Credibility crisis

[Paul Dunster]

Hi All,
My daughter came home from University over the week-end, so I offered to drive her back in the Porsche, as you do. We had a good run over to Birmingham, I dropped her off then went back to the car, she was too near the double yellows for comfort, jumped in and tried the starter, a slight whir then nothing. So here is the real problem, granted the car is 31/2 years old 36K miles but this is the second time I have need to call out the breakdown service in 6 months of ownership. I thought when I opted to buy a current model Porsche (rather than my previous 25 year old SC) that unreliability would be a thing of the past but in the last 5 years I have called out the breakdown service twice, both times for the 997. Bear in mind there are 4 other cars in the family that don't break down and they are 40 years old (MGB, 110K), 8years old (Peugeot 306, 82K), 6 years old (Toyota MR2, 54K) and 2 years old (SEAT Ibiza, 25K). The last 3 we have had from new. None of the new cars have needed warranty work (1 set of dics & pads and an air con rebuild - which on a soft top car is never used). The Porsche cost to buy more than the other 3 cars put together and they were new!! With the other 'new' cars we have never given a milliseconds thought to extended warranty (and not needed it) but on this forum it is a regular topic!!! So where did Porsche get it's good reputation for reliability? May be I should have stayed with the SC, with that I was not wondering every time I went out if I would get home again!
The forcast for tomorrow is for sunshine, so the drive to work and the sound from the exhaust and all will be forgiven, until the next time!

Cheers,
Paul.
997 Carrera, Artic Silver.

 

[DSM]

What was the cause of the problem?

 

[adrian996]

Hi Paul. I have a Citroen ZX 1.9D (Non-turbo diesel), I've owned it for 14 years and covered 162,000 miles in it without one single hiccup. Extended warranty...? I've never even thought of covering the car with anything other than my standard RAC cover - which I've used 5 times for my Porsche in the last 4 years - and NEVER used for my Citroen.

We're just entering a new time of "Honesty" (See Guy Garvey accepting the Mercury Music Prize 2008 on behalf of (the mighty) Elbow).

It's high time that we all just admitted that spending £125 on a Paul Smith shirt doesn't mean that one of the buttons won't fall off (they do, often), or that a £2,800 Rolex Submariner watch will keep time as well as a Swatch Watch that you paid £18 for in 1989 (it doesn't, nowhere even near).

The Jones's have been kept up with for far too long - with far too many other peoples' money.

It's no secret: labels don't equal quality.

 

[Mark Elder]

Problem is that Porsche is still a relatively low volume manufacturer. Ford, Citroen, Toyota etc all get an order of magniture more feedback on faults and so learn much faster about how to get it right. And they have a big incentive to reduce warranty claims because their volumes are so high. It's not Porsche's fault, it's just a fact of a low volume business. Bet Rolls Royce have same problem.

 

[Alex L]

ORIGINAL: Paul Dunster
So where did Porsche get it's good reputation for reliability?

I have a working theory that the Carrera's M97 'consumer grade' engine is an order of magnitude more unreliable than the GT3/Turbo/GT2's GT1-based Metzger 'professional grade' engine. It's quite scary seeing Gary's warranty thread where a lot of the Carrera's have listed whole engine replacements.

Let's hope the A91 engine will be a step-up for the facelift Carreras.

I am not convinced however it will be a step-up when moving from the over-engineered Metzger engines when they are replaced also.

 

[Paul Dunster]

ORIGINAL: DSM

What was the cause of the problem?

This problem was the battery was dead. Which in itself is not a bad problem but why does a Porsche battery last only 31/3 years but Peugeot and Toyota batteries are still going after 6 years? The car is normally used at least 3 times a week for return journeys of 20+ miles, when the car has been left for a long period I have attached the CETK battery conditioner.
The first call out was for a coil pack failure. Again this happens to other cars but when I went to France in August and there was lots of heavy showers I was constantly worried that the same would happen again. Now I tried not to use the SC in poor weather but should we have to avoid wet weather in a current model Porsche?

Paul.

 

[DSM]

No, I agree with you.

When I leave my 997 for more than a day or so I always connect the CTEK but it's early days yet.

We also have in the family a 2001 MR2 with 45000 miles still on original battery. Actually still on original everything except tyres and service items...........

Can't remember when I last had to buy a battery for any car in fact. sounds like it will be in two years time or so,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[2fast4u]

Paul, have a read of the thread C2S WON'T START!!

Kim x

 

[yan]

ORIGINAL: Alex L

ORIGINAL: Paul Dunster
So where did Porsche get it's good reputation for reliability?

I have a working theory that the Carrera's M97 'consumer grade' engine is an order of magnitude more unreliable than the GT3/Turbo/GT2's GT1-based Metzger 'professional grade' engine. It's quite scary seeing Gary's warranty thread where a lot of the Carrera's have listed whole engine replacements.

Let's hope the A91 engine will be a step-up for the facelift Carreras.

I am not convinced however it will be a step-up when moving from the over-engineered Metzger engines when they are replaced also.

I suspect the amount of testing Porsche do on mechanics far outweighs that they put into electronics where they do unfortunately seem to show themselves up. Speaking to technicians in the field their electronics are playing catch-up with the likes of BMW/Renault, i.e. they are implementing what others were doing more than a few years ago.

For all its foibles, for me they are far outweighed by superior driving appeal - or is it time to take another look at the MR2?