I have a 997.2 which was originally sold and registered in the UK, but I subsequently brought it to Malaysia. I did not realise it at the time, but the local official dealers refuse to service the car as it is a private import. Luckily, there are many 3rd party high quality Porsche technicians here, so servicing has not been a problem.

The problem is that so far I have not been able to install Malaysian/South East Asian maps into the PCM 3 navigation system even though I have original Porsche DVD containing the map data. No one has any experience with this and the information I have been getting has been very confusing.

The latest advice I have received from a 3rd party provider is that they now have the means (latest PIWIS??) to do so. But, it seems Porsche advises that it will be necessary to upgrade to PCM 3.1 and at the same time downgrade engine tuning to 'B' settings (whatever that means) that are specially configured for Malaysian conditions (i.e. fuel grade, ambient temperature, oils etc). I am a little confused by this as I cannot see why, this needs to be done. How can engine configuration affect map data? Firstly, is there such a configuration? Secondly, what has PCM got to do with performance configurations? Thirdly, anyone else knows the details of changing map data for PCM 3?

Any concrete information on this will be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

With the 997.2 Porsche moved to a hard drive based navigation system, rather than one based on DVD's. My US car has a built in 40GB hard drive; no Nav DVD's came with the car. I'm guessing the Nav DVD that you have must be for the 997.1.

The obvious solution would be to go to a Porsche dealer and have them reprogram your hard drive. But since they apparently won't work on your car you'll have to hope that one of your 3rd party techs will be able to get the Nav software for SE Asia and load it for you.

 

A very odd arrangement. I could see the dealer service refusing to work on the car under warranty, since the warranty doesn't apply in Malaysia if it was a UK delivered warranty. But if you are paying the customary costs yourself, the car is not something that fell from space, its a Porsche built car, that is 99% identical to the one's sold in Malaysia brand new.

 

Back in the day when "grey market" cars were being regularly imported to the US, I heard of situations where franchised dealers would absolutely refuse to work on those cars, both for liability reasons and in effect to "punish" the purchaser for going outside the system. It sounds like there may be something similar going on with the OP, although it's certainly silly not to accept the business just to reprogram a Nav.

 

When I shipped my 3 month old US car to the UK when I was duty stationed for the Navy, my 3 year 36k bumper to bumper automatically switched to a 1 year 12k (clearly stated in vw's warranty booklet). I'm surprised the local dealer won't service it though (are you in KL? The new showroom looks awesome. Was there last year for F1 race). I expected they would at least agree to service it, but offer no warranty support. Just curious though, going the route you did must have saved major $. A new 991 was going for $300k US last year.

 

I'm not sure how a dealer would have any additional liability over any other service shop servicing a car.
Its sounds like a hospital saying: if you were not born here, we won't treat you.

It smells a bit anti-trust to me to have collusion between the car maker (eg Porsche North America) and a dealer's service side (Bobs Porsche Eastside) (a made up example) where the manufacturer (franchiser) can require the franchisee (dealer) to turn away profitable business as a mater of franchise policy. Any lawyers here that can speak to that. Of course in the far east the laws are different.

But then, I'd not want anyone to service my car against their will. Go somewhere you are welcomed and be sure to advertise which dealer told you to 'shove off' and which independent garage was willing to 'do the work'.