Advice from those who self service

Question for those that self service their cars. At what age/mileage did you stop using a dealer/specialist and start servicing your car yourself?

Probably not going to help you, but immediately after I bought it. I did have to take it to an indie once, as the previous owner stripped the oil plug and I couldn't get it out.

I bought oil cartridges from the dealer during the CPO for my own protection and when that expired, I became the chief mechanic.

Bought mine new in 2010 and only went to the dealer for warranty repairs. After the warranty expired I never went back.

Once the warranty for a car is over, in my opinion the best continuing care for both maintenance and repairs is some combination of Porsche indie shop and DIY. How the work gets split between these two depends upon the amount of time/skill/interest for DIY. Over time the ratio of DIY to shop might change depending upon various factors. I‘ve been fortunate to find a fantastic indie shop in Maryland called GT Performance. It’s a pleasure to work with them on everything from diagnosing problems to upgrades. I definitely feel it is a collaborative effort. In general, I do the easier stuff and they do the more complex as well as things which require special equipment like alignment.

@PorscheGreg said it better than I could have. For various cars, I've always had everything done by the dealer (the place of purchase) that was covered by warranty. For stuff that either only a dealer really could handle -- or would price out similarly to an indie shop -- I still have the dealer do it. I try to maintain really good relationships with dealers and indies alike. We've brought from dealers a few times, but that generally continues to be cost-prohibitive for us. My advice - it never hurts to establish a great relationship with a dealer's service manager. A recent example might be my wife's 2018 MINI Countryman. During the pandemic, we bought the car used from the dealer and established a great relationship with their service department. So for the past few years, when stuff has been out of warranty, I do the work myself but still remain in touch with their department -- as they're ready to give me a hand if it's something I can't handle or run into trouble with. This past fall's wrenching included a very troublesome motor mount installation and a few other difficult repairs, but thankfully I got it all sorted myself -- with thanks to some coaching on their service manager's end (he knows I wrench on our vehicles). With our previous two MINIs, solid relationships with a different dealer's service managers have led to discounts on major repairs (high pressure fuel pumps, timing chain, etc.) -- some of which wound up being reimbursed under warranty. In short, I keep all my options at my disposal -- DIY, dealer, and indie and use a combination approach depending on the work that needs to be done -- and the overall cost.

If you were doing the maintenance on your previous cars, I would not hesitate to keep doing the same on your 987, when in doubt, just ask as there are plenty of capable people here that would be willing to help you out. Just one word of advise, never, ever buy a spare part with the URO brand name..

Bought mine used, but still under original factory warranty for 1.5 years. Did all the maintenance myself from day 1. FCPeuro is your friend.

I accepted the one free oil change from the dealer that came with my 718 on it's 1-year anniversary, but I've done everything else on the car. So far it's been all routine maintenance: oil changes, brake pads, brake fluid flushes, air filter changes, cabin filter changes. Just keep good records! Truth be told, I wasn't 100% happy with the dealer oil change since they didn't completely wipe off the oil that dripped when changing the filter. When I went in to do the next oil change, I thought I had an oil leak!

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Mine is a 981S (owned since 22K, now 70K). I've always done basic maintenance on all my cars, and for oil changes this is not really any different from other cars. As long as you can get the car up high enough to be under it, and have the right oil filter wrench, it's not a bad job. Also, with the help from these forums and youtube, I've done the serpentine belt and PDK fluids, and while those are more time-consuming and need special instructions, again they are not hard jobs.

Brakes, suspension rebuild, water pump, engine mount, belt, oil and filters, plugs, and have a PDK fluid change coming up soon. So far nothing has been difficult.

Patience, investing in tools and leaning on YouTube has been my motion so far. The cars are very self-servable if you have patience. For me learning is part of the benefit of owning one of these great cars