Porsche approved fantasy.

[WetherbyPorsche]

Hi,

First I would like to thank all contributors to these great forum, I did use it quite a lot since I purchase my first Porsche last April/May. This help newbies in the Porsche ownership world to have a better understanding of the car.

As mentioned above, I purchased a Porsche 996 Carrera 4 convertible from 10/2002 with only 20,000 miles so far. I was very happy with the car and purchased it from a Porsche Centre in Hamburg as a Porsche Approved car together with the Porsche Warranty for one year.

Yesterday, the steering wheel assistance broke down. Apparently this is mainly due to some dust being present in the tank that blocked the valve. Porsche Centre West London first told me today that this would not be covered under warranty as I need to take care of the vehicle on a regular basis. After a few reasonably heated discussions, it was agreed that this would be covered by the warranty. Especially after I checked the Porsche Approved check list posted by Loren earlier on.

The second piece of news to me was the state of the tyres. When I purchased the car, it was with 17inch wheels and I changed them to 18inch wheels. I told the Porsche dealer that as part of the deal I would need new or near new tyres. It was agreed and mentioned on the invoice that those tyres could not be worse than 75% of new. When the car was delivered I checked them from the outside, and they looked OK to me. However, I am not pretending to be a pro.

Today, Porsche UK told me that the tyres urgently need to be changes as they are fully used inside due to a bad wheel alignment of the car. They want to charge me nearly $3,000 for a new set of tyres including alignment.

I showed the invoice to the UK dealer arguing that tyres when purchased were supposed to be 75% from new (which obviously they are not anymore). First apparently the Porsche network is not a proper network as one is independant from the other and cannot accept claims on behalf of a different Porsche centre. Also, wheels alignment is not part of the Porsche Approved system and that it was for me to check it.

Now tell me, how can you check wheels alignment. My car goes straitght, but I cannot check if there is a strong negative camber on the car?

Anyway, I was just a bit surprised by this and thought the overall quality of the service would match those of their cars. In the end, I guess I will purchase a full set of new tyres and hope not to deal again with misleading Porsche Centres.

Best of luck to you all.

JC

[al123]

porsche west london? wow. you actually managed to get through a constantly enaged phone and had few discussions with them? !! sorry, not much help for your trouble but i am impressed you got anything out of them

[WetherbyPorsche]

porsche west london? wow. you actually managed to get through a constantly enaged phone and had few discussions with them? !! sorry, not much help for your trouble but i am impressed you got anything out of them

Agreed.

In London in between Porsche West London and Porsche Mayfair, we don't have the best client relationship managers around.

[claudiu]

Hi,

First I would like to thank all contributors to these great forum, I did use it quite a lot since I purchase my first Porsche last April/May. This help newbies in the Porsche ownership world to have a better understanding of the car.

As mentioned above, I purchased a Porsche 996 Carrera 4 convertible from 10/2002 with only 20,000 miles so far. I was very happy with the car and purchased it from a Porsche Centre in Hamburg as a Porsche Approved car together with the Porsche Warranty for one year.

Yesterday, the steering wheel assistance broke down. Apparently this is mainly due to some dust being present in the tank that blocked the valve. Porsche Centre West London first told me today that this would not be covered under warranty as I need to take care of the vehicle on a regular basis. After a few reasonably heated discussions, it was agreed that this would be covered by the warranty. Especially after I checked the Porsche Approved check list posted by Loren earlier on.

The second piece of news to me was the state of the tyres. When I purchased the car, it was with 17inch wheels and I changed them to 18inch wheels. I told the Porsche dealer that as part of the deal I would need new or near new tyres. It was agreed and mentioned on the invoice that those tyres could not be worse than 75% of new. When the car was delivered I checked them from the outside, and they looked OK to me. However, I am not pretending to be a pro.

Today, Porsche UK told me that the tyres urgently need to be changes as they are fully used inside due to a bad wheel alignment of the car. They want to charge me nearly $3,000 for a new set of tyres including alignment.

I showed the invoice to the UK dealer arguing that tyres when purchased were supposed to be 75% from new (which obviously they are not anymore). First apparently the Porsche network is not a proper network as one is independant from the other and cannot accept claims on behalf of a different Porsche centre. Also, wheels alignment is not part of the Porsche Approved system and that it was for me to check it.

Now tell me, how can you check wheels alignment. My car goes straitght, but I cannot check if there is a strong negative camber on the car?

Anyway, I was just a bit surprised by this and thought the overall quality of the service would match those of their cars. In the end, I guess I will purchase a full set of new tyres and hope not to deal again with misleading Porsche Centres.

Best of luck to you all.

JC

Living in the UK myself and relatively soon needing a tyre replacement on the front wheels, I have obtained a quote for Dunlops 9090 (I am very happy with this model, I've had no probs such as noise or vibrations)and it was just £133 for the front and £200 for the rear per tyre, all inclusive, i.e. valves, balancing and VAT. The wheel alignment can't be much more on top and I would recommend "Central Tyres" where I have had a good service on previous cars, rather than go to Porsche garages...

[WetherbyPorsche]

Living in the UK myself and relatively soon needing a tyre replacement on the front wheels, I have obtained a quote for Dunlops 9090 (I am very happy with this model, I've had no probs such as noise or vibrations)and it was just £133 for the front and £200 for the rear per tyre, all inclusive, i.e. valves, balancing and VAT. The wheel alignment can't be much more on top and I would recommend "Central Tyres" where I have had a good service on previous cars, rather than go to Porsche garages...

Thanks, I will contact them tomorrow to get a quote from them. There is no way I would pay Porsche such a high price for tyres and alignment. Just need to find a pro who can do it well without hurting the wheels, and knows how to jack the car...

JC

[pmjt]

Thanks, I will contact them tomorrow to get a quote from them. There is no way I would pay Porsche such a high price for tyres and alignment. Just need to find a pro who can do it well without hurting the wheels, and knows how to jack the car...

JC

I presume you're in London so try Parr just south of London (http://www.parr-uk.co.uk/) - they run the Porsche Cars race cars in the Carrera Cup and have set up literally hundreds of 996 - never used them myself but planing on sending my GT3 MkII to them for some bits - buy the tyres from anywhere other than a Porsche dealer in the UK! :angry:

UK Porsche dealers are all privately owned - with the exception of Porsche West London and Porsche Reading which were the original offshoot of AFN (the original concessionare for the UK) - now owned by Porsche Cars Great Britain. I'm afraid they'd have absolutely no interest in sorting out the problems caused by a dealer in another country and they'd receive no backup from the factory :angry:

Sounds like your best bet would be to get Parr to set the car up properly on a new set of tyres and stay away from OPC's in the UK :D

HTH

Philip (near Wetherby in North Yorkshire :) )