Porsche Minor Service Costs

dereksharpuk · Dec 20, 2008

Just received news of the revised price of Porsche service. It is interesting to note that a 997 Gen II is cheaper to service than a Gen I (£401 as apposed to £463 for the Gen I at 2 years). A 997 Gen II is actually cheaper to service than a Gen I Cayman! Dyllan please note. Moreover, Gen II is cheaper than a 996 which costs a wopping £724 every 2 years! Change now. You know it makes sense.

dereksharpuk · Dec 20, 2008

Aaah. just spotted the small print. The price is based on VAT at 15%. Actually that makes the margins even better. However, if VAT increases to 20% we know who to blame.

pwebb · Dec 20, 2008

Derek, the cost of a new 997S goes down by about £1500 as well, a handy saving when I get mine (assuming PCGB don't put prices up in the meantime!).

juliany27 · Dec 20, 2008

ORIGINAL: dereksharpuk

Just received news of the revised price of Porsche service. It is interesting to note that a 997 Gen II is cheaper to service than a Gen I (£401 as apposed to £463 for the Gen I at 2 years). A 997 Gen II is actually cheaper to service than a Gen I Cayman! Dyllan please note. Moreover, Gen II is cheaper than a 996 which costs a wopping £724 every 2 years! Change now. You know it makes sense.

Or go to a good independent servicer?

dereksharpuk · Dec 20, 2008

ORIGINAL: pwebb

Derek, the cost of a new 997S goes down by about £1500 as well, a handy saving when I get mine (assuming PCGB don't put prices up in the meantime!).

aaaaaaah, don't remind me [

]

sawood12 · Dec 20, 2008

Well with the new anti-competitive European rules that don't allow manufacturers to penalise people against their warranties for not using their dealership network to service their cars then you are free to have your car serviced by whoever you like as long as it is serviced in accordance with the manufacturers schedule and they have to honour your warranty. Porsche are not allowed by law to with-hold technical information from 'Joe-Bloggs and Sons Motor Mechanics' when they call up for technical info. So begs the question why even consider the dealership network at all even for your brand new car when there are so many excellent and reputable specialists around.

garyw · Dec 20, 2008

Scott,
block exemption (which I assume you're on about) does apply for manufacture warranties from new, but the extended warranty which is a purchased product/Insurance scheme is out of the remit for block exemption.
Thus you're either in or out with the extended warranty, your point is valid for manufacturers 1 year though, - again the goodwill and proof of serviced in accordance may be down to yourself..

In the matter of the 997 its first service is at two years, then your away from block exception.
Warranty repairs are two years from new done free of charge by the OPC, so it bears the question, why would you take your new car to anywhere other than an OPC for the first two years???

garyw

dereksharpuk · Dec 21, 2008

ORIGINAL: garyw

so it bears the question, why would you take your new car to anywhere other than an OPC for the first two years???

garyw

Answer: NO.

Moreover, should I break the habit of a lifetime and keep my Porsche longer than 2 years, I think I would still have it serviced at my OPC for the following reasons:

1. Their aftersales service is great.
2. I really value that OPC stamp in the service book.
3. I think they would quibble less if I have a warranty fault (assuming I have an extended warranty).
4. Their chocolate biscuits are yummy.

sawood12 · Dec 21, 2008

I hadn't appreciated that the Block Exemption didn't apply to extended warranties. I'm sure that wont last long though.

However i'd take issue with the notion that the OPC aftersales care can ever possibly be as good as a good indies, though having never been in the fortunate position to be able to buy a brand new Porsche. The Indie I use not only knows my car inside out but he and his guys know me in that whenever I ring up or pop round they know me by name and know about my car and ask after both. There is no quick looking up of a computer database or anything like that. There is no way any OPC can compete with that level of good old fashioned personal customer service as they are principally concerned with getting numbers through the door. OPC's and other manufacturers dealerships have already farm out alot of their work to local specialists e.g. body work and other specialist jobs leaving the OPC mechanics to largely concentrate on the high premium servicing work. In fact I know of one specialist who gets most of their work (general repairs and bodywork) from the OPC network. So it begs the question - who is really working on your car?

garyw · Dec 21, 2008

Scott
I certainly can't argue with your sentiments about the caring side of an indy, almost like enthusiasts working on the cars.
I'd like to think the same about the people working on ours at OPC's but...

I put my Merc van in recently as it kept having a diesel knock when pulling away in forward just before stopping and illuminating the ECU failure lamp - goes fine backwards though... the resulting repair was a new air filter being fitted!!
I did ask how they thought the air filter might know which way the van was going???
The resulting breakdown five minutes after picking the van up from the dealers had the van back in to the workshop and a 'proper' technician spotting the common fault of the wiring earthing out being the cause..
My point is the main dealers really are becoming a training centre for the technicians just before they leave and go and join and Indies, a problem for the main dealers of all manufacturers.
Some of these technicians do have a passion for working on our cars, whilst others its just a job- you can see which ones if you ever do a workshop visit...

So far I've been very happy with the majority of my visits to the main dealer, my once where I gave a well reputed indy some work I ended up with a sub standard get you by repair... sure it was cheaper but was that what I wanted long term? for me no but for many the answer could well be Yes.

With some OPC's offering good rates on labour for older cars and a bit of PCGB discount, if they do get it right they stand a chance of staying in business for a while yet.
IMHO

garyw