Just brought my car in for the first time to fix a coolant leak and received a Boxster loaner. The dealer has a limited number of Boxster loaners and after they run out it Enterprise Rent a Car.

BTW...Boxster Loaners are FUN!

 

My dealer offers Boxters, Cayennes, and when they run out, its off to Enterprise. Had my C4S in for service yesterday and arranged ahead of time to drive a Cayenne. It was my first chance to really drive the vehicle other than on a short demo. It was a fun car and clearly capable of spirited driving. After all, it's a Porsche. However, there is an awful lot of variety in the SUV segment. Vehicles at a lower price mark that come with free service through the warranty period would be more appealing for the utility car.

 

I usually trailer my car to the dealer so I don't get a loaner, but they give out enterprise cars, everything from Buicks to Land Rovers, all hit or miss. They also have a few Cayennes they use. I think the Cayennes are more of a marketing tool that just a loaner ;-)

 

Went in for the 15K service today. They have 2 Cayenne loaners on order, but for now, its the Enterprise Focus

 

Fahren,

I had a long talk with my service manager about this earlier this week while my car was in the shop to swap a part. He said that they used to have a couple of Boxsters as loaners but stopped doing that. He said it isn't a national Porsche policy one way or the other, but rather up to the SALES side of the dealership, in other words they have to give him some cars to use as loaners for a period of time and then take them back and try to sell them later. If the SALES manager doesn't want to do that, they don't have to. My service manager put in a request for a Cayenne or two and a Boxster or two as loaners recently and was turned down again, despite the fact that the dealership now has over 20 Cayennes just sitting on the lot (some of which are unsold 2003 models with virtually no options)

He said that if I wanted to see Porsche loaner cars that I should write a letter to the owner of the dealership and the sales manager complaining that when my $$$ Porsche is in the shop for repair that I don't want a Neon or Pontiac Grand Am as a loaner.

If you think about it, loaners give people the chance to drive another car. I mean if I had a loaner Cayenne for the day I could let my wife drive, maybe even show it to a friend or two who might ultimately end up buying one. It seems to me that the depreciation that the dealer will take on selling a car that is a loaner later on will be more than offset by the increased sales through referrals coming from a loaner car.

I'll wager that most dealerships have no way to track this, nowhere on their surveys does it ask "Did you buy this car after driving a service loaner" or something similar.

So, if Porsche really has no "official" policy on this for their dealerships that is probably why you see a variation from dealer to dealer. I know the local BMW dealer not only has BMW's as loaners but they have a window decal in the front and back glass that says "Another fine loaner from XYZ BMW Dealer", so they are getting some advertising out of it too, as well as an indication that if your BMW is in the shop, you'll get another to drive.

What's that phrase penny-wise but dollar foolish? Something of that nature...

 

Jean-Marc,

Doesn't this somewhat depend on how you view buying a car?

For example, if you have cable TV and for 3 days some month your cable is out, sure you could watch over the air TV or maybe even satellite, but don't most people expect to get a credit on their bill for those 3 days because their service was out?

Likewise, if you pay monthly for your car, don't you expect to be able to drive it on any given day of the month? If it is in the shop for 2 days, are they going to give you 2 days off on your car payment? Probably not, so providing you with a loaner would be the least they could do IMHO for good customer service and compensate the user for the loss of use of their vehicle.

I would assume that dealers that treat you with courtesy are more likely to get repeat business. As for not providing loaners because you didn't buy your car there I think that's pretty bogus. They are making $$$ off the service repair, if not from you, then from Porsche, and they are affected by Porsches reputation overall. If Porsche develops a rep for being in the shop all the time and having shoddy customer service, then sales will falter. Now if they want to segregate and say if you bought your car from us you get a Porsche to drive but if you didn't then you get a neon to drive, I could see where they might want to do that as a "policy" statement to reward the people who buy cars from their dealership, but on the other hand all it does is penalize those who don't, so those who don't either don't take their cars into that dealer for service and service $$$ are lost, or they buy something else entirely because the customer is left with the impression that they are being penalized for some reason.

This sort of problem comes up in software licensing all the time, how do you reward your repeat customers without penalizing those who aren't. Personally, I think you can find a better way of doing that than taking it out on your loaner program.

 

I don't think they give loaners in the UK but they do pick up your car and give it back on a flat bed at your home.

 

This is exactly why we have Boxsters and Cayennes available for service customers. If a sports car customer is booked for service, I'll give him/her a Cayenne to drive. And if a Cayenne customer comes in, or the owner of an older Boxster, I'll make sure they get the new Boxster.

I know for a fact I've made two Cayenne sales and a Boxster sale based on being able to spend a day with a service loaner.

Well worth the costs of putting a couple of new Porsches into loaner duty. As for dealers that choose not to do it, I think they're shooting themselves in the foot. PCNA will pitch in money to buy down the cost of each loaner. It's actually better to have cars as service laners than as demonstrators. With demos, we have to discount cars when we sell them. With loaners, we have to discount as well, but PCNA has paid us for each car, so we can recoup some of the gross.

 

In South Florida most dealers will give you a loaner...the best was my old BMW dealer. I used to have an old M3 and took it in for service (under warranty) on a Friday. The New 7 series had just been released. Since my repairs were going to keep the car there for 2-3 days, they lent me a brand new 745iL for the weekend. As a result two of my friends bought 7 series' from that dealer.

 

My C4S was in for nearly three weeks last May and I had the use of an A4 1.8T for the duration.

 

My N.Carolina dealer let me use a Boxster for the daywhilst they serviced my Cayenne TT. They were most accommodating.

 

It does depend on the view you have indeed. I have no desire to have my dealer amortize a few cayennes a year on my maintenance bill - there's no free lunch remember.

I can understand your point however. Actually on my wife's Aui Allroad, both turbos leaked and needed replacement. It's a leased car and they kept it for 2 weeks. They gave us a Jetta in exchange for 2 weeks. I called Audi and asked for a break on my lease. they told me to pound sand, I said fine, next car will be a mercedes - just voting with my feet.

Again, I do understand your point - I just don't think that we should take everything for granted and instead see it as a plus when we get a nice loaner. You know, even if I got a Boxster, it still is worth 50% of my car so what should I expect? A 911 like mine? It's just not my expectation.

To answer your question about what we get, I get Cayennes or Mazda 6s.

Take care
JM

 

The service loaner policy of many dealerships is bogus. I have a turbo, and I certainly don't expect a turbo as a loaner, but I think a boxster, cayenne, or comparable vehicle from another brand is to be expected when you turn in a $130,000 car for a $750 service. I go to BH Porsche and they comply with a whole fleet of boxsters, cayennes, and audis for loaner cars.

McKenna on the other hand offered me a ride in their crappy shuttle, and Rusnak offered me a grand am. I'm gonna stick with BH Porsche!

My dad has a CL600 and just took it to service @ BH Mercedes - guess what they gave him as a loaner? He turns in a $120,000 car and he get's a Ford Windstar minivan. He is an easygoing guy, but even he admitted that it was a little embarassing to drive around in a minivan.

 

turns out the bill for my repairs was north of $10k. service depts of most dealers are huge profit centers for the dealerships. competition for sales in so. ca is so heated--me thinks if 2/3s of the porsche dealers offer boxsters/cayennes as loaners, the rest should follow suit. when i suggested they (newport autocenter) should offer boxsters as loaners they talked-down to me in a contemptuous tone with quick, rehearsed comebacks.

i empathize with your dad. that week, i had appointments with the decision maker of a fortune 500 co. needless to say, i borrowed my partner's benz for the duration of the tours...sorry, but dodge neon=looser

 

My dealer offers either Infiniti G35 sedan or Mini Cooper.