Dr. G7

$300 maybe is reasonable. Even though twice the price of Mercedes. Someone has to pay for the Fivebucks (coined by Jerry Seinfeld) cappuccino. Loaner car while two hour service? I chill in the luxurious wasting room. Fresh baked cookies. I can wash and vacuum my car. Good exercise.

hotrod2448

Loaner is not even an option for basic service at my local. It needs to be in at least overnight and typically planned at least two weeks out. For me that has only applied for warranty work when something is broken. Hard to plan two weeks out for things breaking.

rdboxster

I agree what you were quoted is ridiculous and I likely would have the same response. I am sure labor costs vary throughout the country but the supplies should be similar. I had the 30k service completed early at my home dealer so to save over what the dealer in Florida wanted where I spend a couple of months in the winter. I believe the savings was around 25%. These are not inexpensive vehicles to buy or to maintain. It's the cost to play but it needs to be within reason. If the dealers in your area are charging this much more than in other areas time to find a good Indy. Maybe even consider if Porsche is the right vehicle. There are lots of nice choices. This will be the thought process I will go through when it's time to replace the Cayenne. With the winter travels south we are putting on about 18k miles a year. Maintenance costs and depreciation may make the Cayenne a bit too costly. Tough to switch as it's such a great road and utility vehicle.

raydog9379

Prob. depends on dealer and their size. By me the dealer is huge, so they gave me a new Panamera 4s as a loaner for an oil change on my Cayenne SEH. I booked it a couple days ahead. had it overnight, and had fun with it. I learned the hard way on my Infiniti (same large dealer), and sat for hours and hours for a simple $40 (full synthetic btw., so right there you can see Porsche pricing is a joke) oil change only to be told there was a major transmission issue and they had to scramble to get me a car as no loaners in the fleet were left. I was going on vacation the next day too for 2 weeks and needed to haul the 5 of us and luggage so needed a similar size SUV. Ultimately dealer yanked a new car off the lot for us after I explained the situation and funnier yet is that we got home from vacation and the dealer called and asked to swap out the loaner since someone bought it sight unseen.

Mrg02D

My indie charges $225 for oil change. Not too bad considering he specializes in Porsche and Lamborghini. He’s also really into cars, which helps me trust more.

If it weren’t so messy, or putting a lot more miles on it,I’d probably give it a go.

g8tor20

It all boils down to the fact that dealers are out of their f'in minds.

I'm in Palm Beach County where everything is expensive but my indy (works on high end European cars) is about $240 which includes an extra bottle of Motul for me to stash in the trunk (since Turbos burn thru oil, I typically add a quart somewhere along the way).

Dr. G7

No. It is not the fault of the dealers. It is the sheep like customers. Also, some Porsche owners may take pride in that "my car costs $750 for an oil service." Similar to bragging rights of Polypharma, of taking twenty four++ meds. And like I said at the beginning, then there are the "$750 is nothing for an oil service compared to [insert car name here] cost $1200 for an oil change...they had to drop the thingamajig and replace the doohickey. To me, that means a poor design. What else did they engineer poorly?

Dr. G7

My point exactly. Similar size Infinity $40. Porsche is >$800.

It has to be the 24K gold flake oil and fivebucks cappuccino .

Mrg02D

Its actually unobtanium...

Just need to find a good Indy. I’d join a local Porsche club just so that I can ask around. Larger cities probably have at least one that knows his ish. Smaller cities, probably not.

Dr. G7

Madison, Wisconsin area has a dearth of Porsche cars/enthusiasts. . Closest is Chicago. 4 hours away

lightemup67

Dr. I'm in Chicago. For $800 I'll drive up to you, change your oil, and buy you the most expensive drink at Starbucks.

Or you could do it yourself and use the savings to take a weekend vacation.

Dr. G7

lightemup67, I like your sense of humor. Do you have any recommendations for a Chicago area indy? I coming to O'Hara (shudder) in two weeks. Thank you

rdboxster

Try the Central Wisconsin Porsche club for a local Indy. If not Madison I suspect there is a good one in Milwaukee. http://cwi.pca.org/

Quadcammer

Shame that more owners are not doing these services themselves. Its an easy job, parts are cheap, and tools needed are minimal. I get not everyone is comfortable, so maybe it makes sense to sign up for you local PCA chapter and see if you can find another member willing to help/teach you.

If I added up all the money I saved on doing my own work in the past 15 years of owning german cars, it would easily pay for a nice 997.2 carrera S. That, to me, is worth the time and energy.

Tom M

When I had my Boxster and was involved with the SF Bay Area Boxster group we'd have "work on cars" gatherings from time to time where the group would work on their cars at the same time. Others would just stop by to enjoy the camaraderie or provide assistance. Most of the time it was just doing regular maintenance items like oil changes or brake flushes. These gathering gave a lot of owners who had never worked on their own cars the opportunity, knowledge and confidence to do so.