Whenever Porsche builds a “halo” supercar, their main excuse is that they lose money and its new technology filters down across their cars for years, even decades to come. Well, that may have been true with the 959 but it certainly is NOT true for the just under $1 Million dollar Spyder 918 Hybrid which now sells for no less than $2 Million per copy.
What Porsche built is an amazing car but it is so far beyond the grasp of the average Porsche driver. I never thought I would be writing “average Porsche driver” because there is nothing “average” about Porsche owners! That Spyder 918 is so far beyond the grasp of the normal Porsche owner/driver, that the Spyder is a monumental study in failure.
There are two types of failure. One, the hopeful failure of such complicated technologies to ever hit the streets on a large scale, and two, the collapse of reliable service at many Porsche dealerships! This is SERIOUS, folks!
As recently as two years ago I was getting great service at one of my favorite Porsche dealerships, that being at Porsche of Fort Wayne also known as the O’Daniel Automotive Group. Let me say at the outset NEVER BUY A CAR, NEW OR USED FROM THE O’DANIEL AUTOGROUP on the north side of Fort Wayne, Indiana! NEVER! Certainly don’t buy a Porsche from O’Daniel.
Two years ago before the onslaught of the Porsche Spyder 918 Supercar, Porsche service at that dealership was outstanding. It was among my favorite. I would often save work on my Cayenne Turbo and have it done at O’Daniel Porsche because it was done well and it was a tad more affordable than the great service I get in the Greater Phoenix Area at both dealerships. Porsche of North Scottsdale has always provided me with excellent service and the brand spanning new dealership at Porsche of Chandler is developing into another excellent service provider.
But if you own a Porsche in northern Indiana, forget it. Likewise, if you own a Porsche in Boise, Idaho and have to rely upon Porsche of Boise also known as the Lyle Automotive Group and Lyle Pearson, you might as well take a match and burn your Porsche because you will get lousy service at either!
I would never own a Porsche in Idaho. In fact, Porsche should suffer demise in ownership and interest if what I have experienced at either location indicates a trend in deterioration in service at Porsche dealerships across the nation. Porsche of North America and Porsche AG need to take notice of this.
There are two 918 Spyders in sleepy little Fort Wayne, but it seemed every time I was in their shop there was one in service and it takes an entire team to service this complicated marvel of technology. It takes an entire race team of technicians to service one. So, Porsche of Fort Wayne pulls all of their good mechanics and places them in the race pit “treating” the one queen bee while the O’Daniel Automotive Group fails to put good Porsche trained technicians on our lowly Porsches including my Cayenne Turbo.
It is an older car, a 2005, but never has a more highly optioned Cayenne Turbo been seen at any dealership. The techs all marvel at my car, the heaviest of the modern Porsches ever made by Porsche AG, because they see things on my Turbo that they never see on any other car.
Never mind that, the Porsche component of O’Daniel Automotive Group treats my first generation Cayenne and me terribly! With disrespect. They do not even put Porsche mechanics on my car by maybe their second string or even their third string on it!
And the way Porsche of Fort Wayne handles my car? It is tantamount to criminal. I have a black leather interior and I have a wonderful Porsche sunscreen but when O’Daniel gets my car, they fail to use the sunscreen and as a result of sitting in that hot sun and humidity my seat backs have come unglued not once but twice! Each seat back glue melted because of the neglect while my SUV was in their possession and the seat backs fell off. One of them breaking the latches. If their fiberglass patchwork fails to hold, then I will be required to order all new seat backs from Porsche AG. I can’t wait to see what that is going to cost!
And when Porsche O’Daniel returned my car after servicing the battery and the alternator, they broke several cowling holding pins (which were intact when I left Porsche of North Scottsdale because they replaced them just before my long cross country trip). Moreover, there was a bubble in my turbo engine’s cooling system requiring I add coolant (after purchasing and mixing Porsche coolant) over two days that took a massive ONE GALLON of anti-freeze!
To say that was negligent upon the part of the mechanics is an understatement! I surmise Porsche of Fort Wayne did not even put their Audi mechanics on my Porsche but their third string. No wonder they were unable to diagnose my SUV and take care of my battery problem under warranty—even after I appeared TWICE telling their service advisor that my brand new Porsche battery that I had just replaced at a cost far exceeding $600 was bad.
In short, this is a bad dealership. It should have its franchise pulled, but I recommended to Porsche Cars of North America that they require O’Daniel to send their techs to Porsche training so they could adequately service Porsches.
I can not recommend Port of Fort Wayne for anything and I do not recommend Porsche of Boise. One can only hope and pray that the complex technology on the Porsche Spyder 918 never gets passed on to our regular Porsches because they will be forever in the shop requiring a team of technicians to keep them on the road.
I have more complaints against Fort Wayne Porsche and can tell several stories about the O’Daniel Automotive Group from a Cadillac that went in there ending up with a $10,000 repair bill that was unmerited to a Honda in that area that caught fire after oil change because a mechanic left a rag on the engine. And Porsche of Fort Wayne can not align a Porsche—they screwed mine up not once but twice! Take your Porsche’s elsewhere and avoid the headache.
To close on a much more positive note, I have also experienced excellent service at Porsche of Anchorage, Carerra Motors in Bend, Strong Porsche in Salt Lake City, Prestige Imports in Denver, Euroclassics in Midlothian, and my experience at the new Porsche dealership in St. Louis was extremely promising.
Nevertheless, PorscheAG must do a better job in building the Cayenne and all other models because this is the most unreliable car I have ever owned. I am about to put my fourth set of rear hatch struts in at a cost of $700. Why can’t Porsche build a decent rear hatch strut? I seem to only get 60-70,000 miles out of a set.
The most reliable Porsche to own remains the normally aspirated 911—which almost doesn’t exist anymore. I can’t wait until the Trump Administration relaxes emissions standards across the board and utilizes a much more real world accurate measure of emissions per mile travelled rather than emissions per gallon consumed.
Allowing auto manufacturers to do what they know best and to have the freedom to innovate rather than strap us with inferior gas, constricting catalytic converters that actually increase toxic emissions and all sorts of things that reduce engine reliability. I would not buy anything new today. Why bother when all of the current offerings will soon be obsolete and their replacements will offer more power, greater fuel mileage and much great reliability for even less money than the current government dictated and controlled inferior models?
#PCA #PCNA #PORSCHEAG #ODANIELAUTOGROUP