Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Bad Porsche buying experince from Harrogate.

"TREATING CUSTOMERS FAIRLY" is the misrepresenting banner a Harrogate car seller specialising in selling second hand high end expensive sports cars, uses to trade.

Now I am told that twitter is a good place to air ones grevience. Can anyone else suggest an internet venue, where my sad pre christmas experiance can be related, in the vain hope that someone else is not deceived?

Guiding comments welcome.

You shouldn't be surprised that a purveyor of Porkers is prone to telling the odd porky pie.

Go on then David - tell us the problem - (without getting Simon too twitchy!)

May I suggest Trading Standards.

They have a Facebook page that solicits feedback, might be useful to post a comment.

Trading Standards are the official channel I would suggest for a grievance as a first line of defence/attack, the offending company will certainly take you seriously when they realise you have engaged their services. An independent engineers report on the vehicle with copies to both parties is a good idea if significant money is involved.
Employing this line of approach you may get action instead of speculation IMHO.

Good luck.

Hi David, sorry to hear that you have had a bad experience with buying a Porsche, I presume that it either is not as described or has a mechanical issue.

A friend purchased a 911 about 18 months ago from a sports car dealer in Dorset, after about 3 months it developed an oil leak, this turned out to be an auto box issue which was going to be costly, about £2.5. -£3k. Now he had seen a trace of oil under the engine before purchasing and the dealer said it was minor and would fix it. The dealer refused to do anything and was abusive, my friend kept all his correspondence, gave the dealer a time limit to rectify, then went to a Porsche main dealer, got a written report on the issue and what was wrong with the car and how long the issue would have been present an evident. He then went to the small claims court and the dealer had to pay all costs. I believe that in law any seller of a vehicle must not misrepresent it, hide faults or fail to fix them and is liable to correct them.

If you have had this type of experience take the car to a main dealer, get them to check the cars Porsche history, it is kept on a database, ask them to do a mechanical and condition report, and costs to fix. Then send to the seller giving him the choice repair or pay for the repairs. If he refuses then off to the small claims court.

By the way the Porsche main dealer was very competitive and their work was guaranteed.

Good luck.

Davids tale of woe is sad, but unfortunately increasingly common as the complexity of cars increases. The problem is that the independent lacks sufficient knowledge to be able to support the very specialist cars they occasionally sell.

After a similar disaster with a Mazda RX7 a few years ago I concluded that I'd only buy from franchised dealers or "One Marque" specialists.

This was reinforced 2 years ago when l looked at a M3W on sale by a "sports car specialist" in Poole. The sales people hadn't a clue about the product.

My view is that the traditional "used car" showroom should limit their activities to the big volume brands.

I have limited knowledge of buying from a sport car specialist, but it works for the dealer I bought my 911 from.

They have been trading 40 years and the business is now run by the son of the founder.

They have someone who can fix minor issues on site, but any complex or technical warranty issues are carried out by a local specialist.

Check out their stock list.

http://www.johnhollandsales.com/

Never having owned a Porsche I know nothing first hand.
However, a friend took me to an independent who has a policy of his cars being serviced by an Approved Porche Dealer prior to sale.
Another independent with in-house service bay, sold him a 911 at £35K two years ago and he has had no problems with it.
Somone else I know paid £50K for an used 911 from an independent and the car failed one week later.

He then took it to an Approved Porshe Dealer who sorted a serious problem for £28K and would not release the car until the bill had been paid.

All a bit of a lottery it seems?

Cheers