will Porsche ever offer free scheduled maintenance?
 

Last year I bought a new VW Golf TDI and it came with 3 year/36,000 mile free scheduled maintenance.
Will we ever see Porsche offer free scheduled maintenance, if more of the competition offer it in the future?

I for one hope they never do that. The only thing the free maintenance has ever accomplished is lower standards of dealer service, directly related to lowered negotiated payments from the manufacturer to the dealer for services they normally charge full price at retail. Besides, nothing is really free now, is it? All it means is that the cost is included in the purchase price.

Same applies to the government.. Haha
But I agree with rpilot. Plus, free maintenance on a Golf costs VW and their service deptartments very little, whereas free maintenance would cost Porsche a lot more on their cars.

Also, they know people who buy high end cars like Porsches won't mind paying for their maintenance.

it's every 10k. how cheap can someone get..// the free mait is a joke because all the expensive stuff comes after the 3 oil changes. lol.

On the subject of maintenance, I learned something interesting during my last service visit. If I understood him correctly, my service advisor told me that he was not paid an annual salary or an hourly rate. His income was evidently based on the total amount of billings he generated. First of all, that explained why he was working 60hr weeks. Secondly, it explained why many, if not most service advisors will attempt to bill as much as possible. I recall a previous annual service visit where I was billed for a quart of oil even after advising them I had recently performed my own oil change. A free scheduled maintenance program would help to alleviate this bill early and often mentality.

I completely agree.

Interesting problem I've never heard of before. Neither the commission arrangement nor the "bill early and often mentality". Certainly not true at my dealer where, if anything, I get freebies not offered at dealerships for lesser cars.

In which country do you live?

Gary

You paid for that free maintenance when you paid for the car. Free maintenance is a way of the lessor making sure that the used car it will eventually sell for a profit was maintained.

P cars do not require much in the way of maintenance The oil change is not that expensive.

Porsche also seems to be one of the few manufacturers that doesn't at least throw in the first service (oil change) for free...The hourly rate would explain the long hours he was willing to work, but are the service guys really are on COMMISSION? I hope that's not the case, however incentive based performance seems to be the fix-all promoted by most business analysts. At our company we give "incentives" to technical people ... for doing their jobs!

Edit: Giving this a little more thought, they probably DO give the service writers an incentive on the overall work they write up which would help accomplish getting them to sign up for Saturday service write ups (can't force an employee to work more than 40 hours). It would also plant the thought in their minds about maximizing service dollars: Let's see, oil service with the "vehicle inspection", we'll just round the labor up to 2 hours, plus parts and taxes, that will be $400!

As little as five years ago, most of the premium brands all offered free maintenance for a set period, usually 4 years/50K miles. Mercedes was the first to drop it, then Audi, pretty sure Lexus did too. Only ones I know that still have are BMW (and it's a major part of their marketing), VW, and MINI.
It's a toss up. Of course the cost of it is priced into the car, it's not really "free." It does encourage people to maintain their cars properly, but the intervals are also spaced out long enough so that it doesn't really cost the manufacturer that much. On a MINI for instance, you usually get a whopping two services during your 36K mile free period, glorified oil changes that would have only cost $100 or less to begin with.
Although it would be a nice perk for Porsche to throw in at least the first oil service, as others have noted, they're far enough apart that it shouldn't strain the budget too much. My guess is that less manufacturers will offer free maintenance in the future, not more.

I'm in the country of SoCal and deal with Newport Beach Porsche, where money is no object. Car on order though is back to Circle.

The service advisors have been on commission (most also get a modest base salary or hourly rate) for a long time here and this is not just Porsche, it is true for the vast majority (if not all) of the franchised car dealerships in this country (USA). What separates the good dealerships from bad is how their service advisors are compensated. The best ones compensate their advisors for everything, including items billed as warranty repairs to the manufacturer at a flat rate. The somewhat lesser ones compensate their advisors at a lesser % rate for manufacturer paid vs retail rate repairs. The bottom tier usually compensates their advisors only for the actual retail dollars and/or they pay their advisors based on how many specific services they can sell every time, which is what leads to the specific "bill early and often mentality" referenced above. The manufacturer paid maintenance IMO has tended to push dealership compensation structures for their service advisors towards the bottom tier.

Everything costs money and nothing is free in the end. It is also the reason whenever I have looked for a car I don't always go with the lowest bidder. I tend to ask people / look at reviews for how the service department treated them vs the sales. Any salesperson can be nice for 5 minutes. It's how the people who work in the service department treat their customers is how I base my buying decisions on, because it closer reflects the true nature of a dealership's ethos.

Also, as Riley mentioned, if you really read the maintenance schedules you will find that most cars these days need very little service in those first 30 or 40 or 50 K miles and the major services on the schedule will usually (not always) be after the free maintenance schedule has expired. For me, saving (by which I mean paying it in the price of the car) a thousand or two on a 100K+ car over 4 years is not worth the headaches of dealing with a dealership who has to resort to less than ideal methods to make money. As usual, YMMV.

I must be in the minority since I prefer not to pay Porsche servicing costs. I brought my Spyder into the dealership for the one year service last year. I was told the complete service was $600+ so I decided to just get the oil change since I already made the effort to get there and passed other inspections they routinely perform. I walked out with a $250 bill. With my former 997 RS, I never went to the dealer for service as you can get the oil changed for about 1/3 the cost Porsche would charge. The only time the dealer now sees my cars is for warranty work.

I also have an M3 and am a big fan of the included maintenance. I realize it is built into the price, but I think it is a selling point for the brand. As a result, BMW can make up their costs on the maintenance with increased sales.

Circle has a good reputation. Don't know anything about NB Porsche, but I grew up there and visit fairly often. It's not a city where you'll get much sympathy complaining of the cost of an oil change. Or the cost of a Porsche for that matter.

I'm surprised at the attitude you report though. We have so many choices in Southern California that I've found most of the dealers, in fact most of the businesses in all fields, to be very conscious of the competition for my affection. Maybe you need to check some reviews before deciding where to get your service.

Gary

I can't imagine how one encourages the buyer of a $150k car to maintain it beyond ... well, common sense. On one of the rare occasions when I considered and declined owning a BMW, I noticed they do not include the cost of 'free' maintenance in the price of the car. They just list it as a lump sum under options. Whether I could decline that option was not evident and I didn't bother inquiring because the test drive made us uninterested.

That's where the common sense arises. I made enough money to buy this car, or at least the down payment for most people, and I am supposed to be impressed with paying for my oil changes three years in advance? And -- again for most people -- adding that amount to the loan so the interest paid is explicit? Yeah. That's appealing.

Gary