ORIGINAL: edgiee
Spyderman, you are absolutely correct. The engine was built by Porsche and the brand has perhaps the best reputation in the world for engineering excellence. If I were Porsche GB, wishing to protect that valuable reputation, I would not let the matter get so far as to make even one customer unhappy enough that they feel they have to post the problem on a website. With a car that must have been >£60k new, driven only 32k miles and with recommended oil change intervals of 20k miles , how can anyone deny they have a responsibility: the failure is obviously a build problem. If they had found from diagnostics that the engine had been thrashed unmercilessly for some of the 32k then they may have a reason for denying responsiblity, but you don't mention this, so presumably this isn't the case.
But, is this a feature of modern engine manufacture? Just what is the incidence rate of these failures in Porsche vehicles? Maybe it would be a good idea for Porsche to come public on this site with these figures. And how do they compare with other manufacturers? Are there similar anecdotal reports about BMW, Audi, Astons, Jaguars, Ferraris, etc. on their forums?
BTW I must say I'm a bit concerned that I can't see the state of the oil in my C2's 3.6 engine. There isn't a dip-stick so does anyone have any tips?
There is a salutary lesson in loss of brand image - Mercedes. A number of years ago they had the rep for building the best quality and most reliable cars on the market irrespective of price. Many customers once experiencing that quality went no where else and simply bought the next model because it was a Mercedes. Service at the centers was excellent, sales were high everything was rosy.
Then in the drive for profit margin, they threw the baby out with the bath water - in cutting back on what was perceived to be unnecessary over engineering, they overdid it and their cars became cheap and not so reliable but maintained the premium price. Dealerships flooded with would be buyers became arrogant and aloof.
And to be fair to them when the customers started coming back with fault son their cars probably failed to believe it was down to poor quality product. Still sales carried on as a reputation ah rd won is hard lost.
Then JD Power came along and became a voice for those disaffected individuals. Mercedes ended up near the bottom - management ignored it as they still acted as it was a premium product despite the cost cutting and corner cutting until their sales fell off a cliff. Then they blamed the Dealerships as it couldn't be Mercedes fault blah blah blah.
Upshot several years ago Mercedes committed an extra £1 billion a year to improve quality to get their reputation back. Most of the new products are very good now but only recently and they still have a dodgy reputation - it takes years to fix. So in the end it probably cost the company nearly as much as the extra profit they made and now they have a tarnished brand to boot at a time where any edge for sales is crucial.
Does this pattern seem familiar - its a warning. This has repeated itself in other markets (IBM anyone in the mid late 80's they were untouchable) - Microsoft are currently making the same mistakes that they benefited from IBM making 20 years earlier.
As for our beloved marque, well year on year they are gently sliding down the JD Power survey. as a company that now solely relies on it reputation for quality, reliability and being special to drive (other cars are faster, more luxurious , more exclusive) - they don't do/win top flight motor sport anymore (no F1, competition in sports cars is in lower groups).
New models are going for sheer speed over driver involvement (nothing wrong with that per se but its a unique selling point that they are loosing) - if the reputation for durability and reliability goes they are going to be in a world of trouble - the last best reason for buying one will have gone. I hope it doesn't happen.
] This is the first time that I have heard of this type of failure on a 997. There have been occurances of intermediate shaft failures although they seem to be very rare, or kept very quiet. I'm afraid the response from Porsche is typical for a non franchised serviced vehicle. Everyone knows that if an Indy changes your oil and filter it is likely to cause cylinder wall failure (sorry for sarcasm). How do you think Porsche make a £Billion profit each year.
