If you dont know Im shopping for a 930 and the car is located in the Ft. Wayne, IN area. I need some help on finding a good place to take the car for a PPI.

Two places Ive heard of are ODaniel Porsche and Vorderman Autowerks.

Anybody have any recommedations, suggestions, words of advice, prayers? Id like to pencil in a PPI up there fairly soon w/a reputable place who knows what they are talking about. Granted its a 930 I will be getting inspected, but if the joint is very good in 944s, its fairly safe to assume they also do quite a bit of work on 911s.

 

O'Daniel is THE Porsche dealership up there. I don't know anything about Vorderman Autowerks, but I would think a dealer would be most reputable for a PPI. I know that O'Daniel is pretty involved with PCA stuff.

Going with the 930, huh? Power corrupts...

 

UD, I'm from Huntington (about 20 minutes from Ft. Wayne) but I haven't had any experience from either one or any other place in the area. I would go with O'Daniel since they are a Porsche dealer and Vorderman Autowerks is a Volkswagen dealer. I was at O'Daniel a couple weeks ago for the Michiana Tech Session with Gobogie and they seemed helpful. One of their mechs was helping a guy that was having trouble with his older 911 (70's I think).

btw, I'll be back in Huntington for the summer starting a week from Saturday, so let me know if you'll be up there after that.

 

Good deal. Do you think its bad karma to take a car to a Porsche shop thats also serviced the car or not? I dont know yet if this ones been services there but Ft. Wayne is not a metropolis so I imagine choices are pretty few and far between for decent service. Would they be predispositioned to talk glory about the car or perhaps in a better position to give you the low down since theyve seen it up on the rack before?

 

If you don't mind coming down to Carmel, 120 miles south of Ft. Wayne, then go to Tom Wood Porshce on 96th street. Very good reputation.

 

If he's willing to go to Carmel, have him take it to Bob Farmer just east of Indy. He's independent and has been working on 911's for 30 years. He also the most honest mechanic I have ever talked to and his rates are very good.

 

I can understand the trepidation, but since you're paying for their service, I would have to believe they'll give you an honest evaluation. And I guess since they're involved with the PCA, they're aware of the community and what a bad word of mouth would do to their business.

One thing you might want to try is to be "involved" in the PPI. When I purchased my (now sold) '88 last year, I took it to my mechanic and literally stood over his shoulder while he went over the car. (And rode in the passenger seat as he drove it) He would point to things and say why "this is good" or "this isn't good" and tell me why. Even if I knew little about the car, I felt better watching and getting point to point explanations. I would try that even at a dealership. I would think this would discourage any "talking up" of the car.

 

Man I'm slow...

I've heard good things about Farmer in Indy. When I lived there, I took my 944 to Terry Heath at Euromotorworks. I would also highly recommend him. He's on the northeast side.

<a href="http://www.euromotorworks.com/" target="_blank">http://www.euromotorworks.com/</a>

 

Doug-

I did the same thing when I bought my 951. I agree, it just makes you feel better and at least you know the guy didnt take 5 minutes to stand under the car and say its ok and charge you $200 for the privilege. A couple shops didnt like me in the rack area because they didnt want me standing under the rack for liability concerns (good or bad reason?).

I think 120 miles is probably too far. Most Porsche service depts are closed on the weekend so I may need to make a couple trips.

Im pretty hopeful the dealership will know a good car when they see it. I dont venture to dealerships too often because of the price but for a PPI which is in the scheme of things fairly inexpensive, it probably makes sense to let them look over it.

I keep hearing about the compression/leakdown test on 911s. Someone clue me in and let me know if this is part of a usual PPI or "ala carte".

 

I agree with your assesment of dealerships...I tend to avoid them myself for the same reasons. But, theoretically anyway, they're supposed to be the most trained on these cars, so...

On compression/leakdown tests...I would think if you end up spending $200 you should be able to get a compression test with that. Most people HIGHLY recommend them. They can tell a lot, but also don't tell the whole story. (How's that for vague?) Having said that, I've purchased three 911s without any compression/leakdown testing. I knew one of them (my '72T) was running poorly anyway, so I wasn't concerned. My mechanic did the PPI on the last one and felt there was no need for compression/leakdown after driving it. I suppose you can think of it as how much insurance do you want to buy? I would think with a turbo, you'd want as much as you can get!