Rant: Porsche Dealers

Howard Agency · 03-28-2006, 08:16 AM

I recently bought a 'newer' Porsche. First one in a while. Did pre purchase due diligence, ran a carfax and called the original selling dealer.

Original seller, Pacific Porsche, was very gracious, and gave me a quick rundown of all service and warranty work, including recent major service where car got a clean bill of health. It's important to note they did not perform all the work, but had access to all things done at any dealership.

Went to my local dealer and asked for a printout of same. They said they only had access to warranty work performed on the car, no service records if work was not done there. Same answer from another local dealer, and neither were interested in pursuing the matter since I did not buy the car from them.

WTF??? If you take a MBZ, BMW, Infiniti, even my Hyundai SUV into a dealer's service department, they punch up the VIN and see everything ever done to the car. Anyone else had a similar experience?

pwd72s · 03-28-2006, 08:22 AM

Welcome to today's world of Porsche. Things have indeed changed to the point where you are told to bug off if there is no money in it for them. Contrast this to the days of old, when I wrote the factory, and got a nice letter back, explaining when my car was built and the options it had when it left the line...Now you have to pay dearly for even that info.

kqw · 08:53 AM

Call PCNA in Atlanta and have them contact the dealer to provide the information you need. Or...

Get creative; Go to a dealer and grab a sales person. Mention that you are looking to get into a newer model and that you have a buyer for your car however, to close the deal, you need any and all records on maintenance..or

Go to a service manager and mention that you want to have a complete service run through done on your car. However, to be able to evaluate what needs to be done, you would like to see a history on the car's maintenance.

Get creative up to the limits of your conscience....

Emission · Emission's Garage

It is my understanding the Porsche dealer network still isn't completely "networked" with regards to service and repair history - frustrating, to say the least.

I think all new BMW's carry their service history on their key (it has a chip in it)!

wcc · 03-28-2006, 08:48 AM

I had the same experience. Except my local dealer said they could ONLY pull up info that was done by them. I knew walking in there they never seen the car before. Anyways they couldn't/wouldn't tell me ANYTHING about the car's service history at ANY other dealer.

If you contacted the other dealer see if they will fax it over to you.

Howard Agency · 03-28-2006, 08:56 AM

Thanks, all. Rather than curse the darkness...

Pacific will send me all with no charge. And, they have a PPI service (I didn't use it) for $270, takes about 3 hours, and gives you the works.

If you are in SoCal, that's the place to go. I'll drive the 50 miles for this kind of treatment on my next service.

Blanco · 03-28-2006, 09:12 AM

Thats what I loved about the Lexus dealerships. They'd bend over backwards for you.

I did the same with an older SC300 and not only did they print everything out for me, they put it in a binder for future reference. Needless to say, I headed back to get vehicle serviced etc.

Zeke · 03-28-2006, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by pwd72s
Welcome to today's world of Porsche. Things have indeed changed to the point where you are told to bug off if there is no money in it for them. Contrast this to the days of old, when I wrote the factory, and got a nice letter back, explaining when my car was built and the options it had when it left the line...Now you have to pay dearly for even that info.

NO kidding. Readers should look at my posts in the Boxster forum or other's posts on other BBS sites. We get hosed so badly that I'm starting to learn to work on the car myself. One of the reasons I even have such a thing as a Boxster is so I wouldn't have to do that. But, it seems I can do better than the dealer.

pwd72s · 03-28-2006, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Howard Agency
Thanks, all. Rather than curse the darkness...

Pacific will send me all with no charge. And, they have a PPI service (I didn't use it) for $270, takes about 3 hours, and gives you the works.

If you are in SoCal, that's the place to go. I'll drive the 50 miles for this kind of treatment on my next service.

Wow, yeah! Also sounds like the place to go should you want a new P-car.

kevin993 · 03-28-2006, 11:50 AM

The thing I find most shocking about this entire thread is that Howard has now joined the ranks of us "tail draggers"! Glad to see you still have the 914, but welcome to the dark side.

Howard Agency · 03-28-2006, 01:47 PM

Worse than that Kevin. The 914 guys have disowned me and I have learned that a 996 is 'Not a Real Porsche' either. I am so alone

David E. Clark · 03-28-2006, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Blanco
Thats what I loved about the Lexus dealerships. They'd bend over backwards for you.

Couldn't agree more. My SC400 might not have the "soul" of a similar vintage 911 but it's bulletproof and the dealer service is almost over-the-top fabulous! I bought it with 100,000 miles and it now has over 200,000 miles. When I recently had the timing belt changed I was treated like I just bought a new car.

Vintage914Racer · 03-28-2006, 04:42 PM

I work for a Porsche/Audi dealer. We are able to look up any of the work that was done at our dealership, and are more then happy to print it out. In regards to work done elsewhere, we only have access to warranty work that has been done. The work that has been done at other dealers is listed in a 4 digit code. Think of all the different repairs that can get done to a car, and then think of it tranlated into numeric code. Naturally we know the typical maintenance and repair codes from memory, but for many of them it is not like we can simply look at them and determine it was a passenger rear speaker, for example.

I am not trying to say that all dealers are perfect, but there is some truth to it when they say they do not have access to other dealers work.

rattlsnak · rattlsnak's Garage

Vintage is correct. There is no way for a dealer can look up "CUSTOMER PAY" service work done at another dealer. (unless owned by the same automotive group). Only warranty work can be referenced.

bell · bell's Garage

tell me about it.......i had tires mounted on my fuchs (dropped them off...they didn't even have the car) and they entered an odometer reading on the service order....which was wrong, which now shows up on carfax totally screwing me should i ever sell my targa (odometer discrepancy).....
*******s.... F dealerships.

Howard Agency · 03-28-2006, 05:50 PM

Vintage,
Thanks (you too, rattlesnak) but I guess the question is why? An enthusiast's car company should be enthusiastic about its customers who are car nuts. In this case, the engine was replaced (not under warranty) which made all the difference to me when buying the car with this mileage.

So each dealer does report work it does to Porsche? And some dealers will bother to get it? Why did Pacific know and Russnak Westlake did not? Some of the work was even done at Russnak Pasadena.

With the VIN, can any dealer get the info? Is there a magic decoder ring? Do I ask too many questions?

ikarcuaso · 03-28-2006, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Howard Agency
Thanks, all. Rather than curse the darkness...

Pacific will send me all with no charge. And, they have a PPI service (I didn't use it) for $270, takes about 3 hours, and gives you the works.

If you are in SoCal, that's the place to go. I'll drive the 50 miles for this kind of treatment on my next service.

I recently emailed/called various SoCal dealerships for info/help (planning an upcoming SoCal run). Pacific is the one dealer that was most responsive and seemed happy to help. Got brushed off by other places Beverly Hills, Downtown LA that I won't mention.

Quote:

Originally posted by Blanco
Thats what I loved about the Lexus dealerships. They'd bend over backwards for you...

Yeah, went w/my dad recently when he bought a Lexus. I was worried those guys would follow you into the can to wipe your ass

, the service was that...well... accommodating.

Vintage914Racer · 03-28-2006, 08:55 PM

Unfortunatley there is no secret decoder ring. Typically the dispatcher or biller is able to recognize some of the code just from billing out common procedures, but that does not always mean he can pinpoint it. For example, there may be a code for wiring harness, but that may mean it was replaced, removed, repaired, etc.

As to why some dealer share the history they have and other don't, I do not know the reasoning. Unfortunately, I know some service advisors/sales consultants who could really care less about cars and are just there to earn a living. This does not justify poor treatment, but it says something...

Personally I am an old car nut and would much rather chit chat with one who has a well kept up older model than a new one. New 911s/Boxsters (do I dare say Cayennes) are a dime a dozen and anyone can buy one, although I would not turn one down if it was offered to me. Its the older ones that are still running strong that intrigue me. I of course am a rare exception, I think, in the porsche dealer network.

kqw · 03-29-2006, 04:48 AM

It seems to me that there is a disconnect between Porsche AG and the Dealership network. Come to think of it, most car manufacturers.

Contact with most customers is with the Dealerships and if they are not in tune with the customer service directives set forth by the manufacturer, they will drive customers away.

This is particularly clear when you have dealer service and a few days later you get a mailer or phone call asking how service was and your impression of customer service. Unfortunetly this is done by the servicing dealer and not by the manufacturer.

I venture to say that negative feedback never reaches the manufacturer unless the customers contacts the manuf. directly.

Groesbeck Hurricane · 03-29-2006, 05:37 AM

There are several different software companies that provide dealers with access to the manufacturers systems and software to run their businesses. All software is not created equal, not all companies provide access to all manufacturers. Look at the computer logos at the different local dealers to asses what software they are using. I'll bet they are owned by the same group and have one contract. Likely Pacific Porsche uses a different software provider.