http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...ions_lifestyle

Found this on Wall Street Journal.

Power Negotiating After the Warranty Expires


The diagnosis of his breakdown was a broken "intermediate-shaft" bearing in the engine, a breakage similar to failures reported by other owners of certain Porsche models built between 1996 and 2005. Complaints about engine failures in Boxsters and 911s produced in this period are common on enthusiast websites. The failures have prompted complaints to federal regulators and at least one lawsuit.

The seven-year warranty Mr. Valore bought with the car had expired. But he says he pressed the service managers at Stevinson Imports in Littleton, Colo. to plead his case for Porsche to share some of the repair costs.

"I said, 'Look, guys, I have taken care of the car and brought it in to you. I have done my part," Mr. Valore says. "This should not have happened."

 

Link doesnt work for me....

 

Power Negotiating After the Warranty Expires

 

A strong case for good relations with the dealership service department.

 

Whoever wrote that didn't do their homework very well.

The correct MY range would be POST 993. Starting with 986, 996 (and other M96/M97 variants) years 1998-2008 (up until the DFI engine was introduced).

 

While the underlying slant of the story sounds good, it's way too general to really take anything useful from regarding "power negotiating"... First off, I'd like to know what Mr. Valore's occupation is; Is he an attorney perhaps? I'd think this would have a major effect on the outcome of the "negotiations"...Obviously, your standing as a good customer will carry some weight (i.e. if you've bought your last 4 brand new cars from that dealer) but I don't believe it's going to get you a new engine...seems to me there was some other kind of "leverage" there

 

First off you're commenting on a thread from two years ago which doesn't hold the same weight, as the dynamics have most likely changed to some degree since the class action lawsuit was settled since then.

 

Actually it used to be quite common for dealers to go to bat with PCNA for their repeat customers. Now that many (most?) of the Porsche dealers are owned by chains, however, I hear less of this and I expect that is at least partially because there is more turnover where you won't be dealing with the same people for 10+ years.

While not a new engine, the dealer we bought our 996 from replaced the entire front end (diff, steering, brakes, suspension, etc.. (basically everything except the body/tub)) trying to fix a noise we complained about but they never could identify. They dealt with PCNA when they didn't want to allow the work and got it covered. That was our first Porsche and we hadn't even had them service it yet.

If I remember correctly, all in there was close to $20k of work they did for parts and labor. I'm no lawyer, had no leverage over them, and didn't have to fight. We just took it in and reported the problem and they kept us apprised on the status.

Unfortunately that dealer has since been bought by a chain and while I was able to buy my Cayenne from the same salesman 12 years later, that was one of his last sales and my experience with the dealer went sharply downhill after he left.

Though to be fair to the chains, another dealer in my area was bought by a different chain that came in and straightened out a lot of the BS that used to go on there (damaging customer cars, shady sales practices, etc..).

 

My local Audi and Mercedes dealers who are all part of the same group are pretty good about either fighting on behalf of their customers or just eating the cost. However they just got bought by Autonation.