A little update here, I finally got my car federalized today. It was an absolute b!tch - PCNA and Pfaff and Downtown Porsche (Toronto dealerships, fyi for those outside Ont.) did everything they could to stop me from getting a recall letter, it seems. I ended getting a recall printout from a dealership near the seller in North Carolina, which indicated there had been an open recall on this particular model for a gas cap replacement. I tracked down the dealership that did the recall work (replaced it) but he said he was prohibited by state law (OH) from sending me a copy of the invoice or work order. The RIV inspector said 'just produce an invoice for a gas cap for me', so I ordered one from a dealership in Buffalo. He faxed me the invoice (I don't even care if they don't send the gas cap!) and it passed inspection.
In the meanwhile, I posted some comments about my experiences with PCNA, Pfaff and Downtown on the PCA UCR forum. A few guys responded to my comments, in agreement, and voicing frustration at the lack of regard shown to customers. Apparently someone at one of the dealership ***** their pants over the thread and threatened to pull their sponsorship of the UCR club race at Mosport later this month. "I'm taking my ball and going home!!" So in the interest of UCR, I removed some of my opinions from my posts. I notice a few other posts in that thread have curiously disappeared...
Anyway, it was a PITA of a process, but it's done, and she's now officially a canuck!
I suspect at some point in the near future one of three things may happen:
1. RIV modifies their policies re recall letters for Porsches, perhaps to accept Carfax reports, which include recall info.
2. One or more dealerships clue into the money to be made offering recall letters for outrageous costs of, say, $50 or $100 (which most commercial importers would pay happily) and a new cottage industry is spawned.
3. A class action lawsuit is launched against PCNA, perhaps including CDN dealerships as well. This was mentioned in one of the posts in the UCR thread that has now disappeared. I've in fact already discussed this with a lawyer (my father) who agrees there may be a case there. (and no, he's not an ambulance chaser!)
Again in the interest of UCR's relationship with the dealerships, I've kept some things to myself, but this is the gist of how things have shaken down over the last couple weeks.
(don't worry, there's still an air-cooled beauty in the garage!
)