I wanted to get a general consensus on everyone experience with the Porsche Brand and its dealer network.

Im the proud owner of a 997.2 C2S, its my first Porsche and this car has been nothing short of exceptional. I purchased my CPO about 3 years ago from a "semi" local dealer.

While driving my car has been really great and essentially my C2S is the most reliable car I've ever owned. I have had nothing but awful experiences at several different dealers and I wanted to see if I'm alone in what I've experienced.

Im not going to name drop the dealerships involved because I'm more interested in everyones experience at their dealerships.

I purchased my car at a dealership about 75 miles from NYC and due to the distance I was willing to sacrifice a loaner to get it serviced at my "local" dealer.


About 1 month into ownership , my parking brake got stuck in the up position late at night. I ended up calling roadside and after waiting hours for a tow the first truck shows and can't do it , then 2 different trucks showed up, every single one was unable to tow my car because the rear wheels did not move.... no one had the correct equipment to put the wheels on skates and roll it onto flatbed. After almost 10 hours I said F This and called my Tow guy... he showed up and towed the car with zero issues... I paid out of pocket and Porsche then cut me a check for the tow and also tossed on $100 extra because it was such a cluster F

Why does Porsche Roadside Contract Tow trucks that don't have the right equipment to safely tow a Porsche ?!


3 months into ownership of the car, I developed a weird vibration , so I drove it to my local dealer, assuming it was nothing major.

Car was "fixed" 3 times, they changed the entire exhaust .... heat shields... every time I went, it was a different part. After the 3rd dealer visit with same issue , I kept insisting to the dealership that IMO , its a bad motor mount. MY SA told me, if I want to pay for the part they will change it, because they don't see any reason for this to be broken and they can't afford to change it and not get reimbursed.

The dealer then calls me and begins to tell me that they found the problem! Service Manager tells me with absolute certainty that my car has been involved in a major rear end collision and that the original dealer who sold me the CPO car had sold me a car that was hit.

So of course with this info I called the dealer who sold me the car and I lost my ****ing mind. I reached out to a friend who had a contact at Porsche NA and Porsche then called me and I insisted that someone from Porsche NA get me a straight answer , because the dealers are playing a scapegoat game and my car was still not fixed.

Porsche NA then decided to tow my car back to original dealer who sold it and they would send one of their Regional Master Techs to see what is up with this car.

End result was 1 bad motor mount (he diagnosed it in about 1 hour) and the car was in no accident at all. All paint on rear of car was original and Chassis is straight as an arrow.


Now fast forward to this 2 years to this summer. ( car has not had a single issue in this time, and I perform my own oil changes and basic service in my garage)

My CPO warranty expires in Oct , so I wanted to take care of a small item with my car. My driver seat was slightly wobbling so I took it to the dealer who sold me my car. I called to make an appointment and I had to break ***** to simply get a Porsche loaner, the dealer wanted to give me a VW. I refused and just told them I would wait till they had a Porsche for me since it wasn't an emergency and I was sure the car would be in the shop a few days.

Dropped my car off and I get a call 2 or 3 days later, that they tested it like crazy and my seat is perfect.

So i drive back another 75 miles on a Saturday to get my car.... I walk the Service manager over and I show him with my hand that the seat is wobbling.
He agrees it is broken and since its the weekend , they need a few more days to get a new seat track.

I drive home 75 miles and then come back during the week

So now i pick up my car , I get around 10 miles from the dealer when I realize that the radio and tire pressure information is not showing on my dashboard.

I drive back and then mechanic has no idea what he did, spends 20 mins messing with the car, gives it back and tells me its fixed.... It wasn't , still missing features.

20 mins later.... "car is fixed"

Service manager has no idea what to even say to me at this point and tells me my 30k service will be on the house and to come back in a few months.


So now fast forward to today. After driving the car for 2 months, I realized that my sport chrono and cruise control were also deactivated from the previous visit.... I never use them , so it went unnoticed.

I drive 75 miles today to the dealer to get my free 30k service and these 2 features reactivated.

I arrive at dealer and the SA tells me that their Porsche computer isn't online and they can't reactivate those features and I need to come back again. (btw later in the day the Porsche software magically came online , so the car is now 100%... just wasted my entire day for this)

So I'm sitting here , absolutely in love with this car and dumbfounded by how awful my experience has been with 2 different dealers. Ive also had unrelated issues at other dealers while out car shopping with a friend.

Ive owned BMW and Audis most of my life and while those cars had awful overall reliability .... the service experience was generally always good. When I made an appointment, I was given a Audi or BMW without having to break ***** and when a problem was "fixed" .... it was fixed.

Is Porsche's mechanic training program the issue, is there even a program!?


Sorry for the long never ending post, just wanted to see if anyone else has actually walked away from a dealership in the NYC area and actually been happy with it.

 

I probably use the same dealers you do (if in NJ) and must say that I ve noticed the employees traveling in flocks from one dealer to the other. I have loved the dealer I ve been using but since the employees all moved around again I see employees from dealers that I have avoided now where I am serviced. I had a great SA named Joe and he has moved to another dealer that I don t know where. So last visit I m stuck with a lady who doesn t seem to know much about cars, LOL, or think s I m dumb. Generally I have received excellent service with my CPO warranty as I do my own services.
As far as them offering you a VW for a loaner I think you should just drive what they give you for the day. I mean who cares? IMO we don t need to be snobbish (no offense meant to you) about driving something that doesn t meet OUR standard.
I think their are lots of people doing these jobs that aren t car nuts like most of us and so the level of expectation is not the same. It can be frustrating.

 

wow that is bad service...glad the Porsche AD i use here isn't like that. After a service no matter how big or small Porsche NA always contacted me, making sure it's 100% satisfied.

 

Your definitely correct that many of these people are not true enthusiast. But I'm really just more disappointed in the experience I'm receiving in general from Porsche.

IMO Porsche as a whole needs to spend more time on enhancing their franchise / support network and ensuring that we as customers are being treated as we should be.

I truly believe in their product and I genuinely love my 911.

As for the loaner, im really just asking on principle. I spend most of my days driving a ford truck , so I certainly don't have an issue driving a VW home.

But when I purchased my car , the dealer made it very clear that a perk of Buying from them are the loaners and excellent service. So I'm going to make them stick to that promise.

Thankfully my CPO warranty is up in 3 weeks and any future repairs will be at an Indy shop run by enthusiasts.

 

I could be partially compounding the issue by not responding to previous surveys about my most recent experience.

As pissed off as the SA and Mechanic made me , I chose not to bash them on a survey because at the end of the day , I know that this directly effects their pay and bonus and I don't need to take money out of someone's pocket. Maybe I'm being stupid but I just rather avoid that as a whole.

I know people make mistakes but maybe Porsche NA should do a better job of properly training these people.

The men and women at the Apple Store care more about the phones they sell and the brand then these mechanics do working on some of the best cars in the world

 

I had a very good experience buying my car from a dealership that deals in multiple exotic makes (Lambo, Ferrari, Aston Martin, and Porsche), but I have NEVER heard from the dealer's service manager (even after I emailed him twice about scheduled service). I guess they make enough money changing timing belts on Ferraris! I now go to a exclusively Porsche dealership that treats me like I bought the car from them, and they do go the extra mile; to wit: My first visit to them was to fix an an oil overfill situation done by an independent shop. I got in with no appointment, they fixed the problem AT NO CHARGE, and then gave me a "class" on the proper fill procedure they use to preclude overfilling. The only thing they asked of me was to consider them the next time I needed any service. I am now on their mailing list and they offer some great maintenance specials from time to time. You can rest assured this is where I continue to go for parts/accessories/service.

BTW, I think the service survey does have an impact especially when the dealer has to respond to a less than satisfactory grade from a customer.

 

I have owned 4 911's bought from three different dealers and serviced by 6 different dealers in 4 states and have never been treated that way. My 964 was basically a lemon and the salesman was the one that told me the way to get PCNA involved and how to get a new car out of the situation. Flat tire in NC and Porsche towing was there within an hour and I was back on the road 2 hours after that, on a Saturday. In my earlier years I was less than patient and had some real outbursts at the dealership with the 964, but the SM and SA's were always professional and did everything within their power to fix the car, while maintaining civility towards me. Knock on wood, always had excellent service with Porsche.

 

Im glad to hear that my issue is turning out to be more isolated then I expected!

 

But that feedback mechanism is part of the compensation system Porsche uses. If the techs and SA are not up to snuff do do a decent job they should not be in those positions. If you don't provide feedback, nothing will likely change.

 

Your Right , but in this last particular incident , the SM offered me a free 30k service. He knew they dropped the ball and did the right thing.

I just can't believe when I showed up for this service , it was another issue trying to get all my dashboard features running again.

 

Could it be that NJ/NYC "attitude" that we all hear so much about?

 

This has zero to do with attitude... its incompetence.

 

My experience has been the diametric opposite of yours. I brought my '08 with 55K miles (bought used) to my local dealer (NOT where I bought the car) just before the CPO expired at the end of July. I expressed some concern about things that "could" go wrong post-warranty. As a result, the dealer:

- Changed out the water pump
- Changed the alternator charger cables
- Replaced the rear shocks
- Fixed a number of minor issues

All in all, they did $7800 worth of warranty work. And gave me a Cayenne with 600 miles on it as a loaner -- which sold my wife on a Cayenne as her next car. Guess where I'll be buying it.

All that said, I wouldn't go near the dealer that sold me the car, as the evidence shows that both the sales person and the service people lied. But I certainly will be doing scheduled service at the dealer who treated me well.

Which type of dealer you get is really just a throw of the dice.

 

Well sounds like you found yourself a great dealership to work with. I could barely get these guys to do anything I needed , let alone something preventative :/

 

Providing Porsche loaners should be expected. The services isn't cheap at a dealership, and in return, I expect excellent service. Some car companies are driving to customers homes and picking up and returning vehicles for service. When you buy a Lexus, I bet you get a Lexus loaner. A big failing of dealerships and some manufacturers is understanding what great service is all about, and how to provide it.

I had issues with my dealership in the past, but today it is much improved. I provided feedback via the surveys and was called by my dealership soon after to discuss my issues. The mechanics at my dealership are fantastic, and do car about the cars. (my mechanic owns a BMW, but enjoys performance cars of all makes).