Last weekend I traded my C4 Cab (28k miles) in for a 2012 BMW X3, the first of 2 vehicles (one a vehicle w/utility and the other another convertible to replace the Porsche) that I will acquire in the next few months. That action marks the end of a 33 month car ownership saga that was occasionally pleasant but, mostly, frustrating and disappointing.

First a bit of history. Like most of you, I consider myself a car enthusiast. I regularly browse all the major (and some not so major!) car sites to keep up on the latest in the auto industry. My car purchases have certainly reflected this, starting with the first 6MT Jetta GLX VR6 I acquired late in college to the custom ordered 6MT Audi S4 Cab that I had before my C4 Cab.

It will come as no surprise that ever since seeing my first ‘whale tail’ Porsche in the 80s, I had long had my eye on the brand. Before acquiring my daily driver 2009 C4 Cab, I researched it meticulously . . . reading every 4 season review I could find and test driving it extensively. I even went so far to visit the Stuttgart plant just prior to making the final decision to take the plunge and acquire the car. My original plan had been to custom order one and take delivery of the car in Europe . . . in hindsight, I have to wonder if my situation would have turned out completely differently if I had ordered my car instead of letting the dealer convince me to take one off the lot (at what seemed like an amazing price!).

So it came to be that in March of 2009 I took delivery of my black 997.2 C4 6MT Cabriolet (October 2008 build; $108,700 MSRP) – as you will remember, the recession was exploding at this time and Porsche was giving some pretty hefty discounts to move inventory. I was incredibly proud of myself as I drove off the lot! Though only 34 at the time, I had been blessed with sufficient success (combined with extremely hard work and fiscal discipline) to be able to acquire a vehicle with such a stunning pedigree.

Unfortunately, that joy did not last long because the first of 11 mechanical/electrical failures occurred just 5 months later when the car began stuttering and was unable to reach 40-45 MPH. The culprit? HPFP failure. Time to fix? 3 weeks. My loaner vehicle? A Hyundai from Enterprise.

Needless to say, I was livid and incredibly disappointed. After the first 2 weeks without the car, I called PCNA and asked them to do whatever they could to expedite the repair. I think that helped the dealer stop messing around with Tech Support and just replace the darn pump. They also credited me 1 month’s lease payment for the inconvenience, which I thought was fair.

Now 100% fixed, I drove off . . . only to have the next major failure happen 3 months later. The hill assist, air conditioning, and engine cooling system (fan) all went out at the same time. The culprit? Short circuit under the passenger seat. Time to repair? ~ 2 weeks. My loaner vehicle? A Chevy Malibu (AKA one of the worst vehicles I have ever used) from Enterprise.

Now fearing that my car was a lemon I started the process to file a lemon law claim in MA. I got my car back 1 day before they would have had to replace it or refund my money.

If these were the last issues I had with my car, I would have just let bygones be bygones and chalk the whole thing up to 1st year bad luck. As you’ll see from the summary below, that did not end up being the case.

1. Aug 09: Stuttering/will not accelerate (HPFP replaced)
2. Oct 09: Hill Assist, air con, cooling fan not working (Short under pass seat repaired)
3. Nov 09: Check engine light (Replaced 02 sensors)
4. Feb 10: Rain sensor inoperable (Replaced rain sensor)
5. Apr 10: Top leaking (Replaced top seal)
6. May 10: Check engine light (Running rich, replaced sensors, tuned car)
7. May 10: Squeal on startup (Emergency trunk release motor replaced)
8. 2011: Horn not working (Horns replaced)
9. Jun 11: Coolant leak (Right radiator replaced)
10. Nov 11: PCM failure (Replaced PCM)
11. Nov 11: Rubber strip hanging over engine cover (Clamshell strip and brackets replaced)

When I traded the car in the replacement PCM was still not fully operational and the dealer felt it would probably have to be replaced again. Starting with my second repair, my experience with PCNA became astonishingly poor (this is already a long post, so I will spare you those details).

So where does that leave me as I look back on my Porsche experience?

Sad actually. I had such high hopes for this vehicle and I truly expected to be a lifelong Porsche customer. Despite its many issues, there were times that I absolutely loved driving it and other times when, even after 2 years, I still found myself pausing to admire how beautiful it is. Unfortunately, I came to feel like a fool whenever I felt that way because it turned out to be such a horribly flawed product.

Needless to say, the likelihood of my ever owning another Porsche product is close to zero . . . which is a shame because the new 991 addresses so many of the little things I would have loved to see improved in the 997.2. I am now looking at Aston Martin (Vantage S), Mercedes AMG, BMW M and other comparable vehicles as my ‘fun’ car replacement. With luck, I will have a better experience in the future.

Thanks for reading and happy motoring.
Shawn

 

sounds like you had what you know is an unusual ownership experience, frustrations with the dealership not withstanding.

that said, makes equal sense to me that you never buy one again, or that you buy another one tomorrow.

Your choice. If you did buy another, it would be clear that you felt you got a lemon. If you didn't, then it reflects your belief that the car you ended up with was typical.

Nobody would blame you either way. Enjoy what you've got.

 

I keep scrolling up and down the page unable to believe no one has jumped in to defend the hallowed brand! Of course there is not too much to say that isn't obvious -- your experiences occur in very few vehicles as anyone who has read the various sports car forums and glowing car reviews through the years can attest. Porsche has always been known for excellent build quality -- didn't they win Le Mans through most of the eighties (which is a race that is as much about reliability as it is about speed). It is sad to hear of your experience. The one idea that I had would be that if you still love driving the p-cars, maybe you might enjoy the Porsche Sport Driving School in Alabama where a couple of days on the track (in a variety of their vehicles), aside from being a total blast to do, would likely restore your confidence in the brand.

 

I have owned three 997's (2 C2S, and one GT3), all have been excellent, and I have driven these cars very hard! Sorry about your issues, like every manufacturing industry, achieving 100% perfection is impossible.

Good Luck with your future vehicles.

 

When it rains it pours. Bad stuff happens. And from the OP comments in general it appears that he will be happier with other brands. The grass always looks greener on the other side.

 

For me, the real issue with these posts is less the car problems themselves and more the issues with customer service after the issues emerge. For the life of me, I just don't understand why PCNA and the dealers don't realize that they are losing lifelong customers.

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I noticed that most of your issues were electrical. In my experience, that is the weak link in these cars. I've had my horn replaced, my targa hatch power switch, brake light switch, MAF and I'm under still shy of 20k miles on the odo. My PCM acts up from time to time too and the self-dim mirrors don't work 100% of the time (replaced under warranty).

Just last week I put on my winter wheels/tires and it took the ECU a few attempts of setting/resetting itself to find the TPMS (fixed now on its own). In the interim I had a little time spent and stress at the dealer, who wasn't able to diagnose the problem. All the while, NO mechanical problems -- and from what the techs tell me they are very rare on C4S's.

All in all, I remain a big fan of the car, it's overall engineering, value proposition, etc. but I don't kid myself that there is room for improvement on the electricals and am not too surprised to hear it when others have similar issues (though yours is still at the extreme).

On the other hand, my car is almost 5 years old so maybe these issues above aren't so bad at all things considered...

 

This could be the result of some sort of anomaly related to water (note that almost all of his problems are either rubber seals or electrical). Definitely an outlier IMO.

That said, the servicing dealer/PCNA could have made this MUCH less painful on the OP's part by giving him a decent loaner comparable to the car he had in service.

 

You couldn't have said it better. When brands get to big, and forget that each and every customer defines whether they grow or shrink then something's wrong.

 

Wow you did have some major problems with your car and its obvious that your car was a LEMON. I dont blame you for not wanting another Porsche but every manufacture will let a "bad one" slip by. My neighbor just returned his Lexus under the lemon law so it does happen. I would still buy another 911 because 911's are in general very reliable cars just ask any owner. You can go and purchase a Aston Martin (Vantage S), Mercedes AMG, BMW M but regardles of what you buy it just wont feel the same as a 911 and you will always ask yourself "should I have bought another one?" The anawer is YES and this time get what you want and not what some salesman is pushing off the lot.

 

Both of you put it perfectly! As I said repeatedly to PCNA, I really never felt like I had a customer advocate during this entire process. I felt like the decisions that were being made were 100% driven a desire to minimize risk (i.e. litigation) and bottom-line impact.

I'm in business, I understand both . . . but what I think was lost in an over zealous desire to protect margin was that you can't have a profit without bringing in revenue (i.e. having customers buy your product!).

I assume that everyone else that replied (including countless JD Power surveys, etc.) are probably right and that Porsche does typically make a fine product. Unfortunately, I was not a beneficiary of that legacy in this instance.

Live and learn I guess. Thanks for all of the considerate responses and thoughts. It is always nice to get the opinions of other enthusiasts.

 

Some of it is the dealer you bought from. Some dealers use rentals, some have loaner cars. Here in SoCal i avoid dealers with rentals. The Aston dealer gave me a rapide last time I serviced and the BMW dealer always gives me a 3 series. Just having a loaner Porsche while yours was out would have eased the pain

 

Not to belabor the point, but I switched to Apple about six or so years ago. Though I have problems infrequently, they always bend over backwards to fix them with little to no aggravation on my part. My wife dropped her iPhone, cracked the screen, and they swapped it out for a new one. My toddler peeled a some keys off of our keyboard and they fixed it on the spot at the Apple Store. My iPad quit charging for some odd reason, and they swapped it with a new one without making us wait for diagnostics because they didn't want to inconvenience us.

Now, do you wonder why my house has two iPhones, three iPads, an iMac, a Macbook Air, two Apple TVs, and three iPods? When will companies learn that outstanding customer service makes lifelong customers? Apple makes premium products at a premium price, with customer service to match. Porsche makes premium products at a premium price and I've found that the customer experience was subpar and not at all upscale.

 

I have owned BMWs for last 8 years and my cars have been serviced at 3 different dealerships. I must say that their service ans customer support have benn first class. I had my 997 less than a year, and the local dealer is just average. Like someone said, after sales service is not on par with product when comes to Porsches.

I must caution OP however that Aston Martins are known to have a lot of electrical gremlins in them.

 

I don't mean to hijack the thread...but to pile on to this issue the dealerships (mine, anyway) give absolutely back-breakingly pathetic service, and then turn around and BEG that I give them PERFECT marks in the PCNA post-visit survey.

So here, where there is only ONE dealership, I have to make a decision between telling the truth, and REALLY turning them against me at my dealership.

Those customer surveys suck. The whole concept sucks. Now ALL the brands are relying on them. Did I mention they suck?