you are just fine. Keep a log, file, or however you find it best and SHOULD you ever sell your beauty, you have all the history.

i think i would be looking in a different direction to save a few hundred bucks. if anything goes wrong, Porsche could probably try to stick it on the other persons work and @ the minimum you have 10 times the value in grief imo.

no. in fact in a private party sale, the shop will probably be willing to talk to a prospective buyer more so than a dealer.

A dealer is only good for TSB's and warranty work. Most dealers have only a couple good master technicians...the rest are trainees or "couldn't care less" technicians. I've had nightmares with dealers (not Porsche), and my first 2 dealings with the Porsche dealer was not impressive either. They couldn't even program my new key remote and tried to blame and sell me a $1000 seat memory module! And all you get to do is talk to the usually not so knowledgeable service manager at the desk. You can't even step into the workshop! And they just want to upsell...slit your throat at every opportunity. A good independent mechanic is a businessman working for his own business reputation. You get to talk to him, see the work, etc. That's how it should be. That's how I feel personally, and I know I'm right!

Hmmm....while I can understand where you guys are coming from, I disagree....Why? If he looks around he will get the same service at the dealer for the indy price. I was looking for my 30k service...got prices ranging from 700 to 1100 at dealers...then called indys, prices were 600-900, yes some indys were MORE than some dealers...then I asked on key question at my favorite dealer..."Do you match prices?" Yes, from other Porsche dealers....I got a quote for 595 from NorCal, asked my dealer if they would match it...they said yes. I let them write it up at full price so they didnt skimp on the work, and when I went to pay, I reminded them to adjust the invoice...I get peace of mind, dealer service, loaner car, retain the service history at the dealer and paid LESS than the indys....Also the indys sometimes did not do EVERYTHING in the service...they would inspect and change IF NEEDED...you have to ask specifically what they do on the service...some merely did oil and visual inspections. So when you look around, you should ask for a complete list of what is included in the 30k service.

I use an independant shop quite a bit for normal service. I have saved A LOT of money. One downside is that if you charge your purchases via credit card that gives you cash rebates (Discover Card) or airline miles (Citibank Mastercard), you will not get as much in rebates or miles as the cost will be cheaper. Adam

people like to bash on dealers are alot, anyone can (and does )make a mistake at work or with a customer or a client or in a job they are doing. alot of times its easier to blow a gasket then accept that people are just human. And there are a lot of less experienced techs, porshce sales have skyrocket in the last few years and that leads to a need for more techs so theres not a lot of porsche techs out there. BUt even the less expericence adn the lowly trainees........we all start our carears at some time right Sometimes porsceh doesnt give (or even have ) all the information on how systems work and how to repair them so on occasion misdiagnosis may happen but it shouldnt be considered the normal. The dealer shouldnt be "upselling" anything that isnt out of spec or due under porsche recomend maitnance schedule, they are looking out for you as well as themselves........remeber it is a bussinesss not a non profit organization your commet that reall miffs me is " good independent mechanic is a businessman working for his own business reputation." MY bussiness reputaion is just as importaint as an indy guys is, my customers come in and request me and they trust me. I talk to face ot face with a lot of my customers and am more then willing to show them the car what I recomend and why i recomend it. If you want to get you oil changed somewhere else or your brakes done good its probaly not a bad idea youll save money and any mnkey can do it. BUT diagnostic work most indys dont have the tools or knowledge to do proeperly and i see lots of cars sent over from the indy shops after they couldnt fix it and in some cases screwed up more then when it was brouht to them

I have mixed feelings on this. I have only used dealers for warranty work (two of them were worthless and did not even know my car features, the third was quite good and mod friendly). That being said, I have fund an Indy that does all of my work and I am quite happy with their knowledge. They also stand behind their work (heck they even came to my house once to read codes and they have a PST2). I suggest you find a shop, either a dealer or indy, and establish a good relationship with them.

When I had a MB I found an indie who knew the car cold and did proper work at a substantial saving. When a got the P-car the salesman told me of a couple of guys who used to be factory mechanics who started their own operation. The thought of saving big bucks with the indie didn't fly when I asked them about doing a Fabspeed install. They quoted me four hours labor and a whole lot of BS. Their shop is busy and I suspect that everyone who brings their car there thinks that because their hourly rate is less they are ahead of the game. The bottom line is that you have to find someone you can trust and who is also competent. Back to the initial question: A well documented record of work done by mechanics who know what they are doing should satisfy a prospective buyer.

99, I take it that you're a Service Rep at a Porsche dealer, am I correct? If so, is it true that Porshce dealers are linked into a database that allows any dealer to review the service history of work done at any dealership???

service rep no tech yes there is a database that shows some work performed not all and it only shows warenty work not maitnace or customer payed for work

Porsche dealers offer a 2 year warranty on any replaced porsche parts also. Not sure if indies do that or not.

As long as the indy is an authorized warranty facility. In addition to the dealer in Vegas we also has an indy that was authorized.

99firehawk, then I don't blame you for standing up so strong for the dealership. But the problem is, for the money they charge at the dealers, they don't have enough of people like yourself to back their quality of service/work! And Yes, you are right, it may not be Porsche's policy to "upsell' to customers, but it sure is the normal practice at dealerships everywhere...not just Porsche. This is thru' personal experiences. Just one example...at the BMW dealership, I took my car in for a MAF warranty fix, they told me all 4 brakes and rotors need to be replaced urgently-$1000. I said OK, let me go home and check my schedule first. I go straight to my indy mechanic, he looks at the car, and told me fronts are 50%, rears still long way to go. I left...true enough drove the car way way loooong before I replaced the fronts for $400. Rears were never replaced till I sold the car, probably 2 years later. Another one, Porsche couldn't program my remote key, and told me the seat's memory control module was bad-$1000 plus labor. NO Guarantee that's the fault for the programming issue though. But my original key works fine, even though I change the memory setting on it and do whatever. So my indy P mechanic said he has seen a few similar situations like this from dealers, it's the techs that didn't know how to do the programming right, (maybe only a few knows it well) he will fix it for me but I haven't been down to do that yet. The thing is, I kept asking the Porsche service manager to Re-program the key, and he stubbornly insisted that there couldn't be anything wrong with the programming! He insisted that if the programming was wrong, the key wouldn't work at all??? I find that hard to believe, and have heard differently from several sources. Well....just two of many stories I've experienced. Of course, looking for a Indy mechanic that is competent and trustworthy is VERY important. Otherwise, that could be worse than going to the dealer!

I have a great dealer in Seattle ---Barrier--- The techs are professional and always do the work right. I do take non warrenty work to them because I want to have a positive relationship with the guys that talk to the Porsche rep. So I pay a little more.. I have had RMS issues and the car turned around in a day. An engine replaced not to mention the help they provided in my PCCB issues. For me it has been a positive relationship and a good ROI.

PCNA offers the 2 year warranty on the parts so it doesn't matter who does the installation as long as the part comes from Porsche.

Well, my Indy mechanic only offers 12 mths or 12k miles warranty on parts and labor.

a benefit to getting your car serviced at the dealer is the goodwill warranty. say your car goes out of warranty, 6 months later your intermediate shaft breaks and you need a new engine. if youve spent money with the dealership and built a good relationship with your service department, porsche could possibly help you out with splitting a percentage of the cost, depending on how loyal you have stayed.

Yes...I just got a coolant tank replacement goodwilled....It was a CPO car and some say that part isnt even covered under CPO warranty...PCNA just goodwilled mine even though my car is now out of warranty.

The service dept in Nashville is run by a guy that's way over his head. He gets stumpeed and blames the customer or denies it's happening. He authorizes a rental car then acts like it's comming out his pocket. He just had my car for 10 days replacing an exhaust pipe on the left side. He said all of them in the country and canada were right side only! Give me a break

Being in the Porsche Database isn't as valuable as you think. In my experience, dealers won't divulge a car's service history (except warranty work and TSBs) to a 3rd party, even if it's the new owner. You're better off keeping copies of the service records yourself and handing them over to prospective buyers.

My experinece is the opposite....If you buy a car from the P Car dealer, they will give you the history...you cannot have originals, but copies....When I bought my Boxster, I said I NEEDED that info as part of the sale...when I went to close the deal, they had a folder with all the service records ready for me. Now maybe if you just go to a dealer and say I want you to pull up the history on a car I bought down the street, then they may not be willing to help, or take their time for no reason....I am sure it took someone time in pulling up records, then copying them....

I've been thru the same thing with my dealer. Put in new seat control module, under warrenty. Made no difference. The same thing with brakes as well. I bought them from sun coast Porsche and did the myself. They weren't bad. The dealer told me it's against some fed privacy rule to divulge the past owner etc. Upsell? 99, you're a tech. You're not the front man, service manager, who's job it apparently is to act dumb and sell uneeded parts.

FWIW, most car manufacturers strongly encourage their dealer franchises to absorb 100% of the operation's overhead in the service department. The logic is that this gives them maximum margin flexibility on the sales side and allows the dealer to carry more inventory (a critical part of a car company's business model and the real reason dealers are so powerful. No car company could afford to carry its own inventory). I'm not saying that it makes service departments dishonest, but you can be sure that at least at the management level, the pressure to maximize revenue per square foot is constant and intense.

99firehawk, i feel happy for you and your customer. you love your job, you know what you doing, and you care about cars. it's lucky to have a tech like you. however, for other "it's just a job" tech. things could be much worse. let me say that EVERY time i send my car to service, both dealer and a PCA-region recommended indy, there's something screwed up, and none of them told me up-front. i only found out myself. i can understand ANYONE can have a bad day, but i don't want anyone cheat me. i am learning to DIY now. just because i can't trust them any more. very sad.

I don't doubt it if the dealer was trying to sell the car. I had my PPI performed by one dealer and I called the original selling dealer and neither would give me anything more than than confirming that there were no outstanding warranty or TSB issues with the car. Hell, my own friggin' dealer wouldn't even give me a duplicate copy of my own RMS repair invoice from last year without me faxing them my registration.