dr bob

928 at last

It's a fair cop. (Monty Python reference).
I somehow think the salesman is referring to the third one that comes off of the crank nose......

worf928

BRB-83-911SC

I thought I was going to see a Joey Chitwood stunt.

worf928

I had to google that.

--------

So, the video got a lot better by 12 min. I like the guy. He just needs to rehearse and have a better script. I'm glad he still has a job. Folks that *want* to do a good and thorough job seem to be getting thinner on the ground.

I don't see why folks are so surprised at a $75k bill. Here's the scenario as I see it:

- Car guy buys an 85+ Auto without doing enough research to uncover TBF syndrome
- Car guy doesn't do a very thorough PPI (where the first P is either "Pre" or "Post")
- Car guy takes it to a Porch dealer and says - fix it.

A high-five-figure bill is a certainty. Why?

- A senior, experienced, good Porsche Dealer tech is very unlikely to have specialized in 928s during their career. There just weren't enough 928s.
- I would certainly not expect a non-928-specialized technician to spend hundreds of 'off-book' hours over the course of years to gain sufficient knowledge to cost-effectively restore a 20+ year-old 928.

So, basically "Car Guy" pays for a Porsche Dealer tech to learn (somewhat) how to restore an old 928.

Like I wrote above. No one should be shocked here.

What we don't know is if that $75k bill is 'cost' or 'list.' If it's cost then the list bill could be $100k. If it's a list bill then the actual cost is closer to $60k.

We also don't know the labor rate or accounting mechanism used for the labor portion of the bill. Was the labor billed at cost or shop rate? Was it book time on the big jobs? Or was it hours expended?

Some things we do know:

$9000 crank
$1500 water pump
$1800 tensioner

The water pump is, in context, forgivable: A Porsche Dealer isn't going to get a Laso from Roger or a Guardian from Ed. We can only hope that they actually did use a new Porsche water pump rather than a rebuilt.

I find it difficult to believe that they absolutely needed to spend $9k on a crank. I suspect Greg or Mark has a shelf of good GTS cranks that could have been used for a lot less.

I find it unlikely that they needed a 'new' tensioner. I've only seen one tensioner (body) that required replacement. I happened to have a good used tensioner someone gave me when they Porkenized their 928.

Otherwise we know that the tensioner parts needed cost about what? $35.

Last, it sounds to me like they did all this work with the motor in the car. If so that was their second mistake. If a 928 needs a t-belt, OPG and cam covers (and of course the 'intake' refresh.) It is far more cost-effective to pull the motor.

As for the rest, the devil will be in the details of the bill.

worf928

You've got my first impressions.

Not B.S. Who knows what the rate was. Could have been anywhere in the $120 to $200/hr (US) range.

Limited? LOL. They basically rebuilt the engine (in place(*)) There's very little detail in that video that describes everything they did to the motor and there's no detail (IIRC) about much of anything else.

Without actually spending non-trivial time looking through the bill there is no way to determine the extent of what was actually done to that GTS and no way to judge how much 'learning' or 'padding' took place.

(*) Now that I think about it, they probably rebuilt the engine *twice*. The first time to do the belt and cam covers (and whatever else they did.) And the second time when they split the block to R&R the crank. (And that time they did, hopefully, pull the motor.)

Did they 'bill' the second rebuild? Or was it covered under warranty/goodwill?

And does anyone know the Canadian (or US) tax law for goodwill labor? Can it be written off as an expense by a dealer?

Otto Mechanic

Ha! Calgary is not in Alberta, Canada! Everyone knows Calgary is in Scotland.

gbarron

Aye...cep't last time I was through the craggy hamlet of Calgary on the Isle of Mull I either blinked or quickly glanced at my phone and missed the local Porsche dealership! Bout ya!

DKWalser

I had mixed emotions in watching the videos. At first, I thought this might be something that, at last, might help my wife 'understand' owning a 928. By the end, I was thinking I'd rather preserve her current level of ignorance.

Adamant1971

More like $130-$150 cdn per hour, That's $100 - $115 usd.

List parts prices are insane up here, I bet 40k of the 75k is purely parts. So then your looking at 233 hours, which is totally doable at a dealer.

I have seen several Canadian cars with 15-20k invoices that are an absolute joke. If you don't negotiate the parts you get totally soaked.

As far as the video goes, that just makes them look like rookies, both in the knowledge of the 928 and lack of skill while on camera.

Adamant1971

And for sale:

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/...ationFlag=true

That's about 62k usd.

worf928

Adamant1971

I'm gonna guess 10-15k all in landed in Canada. Maybe less maybe more, who knows as it might depend on how long it has been here since prices have been climbing. I found a few currently for sale in Japan but none show a price.

worf928

Adamant1971

I'm assuming it was in rough shape. There is a 90k km's GT that's for sale right now and its 50k cdn FOB, but that car is clean. I see allot of Japanese cars at my office when they come in for registration, 80% of them are super cheap and super rough.

IMO trying to make money on any Japanese import is a losing proposition, unless it's something crazy like an early skyline or mazda cosmo.