Sort of a "what would you do" question, but if you were looking at buying from a highly rated and recommended (on here) service and repair shop who willingly provided their own PPI, would you still have a PPI done at another shop? Near as I can tell this shop has a pretty spotless reputation and is usually one of the first to be recommended to do a PPI in the area. The shop is not local to me so would not become my shop for future repairs (but could be if something catastrophic happened for a "good will" rate). Thanks!

Tim

 

When I bought mine, PO just had 60k service done. He showed me the record and it was good overall but had a few items that needed to be taken care of. I decided to get PPI done anyways. In grand scheme of things, spending $200 on PPI is nothing when you are buying this kind of car.

Do you know if the shop has looked at oil filter for any metal particles? If not, I would ask them to.

 

Chicken in the hen house? Would definitely have someone else look at it

 

Expecting an objective opinion from the place selling your car is not realistic in the same way that asking a date's parents if she's really is a nice person isn't guaranteed to get you an objective answer.

Your desire to get a PPI elsewhere may be interpreted as you refusing to trust/believe the seller, so how you handle the process will probably affect their demeanor. Ultimately, they're professional and should recognize that you just want an objective opinion.

 

I went through this when I bought my M3 some years ago.
Seller had his own BMW shop write a PPI. I had heard of the shop, but explained that I had my own guy, and I would pay for "my guy" to do another PPI.

Worked out fine, and the selling dealer should certainly understand it's nothing personal.

 

Thanks for confirming what I was thinking! If they react badly to my request of a third party PPI I should probably walk away from the deal anyhow. If I decide to pursue the car further, I should probably take off their license plate frame before taking it elsewhere for the PPI lol.

I did talk to them regarding the IMS and they said they cut open the oil filter on all water cooled Porsches they service to look for debris and they did not find anything in the filter (they did a service on the car before putting it up for sale [oil, filter, air filter, belts, spark plugs, etc]).

 

I did not have a PPI done because the dealer that sold me my 2002 Targa is a local import specialist that I was dealing with for the 4th time. They had always been up front and honest with me and had serviced it for the previous owner the past 5 years since it had 40k miles.

 

^ Sounds like you trust the dealer - that's awesome, and rare.

I don't know the laws in MA, but in California, used cars are sold as-is unless any warranty is otherwise specified. Regardless of my relationship with the dealership, they have no legal obligation to stand behind the used cars they sell. Paying for a third-party PPI shouldn't be interpreted as an indication that you do or don't trust the seller; it's a way to identify the existence of issues with the car that the buyer wants to be aware of. Performing regular service on a car is approached with a different mindset than a PPI - the tech(s) performing the PPI are on the hunt for anything that looks suspect, while the tech doing an oil change is just doing an oil change.

Dealers (at least the good ones) aren't out to push a known-bad car on you - but they are in the business to move inventory. Having a PPI performed by the seller is akin to having your home inspection performed by the seller or the seller's realtor...it just doesn't make sense to have the party whose primary interest is closing the sale perform an inspection that has the potential to scuttle the sale.

 

Not that they did this to be shady or anything, but if they just changed the oil/filter, it's going to be a lot less likely that another indy will find anything on the filter. The indy that did my PPI complained a little bit that he would have preferred the seller not have done a recent change so he could get a more realistic look at what might be on there (if anything).

I don't think you necessarily have any reason to suspect anything bad here, but you probably won't be able to independently verify the claim that the filter was clean.

 

Get an independent PPI. End of story.

 

If you were getting divorced, would you trust your wife's lawyer to give you advice? They might be nice & honest, but you are on the opposite side of the deal as them. Get an independent PPI.

 

By the way, their answer on the IMS Bearing question makes me a little uncomfortable. If they are knowledgeable about the 996, then they know about the issue. Their answer is a bit cavalier - "Well, we didn't see anything in the filter when we changed the oil." I would have expected a more in-depth answer like "We asked the prior owner about it (or we've always serviced this car so) we don't believe the bearing has ever been upgraded. But, when we serviced the car, the oil filter was free of debris, so there is no indication that it is failing. But, you should check the filter for debris at each oil change, and then when the car is ready for a new clutch, you should strongly consider upgrading the IMS bearing as a precaution." Maybe they did discuss it more and you summarized. But, since the IMS Bearing issue can easily be dealt with nowadays, you just don't want to ignore it or you unnecessarily create risk. They should have discussed that with you.

 

That sounds to me like the 30K mile service being performed at 40K miles.

 

That second quote wasn't me, it was porsche951 . It has 70K miles on it. They have the full service records for the car (3 owner, dealer serviced since new) but I haven't as of yet requested them (I do have the PPI since I figured that wasn't that many pages to scan/fax).

 

Yes, I drastically summarized our conversation regarding the IMS bearing (I figured why bore you all . They have full service records since new (dealer serviced since new). They volunteered the oil filter results before I even questioned regarding the IMS bearing issues and we had an in depth conversation regarding it.