Porsche Certified Question

[Jack Stands]

Having had to sell my Targa and 914-6 (too old and fat to get in and out of them easily), I‘m now looking for a Cayenne. Having seen both used and Porsche Certified ones, I wondered who determines whether it gets certified or not? Is it at the dealership or higher up in the food chain? We found a nice one that was supposedly Certified, but then wasn‘t.

[David]

It has to pass a specific Porsche checklist, no serious accidents, limit on mileage and year, on a manual transmission there's a rev range limit, and probably a bunch more I don't know about. I have seen CPO cars that weren't perfect but I think those are outliers. I've bought two CPO Porsche's and been very happy. If I was in the market for a newer used Porsche (and I am thinking about a 971 Panamera), I personally would only buy a CPO Porsche from a Porsche dealer.

[ian c2]

The only insight I have is from buying a cpo 997 years ago , and all this is from my old fading memory so do your research as I may be wrong , or things might have changed ...

Cpo is a set of porsche guidelines that opc’s must use to certify a car for factory warranty
Porsche are paying the bills for any warranty work , so the inspection is pretty stringent .
Most all I looked at had new tyres , brakes etc and only showed minima signs of wear over a new car (unnoticeable creases in leather seats etc) .
It really is the next best thing to buying new from an opc , and in some cases is a better buy than new (mine was one of these cases)

A valid cpo can only be sold by an official porsche center or private seller .
Any other “car sales” places advertising a cpo car are taking your money , unknowingly or not .
They might take a car in trade that was bought cpo , and thus have paperwork to say it’s a cpo car , but in reality as soon as you buy the car it is void .
I came across a couple like this at other brands official dealerships .
The price was higher as it was a cpo car , but it isn’t .

The best time to buy is when the car is at an opc around 2 years old .
The cpo warranty is on top of any remaining factory warranty , so do the math ...
If new car warranty is 5 years and cpo warranty is 3 years , a 2 year old car will have 3 years warranty remaining .
If cpo warranty is added on top of factory remaining you get 6 years warranty , so more than you get with a new car ...

Another thing to bear in mind on mine was a pretty hefty Pdk service around 60k miles , I hit this around 3 years into ownership and around that time a friend was looking for a similar non-cpo car so could offer a little advice ..
As cars are unrealistically priced on mileage , once you get around a “big hit” service mileage it MIGHT be a better choice to pay 2000 less for a car with 2000 miles more that has just had the service done , rather than pay 2000 more for te lower mileage car and 2000 miles later get hit with a 6000 service bill !!!

[Jack Stands]

Coming from owning many aircooled Porsches that held their value or appreciated, taking the depreciation hits and increased service costs concern me if the car isn‘t under a warrantee. I don‘t have the same trust in Porsche‘s current models as I did in their older models. Though I did have things wear out and need service (brakes, clutches, etc.), my cars never left me stranded or went into a limp home mode. Maybe it was good we didn‘t have problem codes to scare us!

[ian c2]

Iirc free porsche roadside recovery is included in cpo if that’s any consolation

[ian c2]

Another thing to bear in mind is servicing and repairs once the cpo warranty runs out .

I’m a car guy and like tinkering , but with some cars it’s simply a better proposition to have the job done at the opc .

As an example ,
You want to change the water thermostat .
An aftermarket parts supplier sells the stat as a spurious part for 100 , or genuine part for 200 .
You decide genuine part is better and the dealership price is actually better than the aftermarket parts place price on genuine
It’s a 2 hour job and the dealer charges 100 per hour , so you think it’s better to do it yourself in your well equipped garage at home ..

BUT ....
Imagine you decide to go the “stealership” route ...
You drop the car at The opc , and they give you a free car to use .
The job is billed 2 hours , but takes 4 as your car gets a free detail while it’s there .
You collect your shiney car the next day after the 24hr test drive .

All is well until you’re on vacation 3000 miles away a few months later when the thermostat starts failing due to a bad batch from the supplier ...

had you done the repair yourself the factory warranty applies on the part but NOT THE LABOUR , so your now in a hotel parking lot with basic tools , and another 2 hours in to remove
Then you have to somehow get to the dealers to exchange the part
Then back to hotel to replace ...
Had you had it done at the dealership the labor is also warranted ANYYWHERE within the opc network
You could simply take the car to the nearest dealers and pick up your free car to use
The job is 2 hours covered by warranty , but takes 4 as your car gets a free detail while it’s there .
You collect your shiney car the next day after the 24hr test drive .

Stealerships uh ???

[Jack Stands]

Valid points. I also used to do my own work, but age is hampering that these days. Just wish labor rates were just $100/hr. We‘re all used to the ‚Porsche Tax‘ on parts as that hasn‘t changed.

[David]

Both my newer Porsches (Cayman and Cayenne) are out of warranty so I do most of my own work on them, but it's nice having the CPO so you can find any issues that the previous owner may not have noticed and get them fixed on Porsche's dime before you take over maintenance.

[ian c2]

Originally Posted by Jack Stands

Valid points. I also used to do my own work, but age is hampering that these days. Just wish labor rates were just $100/hr. We‘re all used to the ‚Porsche Tax‘ on parts as that hasn‘t changed.

Yeah you gotta do a little reliability study and a little maths to work out if the dealers higher labour price is actually cheaper ...
The fact the opc I use for parts gives me a price cheaper than the online aftermarket parts supplier is one factor , plus if you pay them to install it , EVERYTHING is covered to fix it should it fail .
All numbers and scenarios are “internet typing” , but still relevant to the value equation as I’ve experienced them with 2 cars I owned at the same time that “deserved” dealer servicing/repairs .

On the 911 only 1 thing went wrong with the actual car I bought ....
Touch screen wouldn’t let me play a cd after baking in the sun everyday , cpo replaced free with new one that cost a few thousand bucks if I would have had to pay .
2 other things went wrong.
I bought a sport steering wheel and ad them do the install , and a few days later I hit the horn and it didn’t turn off
I pulled the fuse , and they fixed it for free under cpo and replaced the horns too .
I bought a carbon fiber center console to match the seats .
Removed seats and installed myself
Within part warranty period the carbon started going bad in the sun , and warranty on parts was exchange so I would have had to remove seats again to remove console then find my was to Long Beach in a different car to exchange etc.
The opc did me a deal on “install” price , and it was replaced under parts warranty with the 2nd installation covered by full warranty .
The FULL warranty period re-started from the day the replacement was installed by them ...

The dealership has its perks on some things ...

Another thing I’ve found with older cars is the “specialists” are using porsche job-times to charge , and although the labor per hour might be SLIGHTLY less you get non of the benefits of the dealer network warranty cover and most do not warranty labour , plus no real equivalent loaner car and free detail etc. and if they accidentally “break” parts while doing your repair you are paying one way or the other ................
And the generic auto repair shops can actually cost more than both as they do not have the knowledge needed to so a simple lowering springs install and re-alignment so it takes them longer and they charge by the hour

Bare in mind there are certain “newer” dealerships owned by large corporations (that may or may not rhyme with “masturbation” ) that I drive past to get to my preferred dealership

[smadsen]

I bought a 2015 911S in 2017 from a dealer with 15,000 miles on the clock. The car was purchased with the CPO warranty which took the factory warranty out to, I believe seven years from the "in service" date or 50,000 miles (possibly more, can't remember). Warranty fixes included engine cover strut replacement, auto deploy rear wing repair and re-align, two separate major repairs to the A/C including a blown hose. The car now has 47,000 miles and just timed out of the CPO warranty in March 2021.

The big 40,000 mile service was about $1800, including all fluids (except gear oil & water) & filters & spark plugs. The PDK ATF was changed. The $400 motor oil change (9 qts. & filter) should benchmark the Porsche tax for you.