ramans

I can sort of imagine a circumstance in which a CPO car arrives with less than listed brake and tyre numbers. My latest Porsche was also CPO and sat on the dealers lots for almost 6 months before I bought it. You could imagine a circumstance in which the CPO is done on car arrival, then it's test driven, or used as a loaner, etc.. That said I do feel the dealer should be making the shudder right. That should not have been missed.

On buying my car there was mine which was CPO'd and a few others that weren't so I asked the difference. What I was told was that any car that fits the rules can be CPO'd but that it add some amount of money (3K?) to the cost. The dealers don't like to do this because it makes their listings uncompetitive with other non-Porsche dealers. However PCA North America requires a certain number of cars to be CPO'd so they do it for this reason mostly. I was told if i wanted another car but wanted it CPO'd I could pay for that.

I also got when I bought the car a nice booklet about the CPO process, all the documentation etc. Then about a month later I got another thing int he mail with all the info in it as well, have you got those? Do they have escalation numbers?

TurboPan

Yup, I got all the booklets and such. Under different circumstances, it would have been a really neat present to get.
I purchased my car four days after they signed off on the CPO. The amount of miles between that and when it was delivered to me was negligible. So what was on the paperwork should have been what I received.

dmia

Sorry to hear. I'm a first time Porsche owner recently too. And I'm appalled at how PCNA is treating you. The stealership response is typical and varies greatly from dealer to dealer. But shame on PCNA for doing nothing about this. This reminds me of the circumstances Nick Murray had to go through to get Porsche to buy back his lemon 911. Considering that they are a luxury brand this is unacceptable.

I bought my first 911 last month. Car was in PA and I'm in CA. The car had less than 10k miles and looked perfect so I was going to purchase without seeing the car. I had it inspected by a local well respected indy shop (from local PCA recommendation). After talking with a friend who recommend I fly in to take a look at the car it's a lot of money I'm spending. So I booked a flight, flew in overnight, spent 2 hours going over my check list, took a quick drive, got on the plane and flew back that afternoon. In my case the car was perfect. Reading about this makes me glad I did my due diligence. Having said that if my car was CPO I'm not sure I would have done the same at the time. But after doing that and reading about your experience now, I will always go check a car before buying from now on.

Thank you for sharing your experience and I hope everything works out at the end. Good luck.

TurboPan

Thanks for the kind words, glad that your experience was better than mine. It's sad that the reality now is to not trust anyone (or any dealership), and do your own inspection with an independent third party. You would think (as did I), that the safest place to buy a "Certified Pre-Owned Porsche" would be an authorized Porsche dealer, right? Well, that clearly isn't the case, and you're right, PCNA's handling of this has been less than professional, to say the least, and has definitely affected any future purchasing decisions.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who that have reached out to me personally to share their own stories regarding CPO vehicles and dealerships. It's sad that mine isn't an isolated incident, but even moreso that PCNA knowingly lets it happen.

RollingArt

Funny thing about CPO Porsches, the brake rotors are not on the CPO check list. I believe the brake pads are, but not the rotors.

I bought a CPO Boxster about 10 years ago. While giving the car the once over I noticed the rotors had major wear to their surface. Obviously well beyond Porsches spec for replacement. I asked the salesman how this car could have possibly passed a CPO inspection with such apparent wear showing. He left and went to fetch the CPO checklist for the car. I went over the checklist and was shocked to find that Porsche leaves the brake rotors off the list. That seems totally ridiculous to leave such an important item off. They negotiated with me over it and I bought the car anyway, but jeez, really?

But a car with warped rotors that shake the whole car? Your car shouldn't have passed the driving test. Don't tell me there is no test drive on the list?

Sorry your first dabble into Porsche ownership was marred by this experience. Hopefully once this issue gets sorted out you'll have the experience you were dreaming about! Good luck.

Oh yeah, and I'd probably skip the legal battle stuff. Life's to short to let something like this consume your efforts. Take what the dealer offers you, pay the difference and start enjoying the car. Life is a learning experience.

997GT700

Social media is impactful... you need to tell all of us who the dealer is!!! Don’t be general. If any of the guys on here are local to them.. they can tell them and let them know that they are hearing bad things about their integrity and failures with their CPO program.


Call them out! Don’t just talk about your bad experience. They need to,have pressure from others and know that their reputation is being harmed by their actions.

fastcars914

^I second that.

NCporsche

If you are reluctant to share the name of the dealer, which is probably wise since this is a public forum, YELP ‘em.

Those concerned about possibly doing business with this dealer can go review YELP before their transaction.

TurboPan

Excellent idea. I have just posted my YELP review. Hopefully it will serve as a warning to anyone else who is thinking of buying a car from them.

I found one more thing that slipped past the CPO inspection recently. Since the car has just been sitting in my garage, I decided to see if they ever updated the maps. This is common practice on CPO vehicles, and from reading some of the other threads on this forum, going to the dealership for an update can be a very costly affair. Turns out my car had a 2013 update, and then a 2014 update, but nothing since then. I called up one of the dealers here and spoke with someone in the parts department who could look up the most recent update for my car. There was a 2015 update, but my car didn't have it. I was told that updates usually happened when the car was brought in for its annual inspection/service, as well as when a car was CPO'd. According to the CarFax my car had been brought in numerous times for service since the 2014 update, as well as the CPO inspection before I purchased it, but that update was never done during any of those visits/inspections. The good news is that my local dealer said that they can do it under the CPO warranty, I just need to bring the car in for a few hours so they can get it updated. Obviously I still can't drive the car, but hopefully (if and when) this all gets settled, I can get that taken care of.

NCporsche

TurboPan

It would appear that Yelp reviews don't show up to the general public unless you put in some sweat equity to post regular reviews and build up your friends network. I've never been big on social networking, but in order to get my feedback out, I've started the process. If anyone would like access to the review (or a friend request sent via Yelp), just let me know, I'd be happy to link up.

I am hoping to have an update to the neverending misery of this buying experience in the next week or two... I'll keep everyone posted!

thanks again, and happy new year!

TurboPan

Well, I've learned a lot about Yelp recently... the main thing is that Yelp gets paid to hide bad reviews. This article was very informative:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimhand.../#7415727611d1

In going to the Yelp page of the dealership I've had all the problems with, the review has magically disappeared. It doesn't matter how you sort it, it never shows up. The only way you can see the review is by going to my profile page:
https://www.yelp.com/user_details?us...uCxnu5NjTJ6Bhw

So much for Yelp being fair and unbiased....

NCporsche

TurboPan

Yeah, you have to go to the user reviews... maybe this link will work better: https://www.yelp.com/user_details_re...uCxnu5NjTJ6Bhw

What do you mean by "the judge stayed out of this case"?

NCporsche