So I bought a non-CPO 2011 CS a little over a month ago. In general I'm very happy with the vehicle but have an issue that I'm having little luck in resolving.

The Porsche dealership originally did a CPO inspection and found they'd need to replace the water pump (due to evidence of a leak some time in the past) and put new brakes all around for it to meet CPO standards. Since that would have raised the price of the vehicle outside what it should realistically sell for based on mileage they opted not to go down that road. I was OK with that as it's work I can do myself. Everything else on the car was marked as a "Pass" on the inspection report, of which I have a copy.

The ongoing problem part is that on the drive home I noticed that the PCM would not go into night mode or change brightness. The night mode problem seems to have been resolved by charging the battery. I also paid to have the PCM updated to the most recent version and it went from v2.40 to v2.47. However it still does not change brightness and seems stuck on +6 as the whites are very bright and it's way too bright at night.

The used car manager has just told me they will not fix it even though the paperwork says the PCM was working. He's saying this not because the car was sold as-is but because the salesman told me that the update may not take - go figure. I'm assuming at this point that since the PCM version shows as v2.47 that the update took just fine and that everything but the brightness setting seems to work. If I had known the PCM had an issue I would have either had it written into a "due bill" like I did with the PCM upgrade or would have passed on the vehicle since I know it may not be cheap to fix. To add to the problem the dealer is 2+ hours away.

I've left a message for the dealership GM saying I'd like to amicably resolve this but I'm willing to go to the BBB and/or Social Media - but I'd prefer not to go down that road.

Looking for other ideas/suggestions for a mutually agreeable solution other than I should have checked every aspect of the PCM before signing on the dotted line since I already know that.

 

Was the CPO checklist included in the sale documents? Does it say "Check PCM brightness"? If so, I think Porsche should honor it.

If it wasn't included in the sale documents, or doesn't say "Check PCM brightness", I wouldn't expect anything. Did you get a PPI by anyone else? Maybe they would help you out.

In the end, my advice is to pull the unit anyhow. We swapped out my wife's PCM for a Kenwood unit and it works great (Even has a matching orange color). It was like $2k fully installed, was a pain in the butt to get working right, but is quite an upgrade.

 

You are expecting far too much detail. The CPO inspection has a single line with pass/fail check-boxes which reads "PCM (radio, telephone, CD, DVD, navigation system)". I'd guess that if it shows an image they feel it works.

If everything else works and the only issue is the brightness I may just put some sort of a neutral density filter over the display if I can't reach any other sort of a resolution. One thing i do know is that I won't be spending any big $$$ to put in a new unit.

 

By "matching orange color" I assume her's is a 955 or 957? Tom's is a 958 and the unit is a bit more integrated with the dash (MFD) and memory stuff. Like most newer cars these days, its not as simple of an equation as it used to be.

 

So Suncoast wants $3750 for the PCM 3.1 (+$525 if it's not BOSE or Burm ).

Looks like on eBay you can pick up a US version in the $1500 range.

 

I stopped by my local dealer on the way home and the Service Manager was kind enough to do some troubleshooting and hooked up the PIWIS. No ability to change the brightness so that was a bust. We also did a factory reset on it with similar results. Since I've got multiple keys he said I might try using one of the other keys to unlock the vehicle after locking it with mine to see if that had any effect since so many setting are store in the keys but no luck there either.

I'll probably go the cheap route and find some tinted screen protector that doesn't interfere with the touchscreen if I get no resolution from the selling dealer.

My guess at this point is that it's a bad cable or some such since everything else seems to work.

 

Sorry to hear... I hate dealing with dealers in general, especially Porsche dealers, they seem they are doing my favors when I go there to spend my $$$, aside from getting the warranty work.

Learned my lesson, everything must be in writing, the verbal agreement doesn't really work unless it's recorded.

Hope you get this all sorted out.... Good luck...