Marajit

The dealer down here in Borinquen will not accept work on 944s, and driving one into the service area brings on fits of laughter.

Also, my 944 is older than his mechanics.

Wasn't there a time when the 944 was the darling of the marque?

sydneyman

well the dealer in richmond didn't exactly say they wouldn't work on my turbo but they quoted me impossible prices for relatively cheap stuff... like 3500 for a timing belt RETENSION.

its ok, its made me a lot more self sufficient. i don't go to the land rover dealer either for the rangie... same reason... and its only 9 years old!

F40LM

To this day the 'but it's not a 911' section of Porsche owners look down on anything but the 911. I like the 911 don't get me wrong. But Porsche should have ditched the rear engine format years ago instead of spending hundreds of engineering hours to correct/overcome it. Don't let them get you down. They will never admit it, but look at the numbers of us here. We still are a huge part of the Porsche communtiy.

michael

racer

Not sure any dealer really wants to work on a 25 year old car, regardless of marque, with perhaps Mercedes being the exception. They just don't often have the employees (techs) who are are still familiar with the cars. They may not even have certain specialized tools for older models. They certainly won't have parts sitting on shelves. So, when they take in an old car they need to 1) train their own folks and 2) perhaps tie up shop space while waiting for parts to arrive. Its not a "win win" for the dealer I'd imagine.

Same would be true if you brought in a 356 "what do you mean "adjust the carbs" ? Drum brakes?

V2Rocket

No, they don't hate the 944. They just don't feel it is worth the time to try to maintain a low-value model.

Remember, the techs will be younger and likely not been around when the 944 was new or relatively new. The newest one was built 20 years ago, and the guys that were around then are either service managers or retired.

A 911 of any year in semi-decent shape is still a $20k car. A 928GTS can still fetch into the high $30s. Considering that a 944, even in tip-top shape, is probably valued less than a tire mounting machine, it isn't worth training their techs to fix them. Especially not on a car that is slowly but surely fading from existence due to their low value and expensive maintenance. It's a cycle.

I know they don't hate the 944, because here in Southern California, Porsche's #1 market since, well, forever, I roll up to any of the dealers and am greeted with smiles and questions about the thing. The dealership managers fondly remember driving the cars when they were sales guys or service techs and the cars were new. They still offer advice on who to get parts from if they can't provide (remember, Porsche still has thousands of 944 parts in stock ready to go) and how to care for the car.

thirdgenbird

i brought my old bmw e21 to the dealer for a valve adjustment and the service advisor said that the tech loved working on my car. he was a little disappointed when i opted to do some other work myself but did give me some good pointers on the job. he was a true enthusiast.

pkt1213

That's awesome. I've never taken any to the Porsche dealer here. I know a couple of the guys there through PCA and the dealership is our local PCA sponser. I'd hope they wouldn't dicks about it.

I was watching top gear the other day, making fun of the way men do things, and using the 911 as an example. "Women would have put the engine in the middle, men have just spent 40 years engineering a solution to the problem."

Reimu

Porsche doesn't hate it, but a lot of people do.

At least on the internet, I've never gotten **** offline for it.

JohnKoaWood

Not sure WHICH dealer in Richmond, but my NA used to goto Euroclassics Porsche on Midlothian turnpike once a month or so..

And they loved it.. 2 of the master techs there had 951s... great to work with, and never had any issues other than them trying to convince me my car would burn to the ground with 18 inch wheels on it..

Landseer

Dealer technicians get paid book hours at an hourly rate much lower than the shop rate.

To make money, they beat book rates and move to the next, and next, jobs. In some shops, shortcuts are so rampant that quality is compromised. I swear to you that the pressure is so high that sometimes parts are not put on the cars, instead, are discarded.

Older stuff is very, very time consuming, if for no other reason the fact that the cadence and motions and tools are unfamiliar. So the terrible joke is on the technician that gets assigned the old car, usually the young guy. The bay is tied-up, the technician is tied up and the profit is lower to dealership and technician.

Service writers direct work to favored technicians in many shops. This breeds a whole 'nuther dynamic of frustration, as certain techs get the abundance of "easy" work for which they can beat book. The old car assignment can really inflame the technician who already is getting a high percentage of work for which hours are hard to meet/beat.

Warranty work on newer cars is where its at, along with selling ancilliary services. Sweet spot for technicians from viewpoint of efficiency. More throughput for the dealer.


Independents, like the one I support, pop up as frustrated technicians take the show on the road. They cater to the stuff dealers don't like to do. Problem there becomes that the cars are second and third hand, neglected and the owner wears the marque on there sleeve, but doesn't have the crazy money to fix the breaks and issues properly. Dealer won't give them time of day. They are cash customer, always shocked about how much money is required, many of them lying about the car history and taking them from shop to shop, sometimes playing shops against each other. Customer selection becomes critical, but in a different way than at the dealership.

Makes DIY attractive, doesn't it!

JohnKoaWood

In the case of Euroclassics, the job on a 944 goes to one of the two that own them!

Crackership

Porsche TRIED to ditch the 911 in the '70's! The 928 was supposed to replace the high-end 911's as the flagship and the 924/944/951 was supposed to replace the low and mid-range of the 911 and the 914. But those "It's not a real Porsche unless the engine is in the back" guys wouldn't let the 911 go, so Porsche was forced to spend the time and money to correct/overcome the inherent flaws of the 911 design in order to stay in business.

VirginiaF1

Nice to see that RL has a few previous Richmond owners on the forum..

The gents at EuroClassics Porsche Richmond are always accomodating in both the Parts and Service Depts. regarding my car.
Their price quotes on service and parts are quite reasonable..

UNLIKE the same Porsche dealer quotes I get from my old hometown near Phila, PA... they're numbers were astronomical and their enthusiasm/interest level was the opposite.

All supply and demand I guess.. glad I live here.

Cyberpunky

Ironically it was the sucess of the 944 that allowed Porsche to keep making the 911, so it may be looked down on but the 911 wouldnt be around today without the 944.

The situation is different down here, as all these cars are rare and tend to be well looked after, which is reflected in the cars sale prices. A good 952 goes for Aus$35000ish here. My mechanic wont work on 928's (due to bits falling off if you look at them the wrong way I'm told) but doesn't have an issue with 944's. These guys are older and are a marvel to watch work, as they have been working on these models since new.
peace
Cyberpunkly

TexasRider

All of this is true.

As it relates to the dealer not only do they not have the parts flow, the time, the techs that know these cars (remember today they all plug into the computer to tell them what is happening) but I bet you most dealerships do not even have a set of service manuals still on the shelf for these cars.

And a biggie is they dont want to, and wont warranty their work on these older cars.

Most of these dealers have a parts and service warranty on their work. But they dont want the risk, nor do the techs, that something "else" might break on these olders carsand then they have to go back in there. So no matter how it comes out they would say it was something different. They also know that the customer is going to be a problem then.

With all that and their unfamilararity with these cars they are probably doing us a favor.

But generally the guys that do know these cars know them well.