Screwed by Porsche

[AFJuvat]

A few months ago, someone tried to break into my 88 targa. They slashed the top, but fortunately, didn't get into the car.

THe insurance company didn't want to replace the top, so we agreed to get the top recovered, with the agreement that if there were fitment problems, we would revisit top replacement at a later time.

Here we are a few months later, the top doesn't fit well at all, it leaks, will not fasten properly, etc.

I call Porsche to get a price on a replacement top. The top used to retail for about $4100 complete.

Now Porsche jacked the price on all air-cooled parts. How much is the new top??

$14531.97!!!!!!

The comment I got was that Porsche is doing this to all air-cooled parts.

I really think they are shooting themselves in the foot by doing this to the old-guard air cooled crowd. Running a shop, I've seen air cooled prices jump as much as 100% in the last 18 months, but this is just asinine.

AFJ

[scottb]

That's ridiculous!

Send the top up to Dan Pechtel in New Jersey. He'll cover it right, and walk you through the fitmet process. No personal experience, but he's reputed to be the best.

www.carsinc-nj.com

[Navaros911]

ALL Air-Cooled parts?!? Why would they do that? Out of supplies maybe?

Did you tell them that you can buy a used top with a car attached to it for that amount

They are turning into a mass producing car company more and more every day.

[Joeaksa]

Another recommendation for Don. It will look like new AND FIT when you get it back.

JoeA

[Dantilla]

If this keeps up, time to sell the 911 and buy a Lotus Elise.

[silverc4s]

Here's the thread to read...

$800 for targa work? too much or outa luck?

[carrera]

Unreal !!

Perhaps, porsche wants to sell new cars.

They are trying to lessen the desirability of the older cars so as to encourage the purchase of current models.
I remmeber a quote from one of those porsche ceo's to the effect "we make new cars too, you know" whilst conversing with the original owner of a clean mid year carrera.

whadya thinQ

are the numbers too low for porsche to even consider this ?

[AFJuvat]

Well, just got off the phone with 1-800 Porsche, and PCNA HQ. Short answer is "sorry, but we have no control over pricing, we will document your complaint, but I cannot confirm that you will even get a call back on this"

Maybe I'm just ranting here, but as I've said, I've seen prices go up exponentially over the last year or so. I've also seen PCNA customer service go into the $hitter.

In all fairness, my local dealer with whom I have a wholesale account with is sympathetic. Their costs have gone through the roof as well. They are trying to see what they can do for me on their end - I buy about $50000 in parts a year from them, which sounds like a lot until you realize that figure breaks down to about 3.2 targa tops.....

I'll give Dan\Don a call and see what he can do for me.

AFJ

[silverc4s]

Back to AFJ's original topic;

I'd bet that most Porsche dealerships in the US (CA too, to some extent) have most of their service business now in water cooled cars, or let's say 993, Boxster, Cayenne, 996, 997 cars.
They probably have discovered that the "air cooled" owners are not primary buyers of their new cars either.
The inventory $$ required to support 1963 - 1993 cars is enormous and unique, getting like 356 parts now.
So, PCNA, has probably upped the costs to the dealers, as they are the importer/warehouser of all this stuff.
All the more reason for all of us to support folks like Wayne here..

[klaucke]

I've dealt with Cars Inc and Dan Pechtel, and I would definately do business again. It was a smooth transaction and the parts (oil cooler stuff) were competitively priced.

[Wavey]

Originally posted by AFJuvat
[B]Well, just got off the phone with 1-800 Porsche, and PCNA HQ. Short answer is "sorry, but we have no control over pricing.../B]

That's total bull*****. With the volume of parts they buy from the factory, they certainly DO have some control. If a company like WalMart can lean on suppliers, so can PCNA. What a ridiculous, transparent cop-out.

And if PCNA thinks we air-cooled guys don't matter, they're wrong. As our cars age, we are very likely to hold onto them, but move them into a "less-used" status (ie weekend/track car), and replace what are now daily drivers with something else. I would certainly consider a Boxster or a Cayman when that time comes, but not if PCNA is going to screw me on my "real" Porsche. There are plenty of similarly-priced, attractive alternatives out there. Like the saying goes, the business is their's to loose.

[kqw]

The dealers have a lot of influence on PCNA..

The issue is that the Dealers have pushed away customers that have owned Porsche Auto's for many years, have matured and could afford a newer P-Car BUT: If gouging is the name of the game on parts and service/labor...they walk away and look at other exotic toys.

[Nickatnyt]

Originally posted by AFJuvat
Now Porsche jacked the price on all air-cooled parts. How much is the new top??

$14531.97!!!!!!

The comment I got was that Porsche is doing this to all air-cooled parts.

Guess that means they have 3 left. Otherwise there has GOT to be a misplaced decimal point !!

[mmastro]

Originally posted by silverc4s

They probably have discovered that the "air cooled" owners are not primary buyers of their new cars either.
The inventory $$ required to support 1963 - 1993 cars is enormous and unique, getting like 356 parts now.
So, PCNA, has probably upped the costs to the dealers, as they are the importer/warehouser of all this stuff.

I think you hit the nail on the head....It looks as though Porsche, Inc. is no longer interested in "supporting" the early air-cooled's (66-94). I guess the $$$ is in the new water cars-- Maybe that's why their quality decreased, they need to build a need for the future of their water-car parts market.

BTW, I wanted to buy a new WUR for my 77 930....$746.59.
Oh brother....It's probably up to $1400 by now.

[Grady Clay]

This isn’t PCNA policy, it’s PAG. Porsche Cars North America isn’t independent at all but is a US corporation wholly owned subsidiary of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche A.G.

I understand what they are doing. When they wanted the 928 to go away, the raised the spare part prices. You could buy an entire running 928 for the cost of the ignition switch and keys. That isn’t going to happen with the 911, the installed base is too great.

I agree with Bill’s post above. My disappointment with the current management of PAG is their failure to support their customers, current and past. They could be making money forever supporting every car manufactured form the beginning, others are.

IMHO the current management is most interested in this quarter’s profits so they can be known as the one who took this “sports car” company and turned it into a world class manufacturer (owning VW/Audi) and leveraging into more. This isn’t bad except they are spending the capital (goodwill) that Ferry Porsche earned.

Time will tell.

Best,
Grady

EDIT for typo

[Wayne 962]

It's way more complicated than you guys know. There's issues having to deal with depleting inventory, and stocking older parts. Porsche makes a lot of money on these older parts, otherwise, they wouldn't carry them and continue to have parts manufactured for them. Pricing changes up and down all the time, many times according to the value of the Euro. We've seen times in the past when prices skyrocket, only to come down later on when Porsche realizes that no one will buy the parts if they are too expensive.

-Wayne

[Jims5543]

Having owned my Porsche for 5 weeks now this is truly upsetting news.

Also owning a 87 RX-7 I can say Mazda is not doing this. As a matter of fact I am a Mazdaspeed member, by proving I race in 2 races minimum a year I get parts for my RX-7 directly from Mazdaspeed cheaper than the dealer can get them. Sometimes 50% off listed price and they fully support the older cars. We can still get parts for RX-3's.

And to think I was just commenting to the wife that I would like to get a brand new one in a few years. Crap like this makes you think twice for sure.

[silverc4s]

I imagine a lot of the dealer/owners of today were not selling Porsches in the pre-1990's era... so they see us & our cars as a collective PITA, unless we buy a new car, or want a $14,000 targa top!!! (fat chance, that!)

[hkspwrsche]

Other manufacturers do this also. It basically means they dont want to sell that part anymore as the demand isnt there. I dont think this will be a problem with oil filters or anything.

[plain fan]

If Porsche is unwilling to maintain inventory for our cars then they need to do the next best thing for them as well as us. They need to license their trademarked/copyrighted designs to other companies for mass reproduction purposes. We get the parts we need at a competitive/fair price, the company making the reproductions makes money and Porsche makes money off the licensing of their parts. Porsche maintains the good will of their largest customer base since the number of new liquid cooled cars comes no where near the total number of aircooled 911s and 912s produced (we could even include 356s and 914s if we wished). This or the remanufactured market needs to explode to meet the rising demand for parts that wear out.