I recently upgraded my 2009 997 C2S Cabriolet to a 2014 991 Turbo Cabriolet with 30K miles. Unfortunately, despite my 997 being flawless, the 991 Turbo has already bit me due to an issue with the PCM. From what I've seen online, it is a fairly common problem. 50%-70% of the time the radio works perfectly fine. The rest of the time I'll get a blip from the audio upon starting the car, and after that the radio puts out nearly no audio, even though the head unit is working normally. None of the sources (Sirius XM, bluetooth, wired aux, or tuner) put out normal audio, but I do get a very low muffled sound, that I can tell is being generated by the correct audio source, but it sounds like the speaker is deep underwater. I can then shut off the car, come back half an hour later, and it will work perfectly as if everything was fine. After leaving it for a week at the dealer I was told they replicated the issue and that the speakers and amp are fine, but that the head unit requires replacement at a cost of nearly $5K. When I ask the root of the problem and how it was fixed with the new PCM's they would replace it with, they tell me Porsche hasn't changed or fixed anything about them. I'd hate to replace it with an aftermarket radio, but the thought of giving them $5K to replace a radio that failed after 30k miles, on a $200K car, really pisses me off.

Since I am new to the forum I'm guessing some members have already heard similar rants, and hopefully have figured out the source of the problem and posted it. If so, I'd really appreciate some direction. What really angers me is how loyal a salesperson I've been for the brand and how little they care about what is likely a widespread engineering flaw of theirs. My love for my 997 convinced one of my business partners to get a new Boxster GTS and Cayenne GTS, my other partner to get a 911 Carrera GTS Cab, and another friend to buy a new 991 C2S Cab.. I've also had company retreats at Porsche Experience Atlanta a few times (GT3 and Turbo schools

Social distancing at it's best!
). Now I'm getting the feeling they are the same company that ignored the IMS issue so many years at the customer's expense, and it has really soured me on the brand.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

I sympathize with your situation but this brand loyalty among car (and for some reason especially Porsche) owners is so misguided it's . Unless you are one of the 1% of the 1%, Porsche nor any other manufacturer does not know you and does not care about you. Individual dealers are even worse. In fact, they make their money from the exact kind of problems you're describing.

If you're out of warranty, you're loyalty should be with a great indie mechanic, not the dealer.

 

That's been my experience as well but I was hoping for better from Porsche. Prior to my 997 I owned a Mercedes SL55 AMG and I can tell you that without any hesitation it is the least reliable, most costly, and most stressful car to own. Although it was a dream car all my life, I finally gave up on it with 69K miles after what would have been tens of thousands in repairs if not for the warranty and my ability to repair it after the warranty was up (suspension failed twice, suspension control manifold, supercharger pulley twice, alternator, roof failures, transmission issues, etc.). It was impossible to enjoy when you were always waiting for the next part to fail, and the dealership and corporation were completely unapologetic for building and selling such a piece of garbage. That's why you see the resale value for them in the dumps. You can pick a car up that was $150K new at the time, for $45K 4 years later.

I'm still optimistic Porsche learned to take some responsibility for their failures and will do the right thing, but I'll let you know.