Porsche.
Author
Discussion

PorscheProblems

Original Poster:

3 posts

149 months

Thursday 1st May 2014
quotequote all
Hello all Porsche owners.

You can buy a nice new Porsche for tens of thousands of pounds. Take out the Porsche finance to pay it up, take Porsche insurance, pay them for GAP insurance, take a £1500 a year warranty for the first few years and also get them to service it for the first three years. They will smile and be very kind to you whilst doing this BUT you've bought a defective car (which they know about).

Its fact that there is an inherent problem with the Porsche 996/997 models which is known as the dreaded 'bore scoring'. Those two words can instantly raise fear of any owner of these vehicles as its a fatal flaw that is costing thousands of innocent Porsche victims worldwide, thousands of pounds, in most cases in excess of £10,000 for a new engine. I am one of those unfortunate Porsche victims and I am definitely not going to be the last. THESE CARS WERE NEVER RECALLED. Porsche effectively thought that they would put their head in the sand and hoping that the problem would go away. Funny how the sales people at Porsche don't tell you about the potential issues when you buy the car.

WHY would Porsche think they had no need to address the problem?. The average car manufacturer takes their responsibly and RECALLS the car to rectify the problem. However when you buy a Porsche and pay £53500 for a two year old one you don't expect to be replacing the engine after 7 years of ownership. I had never heard of the dreaded 'scored bore' issue until my car started showing the highly obvious symptoms: excessive oil consumption, noisy engine and sooted left tail pipe, there are no shortage of stories on hundreds of forums from Porsche victims around the world.

The customer services are very arrogant, cocky, disinterested and don't want anything to do with you. It's almost like they are non existent especially as your 'loyalty to the brand' (actual quote from Rachel at Porsche UK HQ) is somewhat lacking over the past 3 or 4 years as I failed to get my car serviced at the Porsche dealer and instead used a highly recognised Porsche (non dealer) garage for my servicing, nor did I continue with my £1500 a year Porsche warranty and my car is now over eight years (jan 2005) old so its basically a case of 'tough' you have not remained loyal enough to the brand for us to even consider any form of 'goodwill'.

They have indeed told me that in order for them to asses what level of goodwill, if any, they will give me (and by my lack of loyalty to the brand over the past few years I suspect the goodwill would be non existent or an absolute insult) I will have to get my engine ripped out at the Porsche dealership for them to wiggle their way out of any liability...oops I meant ...asses the problem to conclude whether it is the dreaded 'scored bores' or not. In the process I will be left carless. Now, all I want to know from them is if they are of the opinion that it is 'scored bores' and based on my lack of loyalty to the brand (that is so laughable) they must be able to tell me now, before taking my car to pieces, what level of 'goodwill' I am likely to get, if any at all.

I have heard so many stories of Porsche dealers asking Porsche victims to either pay up to get their car engine replaced or get the car towed off their premises so as I don't want to be caught between a rock and a hard place all I want to know is what, if anything am I likely to get? If their level of goodwill was going to be £500 towards the cost of a £15000 engine replacement then I would most definitely be towing my car out of there never to set foot in a Porsche garage again. They have put so many people in that position and I am not going to follow suit.

Many people will say, 'well you can afford a Porsche so you can afford to pay for repairs' which is absolutely true but not the issue here, I have no problem paying for an expensive repair that is not a well documented problem with Porsche engineering and an inherent one that was going to happen regardless of who serviced my car over the years or how well I drove it or how often I serviced it etc. This was ALWAYS going to happen so for Porsche to try and wiggle out of paying for a new engine, not just for me but for other Porsche owners around the globe, is ridiculous and its daylight robbery.

You buy a Porsche expecting it to last a very long time....you certainly don't expect it to end up in the ever expanding Porsche graveyard after just 7 years of ownership and 72k miles on the clock!

Lynne

LordHaveMurci

12,336 posts

198 months

Thursday 1st May 2014
quotequote all
PorscheProblems said:
Hello all Porsche owners.

You can buy a nice new Porsche for tens of thousands of pounds. Take out the Porsche finance to pay it up, take Porsche insurance, pay them for GAP insurance, take a £1500 a year warranty for the first few years and also get them to service it for the first three years. They will smile and be very kind to you whilst doing this BUT you've bought a defective car (which they know about).

Its fact that there is an inherent problem with the Porsche 996/997 models which is known as the dreaded 'bore scoring'. Those two words can instantly raise fear of any owner of these vehicles as its a fatal flaw that is costing thousands of innocent Porsche victims worldwide, thousands of pounds, in most cases in excess of £10,000 for a new engine. I am one of those unfortunate Porsche victims and I am definitely not going to be the last. THESE CARS WERE NEVER RECALLED. Porsche effectively thought that they would put their head in the sand and hoping that the problem would go away. Funny how the sales people at Porsche don't tell you about the potential issues when you buy the car.

WHY would Porsche think they had no need to address the problem?. The average car manufacturer takes their responsibly and RECALLS the car to rectify the problem. However when you buy a Porsche and pay £53500 for a two year old one you don't expect to be replacing the engine after 7 years of ownership. I had never heard of the dreaded 'scored bore' issue until my car started showing the highly obvious symptoms: excessive oil consumption, noisy engine and sooted left tail pipe, there are no shortage of stories on hundreds of forums from Porsche victims around the world.

The customer services are very arrogant, cocky, disinterested and don't want anything to do with you. It's almost like they are non existent especially as your 'loyalty to the brand' (actual quote from Rachel at Porsche UK HQ) is somewhat lacking over the past 3 or 4 years as I failed to get my car serviced at the Porsche dealer and instead used a highly recognised Porsche (non dealer) garage for my servicing, nor did I continue with my £1500 a year Porsche warranty and my car is now over eight years (jan 2005) old so its basically a case of 'tough' you have not remained loyal enough to the brand for us to even consider any form of 'goodwill'.

They have indeed told me that in order for them to asses what level of goodwill, if any, they will give me (and by my lack of loyalty to the brand over the past few years I suspect the goodwill would be non existent or an absolute insult) I will have to get my engine ripped out at the Porsche dealership for them to wiggle their way out of any liability...oops I meant ...asses the problem to conclude whether it is the dreaded 'scored bores' or not. In the process I will be left carless. Now, all I want to know from them is if they are of the opinion that it is 'scored bores' and based on my lack of loyalty to the brand (that is so laughable) they must be able to tell me now, before taking my car to pieces, what level of 'goodwill' I am likely to get, if any at all.

I have heard so many stories of Porsche dealers asking Porsche victims to either pay up to get their car engine replaced or get the car towed off their premises so as I don't want to be caught between a rock and a hard place all I want to know is what, if anything am I likely to get? If their level of goodwill was going to be £500 towards the cost of a £15000 engine replacement then I would most definitely be towing my car out of there never to set foot in a Porsche garage again. They have put so many people in that position and I am not going to follow suit.

Many people will say, 'well you can afford a Porsche so you can afford to pay for repairs' which is absolutely true but not the issue here, I have no problem paying for an expensive repair that is not a well documented problem with Porsche engineering and an inherent one that was going to happen regardless of who serviced my car over the years or how well I drove it or how often I serviced it etc. This was ALWAYS going to happen so for Porsche to try and wiggle out of paying for a new engine, not just for me but for other Porsche owners around the globe, is ridiculous and its daylight robbery.

You buy a Porsche expecting it to last a very long time....you certainly don't expect it to end up in the ever expanding Porsche graveyard after just 7 years of ownership and 72k miles on the clock!

Lynne
This should be fun...

toohuge

3,473 posts

245 months

Thursday 1st May 2014
quotequote all
PorscheProblems said:
Many people will say, 'well you can afford a Porsche so you can afford to pay for repairs'
First off, you will not find that attitude here whatsoever....

Unfortunately, as you have alluded too in your first post, the bore scoring issue is a well know problem and Porsche's handling of the situation was terrible, although things were better over the pond in the US.

I recall that Porsche were difficult even with owners that had vehicles under factory warranty.

I do have to ask why you decided against extending the factory warranty on your car and are now expecting Porsche to assist with what would normally be considered a warranty claim? - That doesn't make sense....

As for good will, it will be difficult to estimate, especially with the recent and on going saga of the GT3 engine problem (does anyone see a pattern here? wink )

Having read around some of these issues, I believe that there are independents that offer a rebuild at significantly less than 15k, but it is still going to be real money.

Chris

LordHaveMurci

12,336 posts

198 months

Thursday 1st May 2014
quotequote all
The money saved in not renewing the warranty should be a good chunk of the £8k or so it's going to cost to get it rebuilt by Hartech.

KeithRobinson

100 posts

175 months

Thursday 1st May 2014
quotequote all
Take the car to Hartec and you'll pay a lot less and get a much better job which will give you years and years of happy ownership.

AndyBrew

2,774 posts

248 months

Thursday 1st May 2014
quotequote all
Not sure I follow this but am I right in understanding that you have a car manufactured in 2005 and you want Porsche to replace your engine??

oldnbold

1,280 posts

175 months

Thursday 1st May 2014
quotequote all
I feel for you OP, however this problem has been well known, and Porsche's lack of response to it, for a number of years. It shouldn't realy be a shock to someone who has owned the car for 7 years.

For customer who continue to service and warrenty their cars through an OPC the cost of a rebuild is covered, although the problem may re occur. Like most manafacturers if you dont use their dealer network for service and repairs (ie keep paying them lots of money) they will generally consider that any goodwill is not justified

Most owners I've spoken with go to Hartech for a permanent solution. But remember this only affects a fairly small percentage of cars, a bit like russian roulette with a 10 round chamber!

oldnbold

1,280 posts

175 months

Thursday 1st May 2014
quotequote all
Wait for ages and then 2 come along.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Buster73

5,612 posts

182 months

Thursday 1st May 2014
quotequote all
AndyBrew said:
Not sure I follow this but am I right in understanding that you have a car manufactured in 2005 and you want Porsche to replace your engine??
Nothing the matter with that at all.........until she wakes up.

IMI A

9,997 posts

230 months

Thursday 1st May 2014
quotequote all
I feel for the OP. Best solution is to get a second hand engine fitted and stick it in an auction. If you buy a 996/997 GT or turbo model instead you should be safer.

Having said that I had my car serviced at Porsche (a turbo) all its life and kept the warranty going and they still tried to wriggle out of it.

You my friend unfortunately have no chance with OPC even though this is a well known design fault and absolutely nothing to do with where the cars been serviced.

birdcage

2,934 posts

234 months

Thursday 1st May 2014
quotequote all
Someone's been at the pop

anonymous-user

83 months

Thursday 1st May 2014
quotequote all
You're just a bit late to the party, OP.

Everyone on here well knows of the bore scoring design issue. As well as the IMS problem, the RMS debacle, the failing ignition switches, poor quality starters, chocolate batteries, etc. etc.

Equally well known is the poor service offered by Porsche. It's not just you. Someone on here who has spent lots of money with Porsche for years, AND had their warranty, still had to resort to legal action before they would replace his blown engine.

If you want to keep the car, do as others have said, take it to Hartech and let someone who does seem to be able to fix these engines sort your car. You've summed up the OPC approach pretty well; that way lies only more expense and no satisfaction.

Then join the many who will never have another Porsche, whether theirs goes pop or not. They're great machines to drive but there are other, better serviced and more reliable brands that aren't far behind. You won't miss it.




mollytherocker

14,460 posts

238 months

Thursday 1st May 2014
quotequote all
You should have kept up the warranty, but its easy to see that in hindsight, especially if you were not aware of the inherent design flaws in these engines.

You are wasting your precious time fighting Porsche on this. The car is 9 years old.

Get it to Hartech and get it future proofed. Then enjoy.

oldnbold

1,280 posts

175 months

Thursday 1st May 2014
quotequote all
I've just noticed that you have posted the same post on 911uk OP. You will get much the same comments and advice from any Porsche site/thread.

Its a well known problem, everybody feels for you, its going to cost you a fair chunk of change and Porsche will almost certainly not contribute a penny. Speak to Hartech and move on.

Your not the first and certainly not the last.

CampingGaz

189 posts

172 months

Thursday 1st May 2014
quotequote all
Surely, it's only a well known problem to us poor s*ds who frequent these dark forums?

We probably represent a very very small % of the total Porsche ownership. Is it realistic to expect the general Porsche buying public to validate their purchases against some the info/mis-info that is expended on here ?

It's shame we don't treat new poster's with a little more respect, but then I suspect some like the sarcastic/superior approach to forum responses :-)

At least I see some sensible responses/guidance from some ...

Edited by CampingGaz on Thursday 1st May 21:52

graemel

7,225 posts

246 months

Thursday 1st May 2014
quotequote all
Sorry to read your tale of woe. You already know that your situation is not unique. Although the general conscensus of opinion is that a relatively small percentage of cars are effected. That won't make you feel any better and it is still is a bitter pill to swallow.
Having allowed your warranty to lapse for the past three or four years I cannot see that you have a cat in hells chance of getting any form of goodwill gesture from Porsche.
Hartech are the guys to sort it out. You can look at it as a positive that the money you have saved on the warranty is going towards the cost of the rebuild. £9K I think.
Buying any used car presents an element of risk. If you don't want to pay for the manufacturers warranty then you have to take it on the chin if its goes wrong.

freddy the frog

119 posts

151 months

Thursday 1st May 2014
quotequote all
IF IT IS SUCH A GLOBAL PROBLEM HOW THE HELL HAVE THEY BEEN ABLE TO WRIGLE OUT OF DEALING WITH THE PROBLEM.
WHEN PEOPLE TURN UP WITH A F----D ENGINE WHAT HAVE THEY SAID
I THINK I WOULD PARK IT ON THE GRASS VERGE OUTSIDE THE DEALER WITH A BLOODY GREAT SIGN ON IT SAYING ENGINES F----ED
I DONT THINK THE WARANTY IS WORTH THE PAPER ITS WRITTEN ON. I FOR ONE WILL NOT BE RENEWING MINE I WILL TAKE MY CHANCES.
IF IT GOES POP I WILL HAVE A FEW GRAND TO GO TOWARDS ITS REPAIR.

mollytherocker

14,460 posts

238 months

Thursday 1st May 2014
quotequote all
The warranty is fine, if a bit expensive and restrictive. But it pays out.

The ops issue is that he did not renew it and wants Porsche to contribute. They wont.


thegoose

8,077 posts

239 months

Friday 2nd May 2014
quotequote all
A Hartech rebuild starts at £4k ish, for £9k there'll likely be doing much more than just rectifying the current issue, they will be correcting all the design flaws, following their years of research & development on how to do so reliably.


The concept of goodwill is that for being a loyal customer the supplier gives something back to the customer in extraordinary circumstances (which a blown engine is, as the vast majority don't fail). I think it's wrong for anyone that's shown no goodwill to the supplier, by choosing to take their custom elsewhere, to expect anything in return.

The economics are easy, the OP's saved a considerable amount of money by servicing elsewhere and by not buying warranty cover such that I'd be surprised if the net cost of a Hartech repair is anything at all (albeit hard to stomach when it's all got to be paid in one lump), and any extra will be for more comprehensive work to fully overhaul and improve the engine such that it's better than new and likely to reliably do many multiples of the 72,000 miles it's covered so far.

sidicks

25,218 posts

250 months

Friday 2nd May 2014
quotequote all
freddy the frog said:
IF IT IS SUCH A GLOBAL PROBLEM HOW THE HELL HAVE THEY BEEN ABLE TO WRIGLE OUT OF DEALING WITH THE PROBLEM.
WHEN PEOPLE TURN UP WITH A F----D ENGINE WHAT HAVE THEY SAID
I THINK I WOULD PARK IT ON THE GRASS VERGE OUTSIDE THE DEALER WITH A BLOODY GREAT SIGN ON IT SAYING ENGINES F----ED
I DONT THINK THE WARANTY IS WORTH THE PAPER ITS WRITTEN ON.
Makes no sense given that other people with Porsche warranties have had this problem resolved, and the OP did NOT have a warranty...!

If you are going to rant at least try and have a vaguely coherent argument!


freddy the frog said:
I FOR ONE WILL NOT BE RENEWING MINE I WILL TAKE MY CHANCES.
IF IT GOES POP I WILL HAVE A FEW GRAND TO GO TOWARDS ITS REPAIR.
Exactly the same choice as the OP made, which is why trying to expect Porsche to pay for it is nonsensical...!