Best car inspection - OPC or Indy in SW London/Surrey area?

Best car inspection - OPC or Indy in SW London/Surrey area?

Author
Discussion

Adam B

Original Poster:

27,231 posts

254 months

Tuesday 22nd April 2014
quotequote all
Advice and recommendations required please.

I recently purchased a 997 turbo and have been very happy. Car came with 12 month third party warranty.

For peace of mind, and an idea of what I need to budget going forward and want the car given a thorough check over. Also if anything comes up that is not wear and tear I would rather claim early on the warranty when the selling dealer is likely to be more sympathetic (but hopefully no need for this).

My only specific concern is clutch life as biting point is quite high. Quite happy to do any necessary general maintenance points that come up, but not the usual OPC "all your discs are worn" nonsense

So obvious options are:

OPC 111 check, on the face of it £180 + vat seems pretty reasonable

Peter Morgan - more like £500 - thorough no doubt but costly, which is ok if it is pre-purchase and you can knock something off

Good local indie - anyone done this and know what they charge? Any recommendations local to me? I only know of GT One on Chertsey so I will ask them for a quote.

crystalmethod

1,157 posts

179 months

Tuesday 22nd April 2014
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Don't know how much he charges but Bob at RGA in Vauxhall has an excellent reputation here. Have used him several times and highly recommend.

Adam B

Original Poster:

27,231 posts

254 months

Tuesday 22nd April 2014
quotequote all
crystalmethod said:
Don't know how much he charges but Bob at RGA in Vauxhall has an excellent reputation here. Have used him several times and highly recommend.
great to know as the last service was done by them, thanks

pete

1,587 posts

284 months

Tuesday 22nd April 2014
quotequote all
I'd strongly recommend Ken at Nine Excellence down near Gatwick - he did a thorough PPI on a 997 GT3 for me a couple of years ago, and more recently has been doing a brilliant job looking after my 996 Turbo S. I always get a very thorough rundown of what needs doing immediately, and then things that are likely to crop up sooner or later so I can plan for them.

Pete

LaSource

2,622 posts

208 months

Tuesday 22nd April 2014
quotequote all
pete said:
I'd strongly recommend Ken at Nine Excellence down near Gatwick - he did a thorough PPI on a 997 GT3 for me a couple of years ago, and more recently has been doing a brilliant job looking after my 996 Turbo S. I always get a very thorough rundown of what needs doing immediately, and then things that are likely to crop up sooner or later so I can plan for them.

Pete
+1

In your case also best to use somewhere you are likely to take the car for servicing.
Ken's team have looked after my Porsches ever since they started up...and their satisfied client list keeps growing!

Adam B

Original Poster:

27,231 posts

254 months

Tuesday 22nd April 2014
quotequote all
LaSource said:
In your case also best to use somewhere you are likely to take the car for servicing.
Ken's team have looked after my Porsches ever since they started up...and their satisfied client list keeps growing!
yep good point, Vauxhall a lot closer than Gatwick!

Rockster

1,509 posts

160 months

Wednesday 23rd April 2014
quotequote all
My advice is you educate yourself to the point you do your own inspection. About all you can't do on your own is get the car in the air and use a Porsche diagnostics computer to read out engine run time and over rev counter values.

The more thorough your inspection/check out of a used car is the more likely you'll find some reason to reject the car if what you find is serious enough to reject the car.

For instance I'd not reject a car for say worn out brakes, even PCCBs, provided the brakes' condition was not to abuse, misure, tracking, but do to reasonable wear. 'course, I'd adjust my value of the car to account for what I believe it would cost to put the brakes right.

By getting proficient at car inspection/check out you avoid sending a car to a PPI that the PPI would have to fail or reject. You also avoid sending a car that should be rejected but might not be rejected if the PPI is not as good as it should be.

You can practice with your own car to get a feel for the process.

'course the more in depth inspection comes *after* you get a test ride then a test drive of the car. You want to spend at least a half an hour or more experiencing the car in its natural state, with the engine running (at various engine speeds) and with the car moving.

RB_987s

132 posts

201 months

Wednesday 23rd April 2014
quotequote all
I've used Gt One and 9 Excellence for pre purchase inspections and servicing over the years and neither has let me down.

Not used Peter Morgan but check whether he has a workshop or just visits cars on site. If it's the latter he may not be able to get the car up onto a ramp and have a really thorough nose around

Adam B

Original Poster:

27,231 posts

254 months

Wednesday 23rd April 2014
quotequote all
RB_987s said:
I've used Gt One and 9 Excellence for pre purchase inspections and servicing over the years and neither has let me down.

Not used Peter Morgan but check whether he has a workshop or just visits cars on site. If it's the latter he may not be able to get the car up onto a ramp and have a really thorough nose around
Can I ask what they both charged, just to give me an idea?

ZeroH

2,905 posts

189 months

Wednesday 23rd April 2014
quotequote all
I would only trust an indy with tons of experience working on turbos as opposed to using the likes of p morgan. You mention surrey so Ken is surely your best bet.

Adam B

Original Poster:

27,231 posts

254 months

Wednesday 23rd April 2014
quotequote all
ZeroH said:
I would only trust an indy with tons of experience working on turbos as opposed to using the likes of p morgan. You mention surrey so Ken is surely your best bet.
PITA to get to regularly though

ZeroH

2,905 posts

189 months

Wednesday 23rd April 2014
quotequote all
Adam B said:
PITA to get to regularly though
Thought you wanted an inspection? ie. one off

Adam B

Original Poster:

27,231 posts

254 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
quotequote all
ZeroH said:
Thought you wanted an inspection? ie. one off
yep, but as LaSource said "In your case also best to use somewhere you are likely to take the car for servicing" which does make sense

hazard996

17 posts

157 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
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Adam B said:
ZeroH said:
Thought you wanted an inspection? ie. one off
yep, but as LaSource said "In your case also best to use somewhere you are likely to take the car for servicing" which does make sense
I'm in Birmingham and still take my car to 9e even for servicing - if it's a turbo then it needs to go to the best imo.

RB_987s

132 posts

201 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
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Adam B said:
Can I ask what they both charged, just to give me an idea?
Hi Adam - slight delay with my reply as my wife has just had our second child!

Anyway, both GT One and 9 Excellence charged around 200 quid for inspections. Each time they found at least that amount in small things that needed fixing (which the sellers then sorted) so in my experience these things pay for themselves.



Edited by RB_987s on Thursday 24th April 17:29

LaSource

2,622 posts

208 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
quotequote all
hazard996 said:
Adam B said:
ZeroH said:
Thought you wanted an inspection? ie. one off
yep, but as LaSource said "In your case also best to use somewhere you are likely to take the car for servicing" which does make sense
I'm in Birmingham and still take my car to 9e even for servicing - if it's a turbo then it needs to go to the best imo.
You are both right.
I take my cars to 9e even though they are not the closest. But then I chose them for my servicing.
My suggestion was that they are very good for aftercare as well.

Adam B

Original Poster:

27,231 posts

254 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
quotequote all
Thanks all - will give 9E a call

Adam B

Original Poster:

27,231 posts

254 months

Thursday 24th April 2014
quotequote all
Spoke to Ken - all booked in for precautionary spark plug replacement and full inspection

Time to re-build a decent history and pamper this car like my others have been