I am considering a 2010 4S with 30k miles priced at $53k. It has the sports chrono package, full leather and other nice additions. The car is a one owner and was supposedly driven by a house wife. All scheduled maint. was done at a local Porsche dealer and it has relatively good condition tires and breaks. However, it does not have any CPO warranty or any other warranty for that matter. Is it worth the price tag? What would it cost me if I got a 3rd-party warranty?

Thanks in advance

 

General Consensus is to get a CPO car... This car may be certifiable for a fee of course.. That warranty would be 2 years 50k miles since this car is a 2010. I don't have much info about third party warranties.. Maybe someone else can provide that insight..

My advice is to get a CPO car and have some peace of mind. A first year model of any car is a risk.. Given the high cost of maintenance for Porsche it's one I wouldn't take..

 

Thanks for the advice. I noticed that you have a 12' 4s. What, if any, were some issues that you had to deal with?

 

Try a wholesale deal with a Porsche dealer. That's where the other dealer sells it to Porsche, who cpos it, then sells it to you. That way you unlock whatever warranty Porsche can offer for extended also.

 

The car may not qualify for CPO. Porsche has some very specific restrictions on the condition of cars they'll CPO, and some otherwise serviceable cars don't meet them due to cosmetic issues. They're more-or-less shooting for "like new."

I've seen almost everyone recommend CPO - but I'm not sure if that's really based on anything other than paranoia. I'm a relatively new Porsche owner (first purchase was last July), so I don't know how these cars wear long term, but I'm used to cars where you never see any issues before 100k miles. The Supra Turbos I owned for 17 years never required anything but expected maintenance.

Now, maybe Porsches aren't in the same category, and start developing problems earlier, but when I've looked in the past I haven't seen any hard figures on common repairs. I'd love to see some data one way or the other.

 

So far only issues I've had was a buzzing speaker in the rear driver side door.. And defective horn that Porsche knows is a common issue. All replaced under CPO. If you read through the forums some folks with the MY 10 & 11 cars have had some suspension issues..

 

I am not new to Porsche ownership (I have had 40 of them) and my 2010 4S is #40. My car has 27K miles on it and was a CPO, and other than the adjustable suspension going crazy from the cold I have had no issues in two years of ownership. I think the car could be Certified but remember the warranty is 6 years from in service date so chances are that would be one to two years on a 2010 car. I used to do everything myself on my cars but these days the systems are just to complicated you need a lot more than a set of tools to work on cars these days so like most things it is about your level of risk. Early 2010 cars had issues (I have a copy of every service visit my car made to fix them and none have recurred) so if this did just make sure they were handled. I would not have an issue buying a well maintained car with service records that was not a CPO car.

 

If you've gone through 40 cars, how long have you kept any of them? I'm mostly curious about the behavior of cars with 50k-100k miles on them. That's the mileage range covered by CPO that isn't covered by the original warranty.

Not that this affects me directly, since my cars are new, but the topic of CPO vs. not CPO comes up frequently here.

 

Hey MrPrice, just curious, how would you vet out the used car with service records to reach a comfort level? And what would you do about potential issues going forward? Stash money away each month / get an aftermarket warranty / etc.?

Thanks!

P.S. I got a CPO but part of me wonders if I could have safely gotten one of the used ones I saw that had better options but no CPO.

 

I bought a 14 PTT without a CPO and added an extended warranty for 6 years and 70,000 miles (years for date of warranty purchase). It was $6,000 but for me it was worth the cost in case something extreme happened motor or PDK or big suspension issue. I saved enough by buying from a non-Porsche dealer that the added warranty still made it much cheaper than ones from a P dealer.

From what I understand you cannot buy extended warranty after it is out of manufacturers warranty so I think you are out of luck. I would not buy a 5 year old car with no warranty that could blow up and cost another 20,000 to fix. I would buy something I could get a warranty on it.

If you don't mind the possibility of an expensive issued then go ahead. I don't think they will fall apart but I am not willing to have that kind of hit if I don't have to. I

 

Samp, would you care to share the name / contact info with your after market warranty provider with me, either here or through private message?

thank you,

 

+1 For the defective horn and suspension issues.

 

Sure it is with Fidelity. You have to purchase through a dealer but does not need to be a Porsche dealer. Any dealer who offers can sell. There are limitations by year and they can give all the info. From what I understand these are the best.

 

I will also add that I had a 2010 4S and was not happy with the way the PDK shifted. From a stop it would rev up then seem like I dropped the clutch. I understand that was fairly common until the 13s.

I would make sure you are happy with the shifting. I don't think it was faulty but I really hated the way it took off.

 

For me the warranty is insurance - it isn't intended to cover a bunch of smaller issues, it's there to protect me from an engine or PDK or PDCC/PASM failure that could cost between $20 - 48k to repair.

I haven't had any major problems beyond the well-known horn and front suspension cold weather issues and am now at 40k miles. Buy I wouldn't sleep at night if I didn't have a warranty.