Michael Yount

I recently purchased a low-miles 2010 Cayman S from a dealer in Orlando. Car still has 9 months/33k miles on the factory warranty. They offered the CPO option, but I explained that if I decided to that I would rather the money go to the dealer that I'll use for service. The Orlando dealer understood that approach and left me with the clear impression that subject to the required inspection, that shouldn't be a problem.

I drove the car back to Charlotte and explored the CPO option with two dealers in the area. Hendrick Porsche in Charlotte quoted me $250 for the inspection -- and indicated the inspection fee would be credited towards the $1,000 CPO price if I proceeded to purchase that 'coverage'. They also quoted me 'discounted' (who knows for certain!) pre-paid services for the next 2-3 years.

I then cruised up to Hickory, NC to talk to the dealer there. I was much more impressed with the attention/lack of pretentiousness of the folks at the Hickory dealership. But here's where it gets really weird. They insisted that they COULD NOT offer CPO coverage unless they owned the car. They could offer it on cars they were selling, but not on one I owned. Their finance mgr checked with the regional Porsche finance people who confirmed that no dealer should be offering CPO on cars that are owned by someone else - which is another way of saying the dealer has to decide whether or not to perform the inspection/extend CPO coverage while they are in possession of a car they're selling.

I reached back out to the folks that sold me the car and explained what the folks at Hickory were telling me -- they indicated that there was some 'gray area' regarding Porsche N.A.'s policy on this. The folks at Hickory responded that there's no gray area at all. Hendrick seems willing, but I feel like I get something on me that won't wash off every time I walk in the place....

Any one else had any experience with this?

zirrah

Hendrick is a massive dealer overall, so makes me wonder what they're up to. Hickory is great. Trevor (if he's still there) is a really great guy to work with. Hickory is owned by the Benny Yount group that owns Foreign Cars Italia in Greensboro and Charlotte. I'd be wary of what Hendrick is up to, but had you just asked, the consensus on the forum would have been that the dealer must own the car to CPO it. Std Porsche requirement imo.

Hella-Buggin'

Just have it cpo'd wherever you can and then service it where ever you want. You should have just done it when you bought it to avoid the grey area.

dasams

This I don't understand as the cost of the CPO goes to Porsche to cover future warranty work at any dealership

Macster

Had a similar offer when I bought my CPO car. Actually it wasn't CPO'd at the time I bought it, but was shortly -- a few days -- afterwards.

The dealer told me if I wanted to I could refuse or reject or decline the CPO coverage and receive some rebate or cash back. This info was accompanied by a suggestion, make that an offer to sell me an aftermarket warranty. Fidelity IIRC.

I thought about a moment or two and declined thinking I preferred a warranty with Porsche behind it and good at any dealer.

Michael Yount

I would have had the Orlando dealer not led me to believe I could just as easily take care of it in Charlotte at a later date. That was why I asked before I completed the transaction - at the time there was no grey area.

zirrah - thanks for the info; I'd gladly drive the 60 miles to let Hickory service/warranty claim the car. Got a bad feeling about Hendrick.

Thanks for the responses everyone.

DallasDave

I have not heard of a dealer being able to CPO a car they didn't sell. Porsche is very stringent on their CPO vehicle requirements, and the process.

Good luck,
Dave

fbfisher

This is my understanding as well. They could be selling you an after-market warranty and calling it "CPO" Also, your strategy of accepting the remaining factory warranty so that you could apply the money to future service is deeply flawed in my opinion. CPO would likely cover you for 67,000 more miles until 2016. What are you thinking?

mgordon18

AFAIK, CPO is not something you can just "get for your car when the original warranty is about to run out." A used car is CPO'd by a dealer and then sold as a CPO car with 2 years of warranty. I do not think you can simply extend your 4 year factory warranty to 6 years by shelling out some cash and making it CPO. You'd have to get an aftermarket warranty - and that's not "CPO."

You may be S.O.L. But you could always get an aftermarket warranty. There's plenty of info on this forum if you do a search.

Michael Yount

"Strategy" is an interesting choice of words. LOL The remaining factory warranty is in place on the car whether I 'accept it' or not. With the car still under the factory warranty for another year/35k miles at the time of purchase, I wasn't feeling any urgency to obtain the CPO coverage when I purchased the car -- which is why I asked the selling dealer if that certification could be taken care of by another dealer AFTER I had purchased the car. Once they led me to believe I could take care of that transaction once I got the car back home to Charlotte from Orlando, there was no downside to waiting a week or two. There's your 'strategic flaw' - the misinformation from the selling dealer. Had they told me 'it's now or never' -- we wouldn't be having this discussion. Fully and correctly informed, I would have made the decision to certify or not at the time I purchased the car.

The facts seem to be -- there are dealers out there who will do the required inspection and sell the CPO coverage to me now in (what appears to be) direct violation of Porsche N.A.'s guidelines for providing this coverage. Nevertheless, I'm not interested in doing business with the Charlotte Porsche dealer who has offered to sell me the CPO coverage - Hendrick. And the dealer I'd like to do business with in Hickory is following the guidelines and won't certify the car because they don't own it. And this situation only exists because the Orlando dealer misinformed me in the first place. It would seem that the Porsche dealer network isn't completely immune from the same sorts of "50 shades of grey" business practices that cause consumers everywhere to just LOVE purchase/service transactions from car dealers.

FWIW -- the Hickory dealer further explained that Porsche N.A.'s guidelines require that the decision to certify a used car which comes into the Porsche dealer's possession (usually through a trade-in or by purchasing a lease-return from Porsche Finance) must occur within 24 hours of the dealer taking possession of the car. That is - they have to decide pretty quickly if they're going to certify - put the car through the inspection - make any required repairs - and then offer the car for sale as a CPO car from the very beginning. If you believe that (I have no reason not to) then I shouldn't have been able to get CPO coverage at all on my car -- as it had been offered for sale in Orlando for a good 30-45 days without the CPO coverage. Said another way - the rules seem to be, if the dealer doesn't offer the car for sale as CPO from the very beginning, you can't certify it at all. It also seems that not everyone strictly follows the 'rules'.

Lastly - all 3 dealers (Orlando, Hendrick and Hickory) indicated that the ONLY 'extended warranty' coverage they're allowed to offer is the CPO coverage. According to them - you can buy other non-CPO 'extended warranties' from the aftermarket -- but not through a Porsche dealer. It was very clear that we weren't talking about some aftermarket coverage posing as CPO.

jackporsche09

A Porsche CPO vehicle is sold as such by the dealer as a factory warranty good at any dealership in North America. The warranty is only applied to vehicles that the dealership pays a fee to Porsche for and is in compliance with the factory guidelines. It sounds like what you were offered was a limited warranty at that particular dealership which is common at many dealerships and is incorrectly referred to as a CPO warranty. A good explanation of this was found in last years Excellence Porsche Guide.

sandwedge

Incorrect. This forum is littered with members who have bought or gotten quotes on Fidelity extended warranties from Porsche dealers, myself included.

fbfisher

True. I bought my 993 from a private party in AZ. My local porsche dealer in CA sold me an after market warranty...good thing since that same local dealer rebuilt my engine top to bottom, which cost the insurance company $22k.

Chris - 97C2

Another point of reference, a good friend at a p-car dealership has told me several times that the CPO warranty costs the dealership ~$2400 plus anything they need to change based on the inspection. This makes me think the $1k number you mentioned is something aftermarket.

MJBird993

I'll bet you that the Hendrick warranty was one of their own. I would never buy one of those things, but on the wife's car we have it because we got the car used and it was only $50 to transfer the warranty, which we've already had a claim on (twice) because it's a BMW. Point is - once I read the fine print, I see that if I am within 40 miles of a Hendrick dealership, then I have to take the car there. If I am more than 40 miles away, I have to call them to get permission to take it somewhere else first. Other than that, it's been OK. But I never do business with any Hendrick dealer if I can help it.