UKKid35

I would suggest he is not the only specialist in the country, Chris at Loe Bank, Bury has an excellent reputation and is a 928GT owner himself.

The person you're referring to does not include any other parts in that price other belt and pump. Obviously any sprockets, idlers, etc would be extra. On the one occasion I had work done by him very early in my 928 ownership, he changed the clutch friction plate, but not the pilot bearing or the nylon cup, even though both were shot and I asked him to change any other WYAIT parts. The whole job had to be redone by myself an Jon928se a few hundered miles later because the guide tube bolts were missing. It was then that we discovered the condition of all the other components. On the plus side he only charged $120 to change the friction plate (plus part cost).

StratfordShark

Hi Paul,

Sorry if I misled!

I was trying to say that the guy I referred to does 928s and almost nothing but 928s.

I've heard Chris at Loe Bank is also terrific on 928s, but my understanding was that he is just as likely to work on other Porsches (at least that's what I inferred from his advertising). He's obviously an expert on 928s but I am always attracted to specialists in any field.

Bottom line is 928 owners in the UK are fortunate to have two experts they can turn to covering different halves of the country.

Bill Ball

There's too much unknown to know whether the total charge is fair. So far, what he detailed about the TB, AC , and mirror charges seem fair to me.

dr bob

I can't justify working on my 928, based solely on the money. It's that simple. I charge more than the local mechanic on an hourly basis, and likeley he's better and certainly faster at this stuff than I am.


The local mechanic has three bays that he needs to keep busy. He pays rent, insurance, utilities, taxes and fees, a business license fee. He keeps tools and equipment ready in case he needs that stuff to work on my car. And he expects to make a few dollars at the end of the day too.

The local dealer has all that, plus a bunch of administrative overhead like service writers, a service manager, a store manager, and an owner or shareholders who look for a profit at the end of the day. Oh, and they likely maintain an inventory of parts on hand, and even pay Porsche a franchise fee for the priv of having the family name and the crest on the building.

Meanwhile I work in my own (very expensive...) garage workshop that doubles as a car park for my car during the off hours. I have an investment in tools that's comparable to the local mechanic's but well shy of what the dealers expect their guys to maintain. No lift so far. K sucks away any 'profit' that might be realized by doing the work myself, and complains that I don't really 'save' anything since I should be billing professional time instead of fussing with the car at all.

The --only-- reason that I work on the car is because I enjoy it, and use it as a kind of therapy in between the beating sessions. I enjoy a sense of satisfaction that I can do the work perhaps with a little better quality that the other guys. It costs me a bit of time for that satisfaction compared with the other guys. At the same time, I preach regularly to current and prospective clients that they should spend their money wisely, and for their critical projects hire the best they can find since that's the best value in both the short and long runs. If only I would heed my own advice... I'd be driving a 997 or Cayenne Turbo, or more likely a Lexus or Cadillac sedan. The cars that have the lowest aggravation factors.


Was the bill at the Porsche agent a ripoff? No. It was a contracted service that the owner and the dealer agreed on before a nut was turned. Everybody was happy when that started, no need to be unhappy now. It would cost a lot more if I did it for my standard consulting rate.


Why do you work on your own cars?

macfly4

Hopefully i will have a list late on monday of charges. i will definitely post them when i get them, if for nothing else than to just let people have an idea what the dealerships are charging these days. should be interesting.

ELJG

Depends where you're located. Things are a lot cheaper Stateside. In the U.K., a 12k services the equivalent of U.S$1500; aircon repair U.S$4000 and they(Porsche dealer) told me my car did not have the inlet valve for the a/c - naturally they couldn't find it.

JKelly

WEEKLY SPECIAL!!!!

Do you have lots of money, but have no time?
Do you have lots of money, but have no brains?

I am offering my services to personally tighten your oil pan bolts, fix a washer nozzle, get the ac to blow cold, fix a mirror, and change your timing belt and water pump; all for the reasonable and justified price of $7,000 .....travel expense included.

Bonus service: Act now and receive a complimentary air filter change! (regularly priced at my non-rip off charge of $450)

Other services available. Please send $200 to receive my complete email catalog.

Mrmerlin

Hey JK wheres the free refrigerator magnet?

surfridermason

HA HA!!!

Don't forget the "more than the car cost" clause....If you spend more on service with me, than you paid for your 928 to start with, Included is a new Wendys double cheeseburger for only $.99, and a big ***** for you to stick up your &%^ so your not suprised later when I do the same thing to you with my invoice.

FlatSix911

Macfly4, you are a brave man to post your service questions on this board...

• First - you now have a beautiful car in excellent condition.
• Second - get the itemized list of work from the dealer and take a close look at the charges
• Third - have a chat with the Service Manager of the Dealership if anything is unclear or abnormal.

Good luck!

docmirror

With due respect to Dr Bob, who is one of the sharpest guys I know. I will NOT let anyone work on my car or plane except Roger. I've had nothing but poor service every time I take my car or plane to someone else.

Example: Paid over $5000 for strip and partial repaint of my plane. I polished a lot of it myself. After less than a year, the paint on was flaking and cracking on the flight surfaces. He took it back and the guy kept it for 5 weeks to repair this relatively small amount of stuff. I go to take it home and have the following stuff wrong; Nut missing on trim cable guide, missing washers on rudder hinge. Screws left loose on two of four aileron hinges, rivets unpainted that I asked to paint, everything was very dusty, not cleaned at all. Now, he want's $500 MORE of my money, and I have to go back and do a bunch of work anyway.

Same with the cars. I took my wife's car in for an ABS problem. After $375, it still wasn't working! Argh, I take the car back, read the damn book, and had it fixed in about 2 hours. Sent my Ferrari fuel distributor to a guy for rebuild. He takes three months, and it's still not right. Send it back, and he keeps it for three more months and I almost loose it, but for the good graces of Dr Bob in SoCal. I get it back, and it leaks, gotta fix that too. I can see 'work' that the PO had commissioned on my 928. Wires that were taped together, pipe wrench marks on the front pulley, missing clips on the Bosch leads, etc.

why should I pay good money when I can't get anyone to do decent work? I wouldn't mind sending it to Porsche if I thought for a second that they wouldn't damage my car, and do what I ask them to do. I'm not the only one that has this complaint.

I think the OPs fee was a bit high, but he didn't follow the work closely. The only time I want to let anyone else do work is if I give them a specific job to do, and clear work instructions. We then agree on a cost for that work, and I can check it at the end. Also, I never do any work at my job anyway, so I might as well fool with cars and planes.

dr bob

Doc, I'm with ya. My car has seen the dealer twice since purchase. PPI and a full TB/WP/hoses/fluids before I picked it up, to the tune of about $800. They quoted less than that over the phone, then presented me with a huge bill when I picked the car up. We negotiated the somewhat more fovorable amount. The next dealer visit was to get said timing belt tension checked at 1500 miles. A hundred bucks later, and a day to undo a lot of the peripheral stuff they disturbed, it won't go back even though this is the area's 928 dealer expert, supposedly. I brought it to them looking original and new under the hood. It came back with fingerprints and fluids spilled in there. They washed the car (black) but did a cursory towel dry with hard water. Spots in all the jams and seams. That's what chewed up the day.

I wrote:
It isn't that tough to do a better job, but I'm generally not racing the clock. I've done several jobs twice, including work on friends' cars here. It happens. Would't hesitate to drive it to Texas and back, worrying only about the cost of gas. Wouldn't take it to a dealer again though. K won't let me work on her 4-Runner, but I sneak into the engine bay every once in a while and service everything and give it all a good cleaning and detailing. The dealer dude who changes the oil must love it.

6mil928

John can we make this a partnership

Nightfly

O.K., here's my invoice for the TB/WP job, which included the ABS light going on and he replaced the abs relay (which I don't have an extra of, and would have taken me a while to figure out).
water pump gasket, 2.30
roller idler, 80.25
roller tension 95.36
lower roller 135.98
boot tensioner 23.25
water pump 454.00
bolt 10.24
abs relay 91.69
timing belt 104.91
fan belt 11.34
p/s belt 13.36
a/c belt 13.00
2 dist caps 147.34
2 dist rotors 126.02
2 gal coolant 18.00
hose 40.08
labor 10 hrs TB/WP 900.00
labor Brake 1 hr 90.00
tax 162.22
Paid $2500 cash.
Sure, I might get some parts cheaper. But it would have taken me longer, working in sub freezing weather. Job done right, by someone who takes the time to talk to me and answer all my questions about my car, and not rush me out the door? Priceless. When I need more work done when using a lift would be appropriate (I have no garage, and driveway is coarse 3" gravel stones), I will go back to this guy (Ed at Jorge and Jack's in Clifton). As far as I know, looking at labor rates in this area, $90 an hour is on the inexpensive side.

kjurkic

Nightfly:
Other than paying dealer list price for the water pump, it all looks like a pretty fair deal even to my cheap ***.....

Ken