Hi everyone,

I'm a relatively new 996TT owner and the car I bought needed some maintenance. Bear with me as I explain the circumstances and then get to my question.

I found Gaudin Porsche which seemed to have reasonable prices so I ordered from them a set of front brake pads and rotors. Their website leads you through parts and narrows down your search (somewhat intuitively and somewhat not). I entered my vehicle information and chose brakes. They give you an option of front and rear so I chose front and placed the order. After bringing the parts to the shop, they informed me that the parts I had brought them were rear parts. I called up Gaudin and they at first didn't believe me that they had shipped me rear rotors and pads. Then I informed them of the way their website worked. It turned out that their website had inputted rear rotor and pad numbers for what should have been front rotors and pads. They made me buy pay upfront for the correct parts and they ordered for FEDEX to pick up the wrong parts. Fair enough. Everyone makes a mistake here or there right?

My car is a Cabriolet which had the hardtop deleted so I wanted to install the hardware so I could have a hardtop. Again, I went to their website. The reason their website is NOT that intuitive is that what you might call a hardtop mount is not what they call it. So I had to search through various categories before I even was able to locate the correct part (minor quibbling with their website design and layout). I placed the order and figured my order should be sent out to me a a couple days. I get a phone call from Gaudin saying that they don't stock that part anymore and that the new parts are 2x more expensive. I told them I didn't like what was happening and that it was their website, shouldn't they know what parts are in stock and which aren't? I also complained about the price jump. Their response? The price is the price and there's nothing that can be done about it. I was flabbergasted. I reiterated that it was their mistake and that they should bear some responsibility for that mistake (since it says on their website that they try their best to treat their customers like how they'd be treated, etcc....). No budging. So I say, fine, order me the parts at the increased price. A couple days later, same person calls me again and says Porsche doesn't carry the replacement parts either so they're cancelling my order!

My question: is this how you would expect to be treated by a Porsche dealer? Is is common for Porsche dealers to be so clueless about their own inventory and website? Is this how you would want to be treated if youw were the customer?

 

I'm sure some Porsche dealers are just like some Porsche drivers... *******s!
I find Sonnen Porsche has good prices and a good website. It helps if you look at the parts diagram and just punch in the part number that you need.

 

Just go through Suncoast, Pelican or ECS for stock parts. Dealers jack up the prices for parts and labor and typically dont want to deal with you unless they are doing the servicing themselves.

 

Don't reward them with your money - you should have just cancelled when they jacked the price on you. The only way the horrible dealers learn is if you don't give them any of your business - there are plenty of good places to get your parts without having to jump through hoops.


Go to Suncoast - nothing but good things about them on here.


Are you looking for the hardtop receiver parts that get installed on the car? If so, let me know - I might have a set to sell.

 

^ This... Definitely for brake pads and stuff like that. Hardtop hardware though, likely need a dealer to source that.
Or, another 6speeder

 

This? Only thing for a hardtop I found on Pelican.

 

Thanks for the mention guys. Yes, if you need anything please do not hesitate to reach out to me on here as I am here to help you with all your Porsche needs.

For your convertible top needs, look here and see if you can find what you need. If not let me know and I can find the part for you.

 

Go thru Suncoast (that's were I got my v2 connectors about a year ago) or pelican.

Just know there are 2 versions of the hardware mounts. One is a bayonet style (v1-might be outdated) and the other is a allen wrench screw in style (v2-takes a lil longer to mount in). The bayonnet style got complaints that they didn't seat firmly and squeaked all the time. Worst case, if you have the bayonet connectors, you can switch them out to the new v2 style here: http://suncoastparts.com/product/PK997HTM.html (hmm seems the price has jumped...I think I paid about $250 for those but then again it's both the mount and the adapter)

 

suncoast prices are typically not competitive.

Best experience I've had is at sunset imports.

 

Thanks everyone for the information. Appreciate the input.

 

Suncoast is OK, but they can be expensive and the shipping is rather slow