nsantolick

Got me there. I just assumed you felt you were an expert since you seem to equate calendar years in coveralls with expertise, and implied it several times, here, in this post. As I've said, in those "too big" messages of mine, I don't buy it. Years of doing something may mean you are good, but it also can mean that you've been doing it incorrectly for years too. More often than not, the latter seems to be the truth, especially when they're quick to brag about it. It doesn't, after all, necessarily mean A THING...

Great. Well todays lesson is the difference between "prospective" and "perspective."

You see, you interview "prospective customers." It implies prospects, or potential customers.

"Perspective" is a vantage, or point of view, and mine is that I'm not wrong to be pissed when a promise of $450 for labor turns into $7,000+ or that "done this week" turns into "not quite done but you can pick it up after 5 months and get to do a bunch of it over because I screwed up..."

I understand that things can happen to make that initial educated guess very much inaccurate, but still, it's only fair to at least try to give an idea, when asked.

Oooooh. "Richard" must be a secret code word in your little club, I guess. What will I ever do now? I'm screwed. I don't even know your secret handshake. Bummer!

You ARE cranky now aren't you. I don't know dude. Maybe you should have blown 88???

ROFLMAO

blown 87

I never said I did any thing correctly, in fact, it is a wonder I have ever fixed a car.
Much less still having enough people that want me to repair their cars that i can choose who I will work on.


You are the type of Porsche owner that gives the rest of us a bad name.

I am done responding to you.

syoo8

To take this thread into a different direction....

Mrmerlin-- I hope you'll have time to give my 86.5 a once-over this summer? I'll be in Colorado Springs all June which I believe is pretty close to Aurora?

SQLGuy

It's about 70 miles away. Have you been out here before? It's a nice place to be in June... could be anything from 95 and sunny to 30 and snowing.

Cheers,
Paul

syoo8

Hi Paul--

I've spent every June in the Springs since 02 and I love it. I can't imagine the summer without being there. Would be fun to see you as well!

GregBBRD

Calm down guys.

Nsantolick, let me introduce you to Greg Nettles (Blown 87).

There are a handfull of people, in this country, that I would trust to fix my own 928. Greg is one of them. Trust me, this guy has a good set of hands and a clever mind. He has a wealth of very good experience and has very good advice about these cars, for others. You'd be way farther ahead not to "taunt" him...he makes a way better friend than an enemy....and when you are planning to work on your own 928, you will need all the online friends you can find.

Sorry you've had such a terrible time getting your 928 fixed. Glad you feel that you are qualified to do it, yourself. You will find that these are both very simple and very complex cars...all at the same time. They are easy, when everything goes right and they are very hard, when things don't go exactly by the book. Look through the threads, on this forum, and you will find people with these cars that can't fix them, no matter how many parts they buy or who helps them.

These are the cases where people need to seek out the help of a seasoned professional....like Greg Nettles.

(And trust me...a true seasoned professional would never let you bring your own parts....you should have known better, when they said they would allow this. A seasoned professional will never install the customer's piecees...because the customer always forgets that he provided the parts, when they fail. We like to think that if the customer is smart enough to know what pieces he needs, he should be smart enough to install them....which it seems you are.)

Good luck....and remember....have fun!

blown 87

Thank you Greg for the kind words.

SeanR

Post of the month. Well done.

Mrmerlin

Scott if your out here in CO i would be happy to give your car a look, seems i am doing lots of MMs and timing belts/ WP jobs as well as flex plate checks, along with console pod repairs.

sendarius

While I will freely admit to being massively incompetent when it comes to working on my own cars, I find that I am (kind of) forced into it because of the above (quoted from GregBBRD, but I suspect common in the auto repair industry).

I fully understand the imperative driving Greg's position, and I am not intending to deride it. It does, however, make cheapskates like me think twice (or even three times) before using a professional shop here in West Oz.

Maybe things are different in the US, but parts markups here are RIDICULOUS.

When I can buy a new genuine Porsche water pump for my 944S2 from the US for $700, while the (only) dealer in town wants $1700, but the parts quote from one of the trusted mechanics in town says $2300 FOR JUST THE PUMP, I take that as a hint that it is time I learned how to do it myself.

Saving $1500 on the price of just one part at the expense of a weekend (or two) of my time seems a more than fair trade to me. I suspect that the mechanic would prefer that I paid HIM for the work, but it is not going to happen while he persists in firstly insisting that he supply the parts AND then charges me dealer retail + 35% for them.

syoo8

It will be great to meet you Mrmerlin, since you have been so helpful with advice in the past!

OBehave

Truer words have never been spoken!

GregBBRD

I'm only aware of one company, in the US that charges over retail for 928 bits. Certainly a repair shop could never get away with that, here. Perhaps there is a problem with the supply of parts down there, which allows those insane markups?

While I enjoy working on these things enough to do it for free, unfortunately, I'm not independantly wealthy and need to make a living. Auto repair has been around long enough that the percentages that it takes to make a shop work are very well known. All the professionals that will advise one how to make an auto repair business successful will all tell you the same thing...you need to make about 40% on your parts to make it work.

That number is a joke, when working on Porsches....we find that we have a tough time keeping that margin at 20%, over the course of a year (race parts for Porsche Motorsports have a maximum discount of 10%.)

Our shop rate is a "fairly normal for the area" labor rate (the independant American car shops charge about the same).

It has become increasingly difficult to make a living at what I do. Every government agency wants more money (we all know why?). The cost of doing business (insurance, electricity, etc) always goes up..never down. Pretty simple thing to figure out. If the profit margin goes down and the cost of doing business goes up...you make less profit!

That's the reason I can't afford to have people bring their own parts.

There's a fairly common joke out there, that shop owners trade back and forth..."Do you suppose the customer that wants to bring his own parts also asks his favorite restaurant if he can bring his own steak, so they can cook it?"

robot808

On top of all this, it is difficult to find a cooler or more interesting guy. Having another drink with Greg and Uncle Mitch is a huge part of the reason that I am heading back to SITM.

blown 87

I have done enough T-belts on 944's to know that I am going to replace everything the belt touches, both of them.
Lets not forget about the high dollar races and seals for every shaft.
I know you have done so many that it is going to be a very high number of cars.

I may just not be lucky, but what I have found is that if they get disturbed they will soon leak.

It only takes a couple of "It was not leaking before you worked on it" to either do all of it or none of it.

EDIT: I guess I left the point out, 2400 sounds a bit much, but if they did everything it needs it might not be out of line.