I'm fairly new to Porsche, specifically dealers, so I apologize if this comes off as crying or this is just too long of a story for you.

After significant searching, I found an '08 CTT that met the criteria I had set out with to find my wife a new car. I bought a CPO from an out of state dealer and had it shipped to me. It had just 28K miles and we were excited. We off loaded it from the truck and took possession. As soon as we drove it, it had a bit of a weird whining sound associated with rpm that I couldn't place, not a turbo whine. I figured I was being overly picky since the car was new to me and I was just listening for what wasn't really there so, we drove it for a week.

About a week or so after we got the vehicle, I got a follow up call from the dealer. I was on vacation so he left me a message, saying he wanted to get me set up with a dealer close to me because they were getting a noise out of the alternator when loading it on the truck and wanted me to get it checked out. That seemed strange to me as I didn't expect to buy a CPO'd car and immediately have to take it in for warranty work as soon as I got it. Also, for reference, the car had about an additional 200 miles on it from the pictures of the odometer that I purchased it from to when it showed up at my location. I didn't think much about it at the time.

So, the dealer I bought from handles calling my local dealer and establishing the appointment, telling the local dealer they likely needed to replace the alternator. I travel a lot for work so my wife takes it in on Tuesday of last week for the appointment at 7:15am. They give her a rental and we have been informed that it is about a 7-8hour job to change the alternator. As long as they are taking care of it, I don't mind. I am glad not to be working on the car in the little time I have at home lately.

Wednesday afternoon rolls around and I call to check on the car. I'm informed they have the tech, service manager and service writer all looking at it trying to diagnose it. They call back a little bit later and tell me they are overnighting an alternator and hope to get it back together for me as soon as possible. Seems odd to me that they didn't have an alternator on hand by then, considering it came in with another dealer identifying the problem.

Thursday afternoon they call my wife and tell her the alternator just showed up and they aren't likely to get it done until next week. I called and talk to them about it, in which they said they wouldn't be able to start on it until tomorrow and couldn't promise everything would go as planned, allowing them to make the book hours on the change. Really? You've had the car, by appointment since Tuesday morning and you haven't done anything on it? What did the diagnosis consist of, driving it out to lunch?

Here I sit today, with a voice message left with the service writer telling him to call me and tell me what time TODAY we can pick the car up. I haven't heard back yet.

Is it me or does it seem odd that I received a CPO'd car that had known issues, enough so that the dealer called me and wanted to help me schedule the service. Then it takes this long to get an alternator and install it, when it was a scheduled appointment with a diagnosis from another dealers service department before it came in? Should I just suck it up and not let the little things in life get to me?

 

Sounds like a poor service experience but I doubt the dealer wants to sit on your car since they are paying for your rental. Part of the joy of buying used and not from your local dealer.

 

On a positive note, the dealer just called and the car will be done today. That is a plus, since the wife was about to hang me and I fly out again tomorrow afternoon....

 

I'm thankful that I have CPO for these types of incidents. In my opinion, you not being able to check the car in person, contributed to your mindset.

Every time I brought it into the dealer for an issue, it was fixed with no questions asked. Warranty/CPO has been great so far.

I guess it's like the old "glass half empty or half full" expression. I say, pat yourself on the back for getting CPO and just enjoy the ride.....

 

Could def, be worse think no CPO and having to pay labour for the last few days.

If another issue comes up in a month i would not be happy, could then be a problem.

but its a porsche, they need love you just had to give it early.

Good luck with it, youll more than likely have no more worries.

 

Well, the wife picked it up last night and there is no change in the strange noise it has. The noise is somewhere between a whine and a card in the spokes of a bicycle wheel, being a combination of both. I'll have to find someone else local that I can stand outside their car when they start to move from a stop or get a ride in it to see if I'm just crazy and this noise is normal. To me, it sounds like it comes from the back side of the engine, almost as if it is the torque converter having a cracked vein in it and sheering fluid that passes through the crack. The noise is slight enough that you really can't hear it from inside the car once you are moving above about 15 mph and I'm not interested in trying to ride my bicycle next to it at speed so, I can't tell if it is still there once moving.

You guys are correct, I'm glad it is CPO. I suppose this noise will eventually shows it ugly head and we will figure out what it is, taking it back to the dealer. I have too many other cars around the house I work on, they can do the work on this one. It looks fairly miserable to get to anything on it.

 

While it sucks that they had the car for longer then you expected atleast you got a rental car to beat on and put miles on instad of your own car. I know when I take my car in for CPO service I always get fun rental cars either another porsche or a MB so I can't really complain about that.

As far as the problem maybe try and find another dealer that is a little better to have them look at the car.

 

Our local dealers don't seem to be this nice! Everytime I have gotten a rental from them it's been a POS Malibu. WTF wants to drive one of those around? I'd rather put miles on my car, that's what I bought it for

 

Dam that sucks. I guess I am lucky. I have gotten several c300's, glk350, ml's, a few porsches and an a4.

 

Our loaner was a rental car from Enterprise and it was a Ford Escape. Oh boy....that was exciting.....

 

In order to pass the CPO the issue should have been resolved prior. It seems they might have cut a corner to get you the car faster. That said, while it's inconvenient, this is exactly why you were smart enough to buy a CPO'd Porsche. Feel good in knowing that the issue will likely get resolved, and one thing you will see in common with those that have Porsche's with CPO's, is that Porsche is very good about resolving issues. Speaking for myself, any issue I've ever had was taken care of. I even had the entire driver's airbag, radio buttons etc, replaced because one of the shifter button broke (it's all one piece per them). It was $1200, no charge.

 

Just an update. It turned out the noise was coming from the power steering pump, due to the load the PDCC was putting on it. The new pump still makes the same sound but at a much lower volume. It can no longer be heard over the radio. The local dealer did a great job trouble shooting it and communicating with me through the process. They have restored my belief that buying CPO was worth it.