Flaming GT3s - owners bite back
UPDATE: UK customers will at last get some compensation, but that's far from the end of it
Mehra told us that owners are being offered a £5,500 lump sum to cover the period up to the end of April and £1,500 per month until the engine replacement has been carried out and the cars returned (a date we still don't know).
Those buyers whose cars were shipped to their dealer but not handed over are being given £4,000 off the cost of the car and the same £1,500 a month until delivery.
"It's good to see. I just wish it had happened sooner," Mehra told PistonHeads. However he's not pleased that Porsche in the UK won't compensate buyers whose cars were built but stayed in Germany. "I've heard from two members of the same family, one with a car here, the other with a car in Germany, and only one of them is getting compensated. It's grossly unfair."
According to Mehra, Porsche has been good about offering replacement cars, with loaners ranging from Boxsters to Caymans and Panameras.
Fingers crossed Porsche is close to finding a bulletproof fix for the broken con-rod bolts that triggered this whole problem.
[Update from Nick Gibbs].
UPDATE 28/04/14: Porsche has responded, but not in a way that GT3 owners wanted. The UK-based GT3 Action Group representing them and deposit-paying buyers of the fire-halted car has reacted angrily to the company's reply to their compensation demands.
To recap, they were very unhappy that compensation for the loss of the car and expenses such as insurance was being paid in some countries such as the US and Dubai and not in others (like in the UK).
Well at least it looks good stationary...
So essentially there is money, but it's up to each country how they spend it. A Porsche UK spokesman told us the decision went down to each dealer. "Our Porsche Centres know their customers best and our network will be talking to their customers individually," he said.
That didn't satisfy the action group. "Porsche AG's statement makes it sound like it's struggling with how complicated it's finding the compensation issue so it should be pleased that our Group has simplified for all concerned," the group's founder, property developer Sunil Mehra told PistonHeads.
The group has proposed a three-tier rate of compensation offered to all GT3 owners and buyers worldwide (see below).
"Most people are suffering some degree of financial loss and Porsche should do the right thing and talk to its customers rather than frustrate the living daylights out of them by just paying lip service," Mehra added.
Porsche couldn't give us an update as to when the engines will be replaced and the cars are driveable again.
[Update from Nick Gibbs].
Original story, as reported 25/04/2014:
Like one of those novelty candles that keeps reigniting after being blown out the saga of the self-immolating 911 GT3s refuses to be extinguished.
Porsche may have bought itself some time following the official acknowledgement of the failed con-rod joint that led to a couple of cars punching holes in their crankcases and apparently catching fire after hot oil sprayed over the engine bay. And the deal to replace all the engines in the cars it has instructed owners not to drive and update units going into those on the stalled production line was seemingly accepted as the least bad outcome for all concerned.
But it seems any goodwill from owners towards Porsche is running out, and quickly. Not least on the discovery that compensation for the loss of your GT3 depends very much on where you live. According to data compiled by the self-styled GT3 Worldwide Action Group American GT3 owners are getting $2,000 per month while those in the UAE are getting as much as $4,000 per month. Some European markets are offering 175 euros per day while others - British owners included - are getting nothing. At best Porsche might be considered slightly naive in thinking conversation between a small but vociferous band of aggrieved customers would not cross national boundaries, the result being a group demand for equal compensation across all territories. According to the 991 GT3 Compensation Matrix compiled by the group this is proposed at 175 euros per day for owners who've taken delivery of a car and had to hand it back, 100 euros per day for those whose cars have been built but had delivery postponed and 50 euros per day for those with delayed delivery dates.
Campaigning for the sympathy vote as someone who's just paid over £100K for a fancy sports car isn't about to raise tears from the public in the way more emotive charities might. But the kind of people who buy GT3s aren't, in their nature, the type to take this kind of thing lying down.
Claimed to comprise over a hundred GT3 customers from around the world, the GT3 Worldwide Action Group says it has a 'documented interest in excess of US$18m in this vehicle'. The letter, addressed to Porsche boss Matthias Muller via the owners' local dealers, states "as a group, most of us are professionals and business people, many of whom are longstanding, repeat Porsche customers and ambassadors of the brand. By our nature, we are driving enthusiasts who planned to use the GT3 as it was intended - for spirited driving and occasional track use.
"The GT3 Worldwide Action Group formed out of necessity due to the overall dissatisfaction and frustration we have all experienced due to Porsche's absolute failure to meet its customers' expectations with regards to the recent engine rod bolt recall."
Ouch.
We put a call into Porsche Cars GB for comment but at the time of writing nobody was available. As soon as we hear back we'll update the story accordingly.
[Sources: Telegraph Motoring, Jalopnik, PRWeb]
Porsche owes a lot of its brand value to its die hard enthusiasts who repeatedly spend gobs of money on its highest end sports cars. These are the folks who have influenced your typical 59 year old (median 911 buyer age, at least in the USA) as to why they should buy that base Carrera. Though there's not a lot of competition in the price range the 911 occupies, if you piss these folks off enough, they'll go elsewhere (and likely spend much more money, since most alternatives require that). It's also possible that they could take a good chunk of that brand cachet with them.
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