What's not covered by the Porsche warrenty

[cragswinter]

There's a lot of threads these days with regards to the pros & cons if taking out an official Porsche warrenty, but it does get me to thinking what wouldn't be covered if you took the car in & the car was found to be needing certain items.

Obviously consumables such as tyres & break pads/discs aren't but what about other parts?

Any personal experiences?

[mollytherocker]

My understanding is that they are pretty thorough as long as you play by the rules.

The OPC has to do EVERYTHING.

MTR

[all2ofme]

Here goes (deep breath!) - a list of things I've had replaced under warranty:

- various bits of front suspension (front shocks, struts, vibration rod - whatever they are) - which surprised me, I'd have thought these were consumables
- yaw sensor (something to do with the PSM, apparently)
- headlamp washer reservoir
- coil packs
- clutch (another surprise, but there's a story there)

(Looking at that list now it's amazing that even with the number of things Reading replaced they still managed to make me wish I'd never had the warranty and had gone with a good indie...)

[EFIdiocy.]

Edited by all2ofme on Friday 15th July 09:31

[Mutt]

Spelling.

[cragswinter]

Mutt said:

Spelling.

Or grammer but does anyone but the pedants really care

anyway impressive list there all2ofme! Did some of those faults come in a short period after purchasing via an opc?

[Magic919]

At least he didn't write warrantee.

[arcamalpha]

all2ofme said:

(Looking at that list now it's amazing that even with the number of things Reading replaced they still managed to make me feel I'd never had the warranty and had gone with a good indie...)

Do you mean "make me *wish* I'd never had the warranty"? Have you not had a good experience with warranty claims at Reading?

[all2ofme]

Cragswinter - no, I bought privately and those faults were over the course of a year.

Thanks for the spot - arcamalpha - I've corrected my post above. The issues I had with Reading were many and varied and I won't go into them here. In brief though, of eight visits to them, only one was handled well (half of them atrociously), and even the Centre Principal seemed disinterested.

Aside from the loan cars I'm much happier with no warranty and Mike at S&C. Had the engine gone bang it might have been a different story, but even then I'm not convinced Reading wouldn't have made a dog's dinner of that too.

[Mutt]

cragswinter said:

Mutt said:

Spelling.

Or grammer but does anyone but the pedants really care

anyway impressive list there all2ofme! Did some of those faults come in a short period after purchasing via an opc?

No, I know. Couldn't resist though, sorry

I had front shocks done under warranty and I even had a brake fluid change done as I had issues with pedal feel.

Unfortunately I have rusty (wheel) nuts but they are not covered.

[M@verick]

My experience thus far (tempts fate....) is that the major items on the car are covered by the warranty but do not go wrong, but the more fiddly items that do sometimes go wrong are NOT covered. My experience with the warranty was not bad, but it was enough to convince me I did not need to renew it after the first year (i have had the car 5 years now).

• The hydraulics failed on me, so clutch power steering etc everything died. All the pretty lights came on, on the dash and i was left stranded on the A34 on a busy Monday morning, much to the delight of the non-Porsche owning public. Porsche-Assist duly recovered me (so that was worth having) to Swindon OPC where I was told that a stone had gone through the hydraulic lines and this had caused the failure, if i remember the work was around £600 quid and was not covered.

• I had repeated problems with the alarm going off, which was first diagnosed and ended up with a sensor being replaced - this cost less than £100 but was not covered. It also didnt fix the problem, and i think on my third repeat visit OPC reading diagnosed something to do with the connection on the back of the radio causing the problem, again the work was less than £100 and was not covered - but it did fix the problem, which has not returned since.

I am sure there was something else that was not covered, but as i roll into my autumnal years (im 37) my memory is not so good so i would need to check the service history and get back to you.

Essentially i spent more than the cost of the warranty in unwarrantied fixes, in one year so i resolved there and then not to bother with it anymore.

R.

Edited by M@verick on Friday 15th July 12:16

[Slippydiff]

all2ofme said:

Cragswinter - no, I bought privately and those faults were over the course of a year.

Thanks for the spot - arcamalpha - I've corrected my post above. The issues I had with Reading were many and varied and I won't go into them here. In brief though, of eight visits to them, only one was handled well (half of them atrociously), and even the Centre Principal seemed disinterested.

Aside from the loan cars I'm much happier with no warranty and Mike at S&C. Had the engine gone bang it might have been a different story, but even then I'm not convinced Reading wouldn't have made a dog's dinner of that too.

My experience :

Reading OPC = Hopeless shower of sh*t

[nsm3]

Aren't Reading supposed to be font of all things Porsche, in the UK?

I am keeping the warranty up, if only to cover the engine/gearbox, which are pricey on GT3's!

[M@verick]

Slippydiff said:

My experience :

Reading OPC = Hopeless shower of sh*t

I have had various bits done at Reading and to be honest they havent been bad. My experience there was very much in tune with most other OPC's i.e.

Good:

• I have always felt well treated, and looked after - im kept in tea and coffee, dealt with professionally despite rocking up in a six year old 911 whilst wearing jeans and a t-shirt etc

• They have gone over and above in terms of service - i was given a tour of the workshop bays, the Porsche HQ carpark where all the press cars and interesting vehicles are kept, and the darkened garage corners where many race prepped and cosetted customer cars were being kept - some truly lovely and rare metal there. Then there are the little things like being allowed to drop off the car after hours, them looking after and watering a plant that was left in the car (don't ask it was a long story).

• Courtesy cars not a problem, and always interesting - ive driven a Cayman S, a Cayenne, and a very new (at the time) 997 C2S. All of which I would not have had the experience of driving had i not had them for the duration of my cars servicing. Ive never had cause to complain for example that i couldnt get or had to wait weeks for, a courtesy car and then it turned out to be a Nissan Micra with no air con or such like.

Bad:

• Its drug money for any work done, but then - I *did* go there, and I chose to pay it so more fool me. However i do wonder quite how it is that anyone can charge £35 a side for clearing leaves out of a grill etc.

• Sometimes I have had to question whether things which were replaced *really* did need replacing. Again this added to the bill.

More often than not nowadays I go to an indie where i feel i get the same level of knowledge and service for a much reduced price. I have however never had a horrendous experience at the hands of Reading OPC - maybe i have just been lucky ?

R.

[all2ofme]

I don't know if it's kosher to write the below on this forum, but the general slating above could do with some specifics, I reckon. I'd love it if the below was of help to others here.

I went to Reading because as far as I could tell it had a good reputation among the OPCs. I'd heard less good things about East London and (even more so) West London, so it seemed a safe bet.

In the time that I spent dealing with Reading they:
- took three months and three visits to diagnose coil packs as the problem, even though I'd asked specifically for them to check each time I took the car in
- took three goes at getting the geo correct within the space of two weeks (returning the car with grossly uneven tyre pressures the first time, too - out by 25% on some corners)
- took a year to work out that the gear selection problem I had was the clutch (seven visits in total)
- charged me for work that had demonstrably not been done
- disposed of parts I had told them I wanted kept (the obligatory brake rotors come warranty renewal time)
- finished a job by throwing the plastic electronics covers into the boot, rather than refitting them. I only noticed after the front wiring was full of leaves and other crud
- gave my car back after their third go at the geo with a "Warning Battery/generator" error on the main instrument panel
- left a razor blade down the front dash and told me that it was a mistake while fitting my "complimentary tax disc holder". Nice spin

To add insult to injury I endured such pearls as "maybe you're just not used to how the car works when it's set up properly". I'm pretty sure Walter prefers his cars to steer straight, actually, guys!

For my troubles? The offer of 10% off my next service. They went as far as 15% before I lost the will to complain any more.

(Part of me drew some pleasure from the Centre Principal's "No comment" and a laugh when I told him that I'd come to Reading because the London OPCs didn't have a good reputation as far as I could tell. But what a way to run a franchise for such lovely cars, eh?)

Plus sides of going to Reading were:
- I loved being able to try different loan cars
- Jenny and Muriel on the service desks were lovely to deal with
- there was often some lovely kit in there to ogle

Bummer I had so many reasons to be in there though!

Edited by all2ofme on Saturday 16th July 19:51