Poor Cayenne Owners

[wastintime]

Hey everyone,

I know I'm usually the one bashing any porsche built after 1994, but I found out something today that shocked me.

A really nice guy called our shop and asked if we could change the oil in his Cayenne. We couldn't belive this, but the dealer wanted $500 for an oil change! That's insane. He told us he'd give us $200 just so the dealer wouldn't get his money. It's just a boxster filter and 9.5 quarts... where the heck does the other $440 go? Lol, we had an hour long meeting to decide whether or not to do it, in the end we ruled that no Cayenne will ever be allowed in the shop. Which is kind of sad becuase if we did cayenne oil changes for $200 and made like a 200% profit that would be awesome, but... we don't allow cayennes or 996s (GT3s are ok... 964 crankcase...) in the shop.

The other thing that shocked me was that his first oil service (which he wanted done) was due at 20k miles... that's insane.

There's no way I would buy a car and then spend $1,500 a year on oil changes... granted you know you're going to pay a little more if you don't do it yourself, but jeez....


Andrew

[EdT82SC]

Hey, I'll change his oil for $200. I'm not too proud. ;-)

[FLAT6FAN]

For $200 you should have done it.

[wm711]

business must be really good!

[widebody911]

Not only would I change it for $200, but I'd top off his blinker fluid and adjust the piston return springs.

I'm a whore.

[nostatic]

yeah, but I wouldn't touch the muffler bearings for that amount...

[dtw]

You cannot do quality work on the Flangeister Valve (must be serviced on all Cayenne oil changes) for $200.

[ZAMIRZ]

You turned him away b/c he has a Cayenne? Wow

[juanbenae]

theres one born every minute.

im not sure whether i mean the folks that pay the $500, or the shop that would have an hour long meeting (sounds like city worker) to determine if they were to do a $200 oil change.

[KobaltBlau]

Originally posted by dtw
You cannot do quality work on the Flangeister Valve (must be serviced on all Cayenne oil changes) for $200.

Hey, there probably _IS_ a Flangeister Valve if the thing has the hydraulic-auto-super-duper suspension.

[75'930cab]

I would take all of the $200 oil changes that were thrown at me. I wouldn't care what kind of car it was.

[bigrubberjeep]

Isn't $200 the same regardless of what customer they come from?

Jeez -

[nostatic]

Originally posted by dtw
You cannot do quality work on the Flangeister Valve (must be serviced on all Cayenne oil changes) for $200.

It depends on the production day. Monday and Friday built cars have an elliptical Flangeister Valve, while Tuesday and Thursday builds use the cheaper cylindrical ones. Wednesday...well, we take Wednesday off. You see the problem was what with the excessive drinking on the weekends (which offcially start on Thursday night), line workers would mistakenly take cylindrical Flangeister valves and use them as thrust capacitors. By Tuesday and Thursday they are sober enough to tell the difference, but on Monday and Friday we use the elliptical so there is no chance of mistaking the parts (the thrust capacitors are also cylindrical).

[Paulporsche]

Read the manual.

Flangeister Valve service by anyone other than authorized factory service centers voids the warranty.

Paul

[cantdrv55]

Explain again why the shop won't do Cayenne oil changes for $200. I never ever turn away business unless I can't perfrom the service to my customer's satisfaction. And, even then, I'll accept the work and try to manage their expectations.

[concentric]

Originally posted by cantdrv55
Explain again why the shop won't do Cayenne oil changes for $200. I never ever turn away business unless I can't perfrom the service to my customer's satisfaction. And, even then, I'll accept the work and try to manage their expectations.

Why are you beating on the guy? It's his shop, he can do what he wants.

JCM

[nostatic]

Originally posted by Paulporsche
Read the manual.

Flangeister Valve service by anyone other than authorized factory service centers voids the warranty.

Paul

That isn't correct. Any service center can service the Flangeister Valve withough voiding the warranty providing the technicians has completed the Flangeister Uniform Check Knock Inspection Term (F*CKIT).

Now if they service the Flangeister Valve *relay*...well, now that's a whole other story there pardner...

[ZAMIRZ]

Originally posted by concentric
Why are you beating on the guy? It's his shop, he can do what he wants.

JCM

We aren't beating on him, just curious why he made such a poor business decision.

[concentric]

Originally posted by ZAMIRZ
We aren't beating on him, just curious why he made such a poor business decision.

Poor in your eyes, not poor in his.
There is no empirical right and wrong in deciding the principles by which you operate your business and profit isn't everything.

JCM

[MRM]

Sometimes it's not worth the company's effort to branch into new markets. It sound like this shop is limited to air cooled Porsches. That's where their expertise lies and what their equipment is set up to work on. It must be tempting to branch out, but once they do that their overhead will go up and they'll end up increasing their volume to pay for the overhead which will lead to more overhead, and not necessarily a bigger margin. In the end they may expend a lot more effort to bring home the same profit as if they had just kept it small in the first place.

If that's what their business plan called for then I think the shop made the right call.

But the mechanic who had to call the customer to tell him he couldn't get his oil changed for $200 should have told him he would do it that weekend.