kevin, it was recently posted that porsche is about to recommend dropping the oil change interval from 15,000 down to 10,000 miles. is this true?

 

Suggestions: How about the dealership's owners, managers, salespeople, and technicians consistently deliver on the promises of outstanding customer service - every time, for every customer - and make it a point to show that they care about your car as if it were their own personal car. This is not about making empty promises, posting Mission Statements on the walls that don't get followed, or providing free car washes (where the paint is likely to get damaged anyway). This is about walking the walk, not talking the talk: earning customer trust through direct action, prompt and courteous service, showing true appreciation to customers who pay a premium for your dealership's Porsche service, and giving every customer a reason to come back to you because everyone at the dealership shows they really give a crap about you and your business. Give every customer a reason to choose the dealership over the Indy.
I'm not looking to put Indy's out of business - I use one myself for many services - and it is highly unlikely that my little soapbox dissertation is going to change much of anything...
sorry if that was a little harsh, but open, direct communication is one of my strengths...

 

Couldn't have said it better myself. I think high-line dealers get complacent. They forget you don't create wealth by spending more and getting less.

 

One other thing to improve on, drop the attitude. I usually hate going to dealers because of snooty attitudes.
Walk into the dealership in Beverly Hills. Unless you are covered with gold and leaving a trail of platinum credit cards, absolutely no one will speak to you.
I did get the receptionist to mutter a few words when I inquired as to the location of the parts department....

I think too, that beside offering a bit more friendly and personalized experience, a good experienced indy shop knows how to think 'outside the box' on solving a problem vs. the dealership method of 'keep replacing parts until we find the cause'.
I can think of several occasions at the BMW dealer where I had to specifically instruct the shop foreman on how to fix a problem with my car, with the foreman basically telling me I'm nuts (until they eventually figured it out for themselves). - and I'm no master machanic, trust me.

Now, there are plenty of disreputable indy's as well- but overall the majority of the negative opinion seems to lean toward the dealerships.

JMHO, FWIW, and all...

 

I have heard rumors and bits of info about this, and we have started, with our new PIWIS tester software, at pre delivery inspection recoding the service intervals on the new Cayennes. I have not heard of the implications of this for those of you that own sports cars, so I cannot answer with certainty. Most of our clients have us perform an annual service regarless of mileage, which I belive to be a good idea.

I agree with living up to promises given to customers, it is just how things should be done, but we do need to be given a chance to be able to please our customers. I think it would be fair to ask that the first time anyone does business, the benefit of the doubt is given to both parties, without any preconcieved feelings of distrust.


I appreciate all of you who have given insight on this topic, I will be printing this thread and giving it to my manager and other whom I think would be interested in knowing our customer's opinions.

Kevin Hines

 

Yes. My indy told me that their Mercedes service department and one particular service manager (who was fired, I believe) gave him all the business he could handle.

If I felt I could trust them, they would get my business. The problem is that I had talked to other owners and other "car guys" in the area and their reputation and treatment of customers was horrible, as was my experience there. The new ownership may be trying to change all that, or may have already changed all that, but once your reputation is sullied, it is very hard to correct that issue.

Note that this is not an indictment of dealer service vs. that of independents. This is just my experience that I am sharing with others here online. Forums like this greatly expand the "word of mouth" reputation of both good and bad car service departments, which I believe can benefit us all.

 

Tell me about it. Years ago when I was living in the Phoenix metro area, I used to go to Scottsdale Porsche just to check out the cars. The large majority of the salespeople would just ignore me since they figured they could not make an easy sale off of me.

There was one salesperson there though who was a serious "car guy". I think he drove an old Porsche Speedster to work, and he worked there just because he liked being around the cars. He would call me up when they got an interesting car in (DP935 was one I remember), just because he knew I wanted to check it out. We would talk for quite a while discussing all the technical details of the car, just because it was fun!

Every once in a while just being a nice guy really paid off for him. While I was in the dealership lot one day I saw a late-model Rolls pull into the back part of the parking lot. A kid (probably 16-18 years old) gets out dressed in sneakers, a T-shirt and ratty looking cutoff jeans shorts. When he went into the showroom every other salesman ignored him, but the "car guy" went directly up to him and started talking to him. It turns out that his mom heard about some new model of Aston Martin that had just come out that she wanted to buy. He was there to put down the deposit for her. It turns out that the family bought a lot of their cars there, and in a matter of minutes the sale had been initiated. He came out later and told me about it, laughing the whole time because he figured it was some kid that just wanted to check out the cars. Score!

 

dealers are like everything else in life with more than one. If there's a good one there's a bad one.