What's the best method for notifying PCNA?

 

Your options are;
1. Call 1-800-PORSCHE and open a case.
2. Send an email to info@porsche.us
3. Send a letter to;
Porsche Cars North America
980 Hammond Drive
Suite 1000
Atlanta, Georgia 30328

I did all three of these.

 

Social networking response will get their attention faster. Also, going in one by one will result in them ignoring the totality of this and using the FB method will put other owners on notice and get them to come here to learn and respond. What do the impacted owners have to lose?

 

You cannot extrapolate at all. Forum posters represent just a sliver of total owners. In addition, those that have problems like this tend to seek out answers on forums. So when issues crop up on vehicles, those having the issues tend to be vastly overrepresented on forums.

I have a 2005 BMW 330i ZHP, all of them had what was known as the 'dreaded power dip' and BMW came up with a software fix. But ALL the cars had it. In this case only very small percent of Porsches have it.

Still, it sounds like something that Porsche could easily identify and fix. It can only be software (but then ALL should be affected like my BMW), or some lazy actuator in the Vario-Cam.

 

You may be right. But I respectfully disagree.

Porsche isn't going to respond to a bunch of anonymous postings to a Facebook page. In order to have any kind of response from Porsche you have to first bring your car into a dealership and have a history of service complaints. Before beating the drum on how bad everything is, you need to give them a chance to fix it, and you do that by escalating the complaint as Dux has described.

Using social media worked for Nick, but he had a verifiable service history on his car. If he had just gone on the Twit or the Face to complain about his car, nothing would ever have happened.

 

I recommend sending formal letters in the mail (yes, type a letter and use postage). This creates a paper trail with PCNA. You can even send it registered mail to prove it was delivered. I have sent two letters so far.

 

What kind of response have you received from your two letters? Have they opened a case file?

 

I owned a 2011 335xi Coupe and there was a problem with the fuel pumps (HPFPs) that was covered in the BMW forums widely (over 700K thread views on bimmerpost). BMW finally stepped up to it. This thread has only 20K views so you can see this is pretty tiny in relationship to owners potentially affected. And yes of course more BMWs are sold. Sometimes public shame is the best approach to get companies to respond to individuals.

I don't have any skin in this game so as they say on the Shark Tank - "I am out"

Good luck!

P.S. BMW cars are called Bimmers, and BMW motorcycles are Beamers. Not sure if you owned one or the other.

 

Yes, I have a case number. I had my car at a local dealer for the issue and the PCNA field rep phoned in a response to say it's normal behavior and I'm just driving the car incorrectly.

 

Ha! So did they offer to give you free driving lessons to teach you how to drive the car correctly? How exactly were you driving for them to say you were driving incorrectly? Did they tell you how to drive correctly? What a joke response from PCNA.

 

If any one here thought that PCNA would address this on their own volition after a few letters, then we are collectively guilty of chronic naivety.

There are laws on our side.
Follow the steps, expect massive amounts of frustration but this is far from over.

 

Because I said the stumble was at 2500 RPM he said it must be because I'm driving too slow and not feeding enough gas right at the variocam transition point.

I'm not kidding. That's the official word on my problem.

 

I'd be curious to hear his response to this quote from Porsche Engineering:

"Decisions for VarioCam Plus reactions are made in milliseconds, and the engine performance remains balanced and smooth despite the dynamic changes being made to the engine operation. These changes will be imperceptible in the cockpit."

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lye3x51hdi...ering.pdf?dl=0

Must be a difference in the interpretation of "imperceptible."

 

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

:-)

 

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