dmac

McLaren does have a customer racing division, although it nothing like Ferrari or Porsche. If you ever tour the MTC, you'll get a chance to see where they are built and serviced.

McLaren Customer Racing

ipse dixit

Porsche handled the issue with aplomb and great customer diplomacy. McLaren, right or not, has the reputation of being tone deaf to customer issues.

And therein lies the problem with McLaren. Real or perceived. It is what it is.

Drifting

this^

and mclaren’s have many more problems per car than Porsche.

groundhog

Thats not what I have seen and or experienced. Porsche took a long time to sort the GT3 engine problem out and clearly legal action was on the table - hard to give them a pass, they did the minimum they had to do under law in most jurisdictions. Likewise, the GT4 3rd gear problem.. In contrast, I have personally found Mclaren to be very good - excellent service - can't speak to the US but I can to Europe and Australia (in regard to Mclaren).

The reality is their sales were up 19% Y-O-Y, this does to speak to perceptions, clearly there are far more positive than negative.

Again not based on my ownership experience - warranty work was required on my last three Porsche sports cars (coil packs x 2, water pump, pulley tensioner), plus minor things such as the PSM light coming on at random plus occasional CELS. Two years of Mclaren ownership, nothing other than standard servicing. The only Porsche that I own that has been without fault (and I don't care about the minor stuff) is the GT3 RS.

richk

^my Gt3RS has been amazing...also my 991TTS put 30k miles on that with no problems. I also drive my cars hard(track days, canyon runs, etc)

SSO

Certainly not my experience, The McLaren's have been highly reliable, the Porsches, not so much. Heres ten years of McLaren maintenance history as support: https://karenable.com/maintenance-costs-the-mclarens/

Waxer

This hits the nail on the head.

Perception is everything. Every manufacturer has missteps and issues. Individuals here can give their testimonials all day long. The fact remains inescapable that Mac public perception is poor. It just is. If you want to believe (fantasize) it’s not go ahead. Whether it stems from or caused by (which came first I’m not sure) or a mix of real or perceived abysmal resale values, quality issues, reliability issues, dealer and service issues etc. Perception is reality in the end.

Porsche public perception is quite the opposite. It just is. Full stop.

While you can argue Mac made $ on it sports car sales and they saw growth yoy Porsche, however, is not the one financially struggling and Porsche has yoy been the most profitable car company on the planet.

Mac would be smart to take a lesson from Porsche.

Yes, F1 has great reach. Mac has not been successful in F1 recently. They’re storied F1 past doesn’t win races. F1 has no connection to the cars they build and sell today.

Imho they need to race what they sell in IMSA /WEC. Ford proved decades ago this is a winning sales recipe. It improves the breed and sports car/GT car enthusiasts want to own what is raced. They could save tons of money dropping F1 and going WEC and have plenty left over for advertising and commercials to build public awareness and image. This would be my play.

Right now it seems their past decisions have turned their historic race cars into bank collateral in order to stay afloat.

Right now staying in F1 is foolish but that’s up to them.

In the end Mac doesn’t care what I think and likewise I don’t care what they do.

RobertR1

1200 workers about to be laid off at McLaren.

Jimmy-D

.

Wow- that is not good news for any one

Guest89

Writing has been on the wall

groundhog

Heres something for you to consider - VAGs reputation is in the gutter for its deliberate attempt to hide emissions - VAG and Porsche are an ethical vacuum - the Porsche effort with the 991.1 GT3 motor was as disgraceful as it was inept likewise the GT4 third gear problem.

Third rate effort and third rate outcome - many were happy to nail them to a cross in a court of law and boy did it get close. They did the minimum they were required to and only did so when the new GT3 was due.

US Motorsport is second rate - drivers second rate - manufactures second rate - completely uncompetitive in any major form of motorsports - can’t design, can’t build, can’t drive. Get over it and be real.

You haven’t owned a Mac have you? Nope - so your just guessing / likewise you haven’t read their annual report.

layoffs are rife in businesses around the world at the moment, private enterprise is taking the pain along with those seventy plus.

Go to Woking Mclaren make Porsche look like the second tier outfit they are.

I’m highly unlikely to buy a Porsche again was keen on the Spyder but Porsche couldn’t provide a delivery date +|- six months. Hopeless.

Waxer

Look. I like Macs. No I don't own one. Whether IMSA/WEC is second rate or not, if that's what your referring to is beside the point. The venues they race include Sebring, Daytona and LeMans. That's all you need to know from a motorsport standpoint imho.

Guessing? Guessing at what? Their public perception? Hmmm. Ok. Then call it a guess but its a wide spread guess among a lot of others.

No I haven't read their annual report. Don't need to or care to.

VAG is not Porsche. Yes they own them. Whether PAG or VAG is bad ethically or not is besides the point. Don't care to debate that. It's irrelevant even if I were to agree with you. Mac could be riding Unicorns with rainbows coming out of it's **** and chitting gum drops but if Mac's public perception is poor regardless and if it was was anywhere near Porsche's (the conceded bad guys for purposes of this discussion) it wouldn't be having the issues its having right now and they would have sold a lot more cars imho.

Perception is everything. Unfortunately for Mac even if hypothetically it is all factually unjustified.

Guest89

He’s talking about the FIA World Endurance Championship, which is in fact quite global in scope, and the IMSA championship, in which most drivers are foreign (which makes it difficult for IMSA to restart before July).

Interesting point, Porsche’s most decorated GT drivers - Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber, who have 3 overall Le Mans victories shared between them - requested to race in IMSA vs. the WEC after the returned to GT cars when the 919 program concluded.

rodsky

This is all getting silly. Does anyone know how hard it is to build a succesful car Company making 250K+ cars that are reliable, perform amazingly etc. Ferrari didnt really do that until arguably the 458 and that was 50+ years into their history. Lambo's were crap until recently. Mac is in their 10 year range (the 12C was really the start of the journey) and is putting out amazing cars. To the point where people are picking them over Ferrari and Porsche and Lamborghini (see 600LT, 675LT, 720S, and soon to be 765LT). And they are now dealing with the worst economy since 1929. Arm chair quarterbacks on Rennlist telling them what race series to be in etc. Saying they arent doing well etc. They were doing fine until March of this year and now they arent.. They have probably had some reliability issues but on whole pretty good for 10 years. I dont understand why people feel they have to knock them and say their customer service is bad. Actually mostly non-owners that are doing that. Which is amazing when you think about it. People who have never been customers knocking their customer service. Isnt the internet amazing. Most customers (some on here) argue the other way. i know who i'd listen to. A customer vs a non-customer.

Porsche is an amazing sports car manufacturer. Arguably the best. They have been at it for 60+years. But not without their blemishes. They didnt just jump in and back the .1 GT3 engines. it took a lot of 3rd party actions to get them to do so (see Robmypro and his actions). Remember IMS/RMS and so forth. So lets appreciate the marques for what they both bring to the table.

RoyalPink

Some of you may remember when I took delivery of my RS the PDK went out in the first 100 miles. They had the car for two weeks and replaced the valve body only. Got it back and within 200 miles it went out again. This time they had the car for another two weeks and replaced the entire PDK unit. This caused me to miss a track day at Seca. Expressing my disappointment to PAG. They gave me an additional two years of factory warranty in addition to the four years it came with. So now I have a 6 year fully transferable factory warranty. Dealer also installed about a thousand dollars of extras in parts and labor that I had ordered while the car was there. Porsche picked up the tab on that for me as well. I was more than satisfied with the outcome and the car has been perfect ever since. McLaren, Ferrari and Lamborghini offer a three year warranty when new and PAG offers four. That's confidence in your product.