95_993

So I called the dealer parts dept to check the price and availability of the Porsche OEM battery maintainer.

Me: I want to check the price and availability on a battery maintainer/charger?

Parts guy: What kind of car is it for?

Me: Uh, i thought they were universal and plug into the cigarette lighter. Okay...it's a 993.

Parts Guy: What year?

Me: '95

Parts Guy: What model...C2, C4 or Turbo

Me: (loosing patience on the phone) Uh, it's a C2

Parts Guy: What's the VIN #?

Me: <click>

Todd B

You know those older cars are have different plugs

But seriously save yourself some money, and don't buy the Porsche version, Ctek makes the charger for porsche. It plugs into the cigarette lighter.

http://www.ctek.com

several places carry them now. Workes great.

Cactus

Get the Porsche jobbie that plugs in the cig lighter. I like mine.....and nice conversation with the parts knucklehead.

timothymoffat

Unfortunately the "partsman" seems to be a dying breed.

chris walrod

What I do after a set of questioning like this, I continue with needless details, a cesspool of information, if you will

Color
Condition
air pressure in tires

Chuck W.

For about $40ish on ebay you can get a regular Battery Tender. For another $4.00 you get a cigarette lighter adapter. $45 and you are good to go.

logan2z

Save yourself a headache and call Sunset Porsche. I ordered the OEM battery maintainer from them a few weeks back and it was about $47. Plus the parts guy didn't need my VIN, my SSN or the diameter of my left ******** in order to take the order.

travanx

Sounds about right. And when I go there in person I look really young and the guys looked pissed off that I am asking for parts for my car. I am about to turn 30 but look 19 I have been told when getting out of the car. So yeah I can only imagine jumping through years, models and vin hoops. What recession?

Garth S

.
. .... I usually get by with just quoting the average diameter plus two standard deviations

To be fair to some parts guys, certain inventory/order systems will not let them enter until all this crap is keyed in: this is the case at the local Toyota dealer for every first time customer - and PO's the parts mgr as much as the customers.

95_993

Follow up...

I called Sunset as a follow up call. Knew the price right off the top of his head and described the 2 versions in detail.

I ended up driving past my local parts store and picked a small Schumacher unit ($26) and added the cigarette plug myself (made from a lighter plug extension cord I had laying around collecting dust). It's been working great. Went into charge mode for a few hours, but then switched over to green and has been floating ever since.

dcdude

FWIW, I had a fairly new Battery Tender die on me recently. I was pissed,'cuz I thought I bought the best product out there. Besides, even if you get a good one, you still have to rig up some deal to route the cable into the trunk from below. There's a good thread on this somewhere that details that process. But for $47 the Porsche one is great and the cig lighter arrangement is awfully convenient.

Sounds like many new P-car dealers are struggling with the "service" concept. I try to do mail order 100% of the time, which means Sunset and Caliber Motors or AutohausAZ for the M-B. Still looking for a good guy Toyota deal. Just called around for the best price locally last time I needed something for that car.

matt777

These are small and pretty slick. I would get the harness with the 8 mm ring terminals and permanently install it (the harness and not the charger).

roche

i bought a schumacher like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-SEM...m/B0009IBJAS/2

i picked it up at meijer for about $25, it has the clamps to hook on to the battery, the semi-permanent hook up that attaches to the terminals and plugs in with a male/female connector and also the cigarette lighter adapter.

i keep mine plugged in with the cigarette lighter. works great.

FGL28

I got mine from Sears, works great.

davesnothere

Not necessarily true. I run the cable from my Battery Tender out through the top of the trunk. When stored, I manually close the latch on the trunk so as to fool the alarm, and then press the trunk closed until it clicks only once. No pressure on the tender cable and no trunk or interior lights on either.

Yes yes, the cable may drag on the paint, not for use with car covers, etc. This is why I said, "not necessarily true".

- Dave