UK service & costs

[tophamn]

Mine was for battery drains, whatever they are? Let the overflowed acid out maybe?

My 2-year service invoice says "check rain water drain tubes".

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[tylerdurden]

Got a quote for my first service on a GTS. Cost was £1042! Only done 14k miles.

Within this was £370+VAT for an AC service. Questioned it and was told its needed. Nuts

 

[Murph7355]

Got a quote for my first service on a GTS. Cost was £1042! Only done 14k miles.

Within this was £370+VAT for an AC service. Questioned it and was told its needed. Nuts

Phone around.

What were they doing on the AC service that made it" needed"? If the total incl VAT then strip out the AC service and you're close ish to ball park. Just not couple of hundred to go.

 

[tylerdurden]

can you just do that? FSH is essential to maintain warranty. Can they insist that it must be done to maintain FSH? I was going to ask them if it could be removed as the ac is working to perfection

 

[D00notD00d]

Happy to be corrected but I don’t think a regular AC service is part of the official Porsche service schedule (and possibly other manufacturers too).

If it breaks, fix it.

Opinion varies but I’ve never had an AC service and and regard this as a dealer ‘upsell’. I’ve never had an air con problem on any car. There’s a school of thought that like refrigerators you should always keep air con switched on. Those I know who have needed repairs or regassing turn on their air con only when they think its ‘needed’.

Which dealer groups sell this?

 

[BigBob]

They gave me the AC guff and battery drain clearance check add on after they had the car in and serviced (1st). It Would have been about £800 more.

It’s ’recommended’ rather than service schedule. They intimated that as they’d suggested it, it may invalidate the warranty if those things failed or caused a problem. No mention prior to them getting the car.I think they’d have a job bumping the warranty for work that not on service schedule.

I told them to go forth. Dreadful upselling.

My last service was about 1k as well. Seems very large regional pricing spread, you’re at top end.

 

[D00notD00d]

Unlike the air con one, I think the water drain cleaning is necessary and is on the schedule. But it is only 5/6 plugs on the underside that are are removed and cleaned - less than 30 minutes effort if the car is already on a ramp, see You Tube. So don’t pay an inflated price.
I once saw a Cayenne in bits at a Car Audio specialist because the amps has been wrecked by water damage. The guy said the cause was not having the drains around the hatch cleaned.

 

[BigBob]

Unlike the air con one, I think the water drain cleaning is necessary and is on the schedule. But it is only 5/6 plugs on the underside that are are removed and cleaned - less than 30 minutes effort if the car is already on a ramp, see You Tube. So don’t pay an inflated price.
I once saw a Cayenne in bits at a Car Audio specialist because the amps has been wrecked by water damage. The guy said the cause was not having the drains around the hatch cleaned.

I may be missing speaking, but while I’m sure your right about how long it takes in reality, they wanted in region of 4-500 to do it. Definitely wasn’t on schedule, was a dealer advisory.
If they said they could see some gunk in it, fair enough, but was an inspection to see if there was anything. I imagine would have been extra to remedy if there was.

Maybe it’s been added to schedule since my first service - 2 or so years ago, but it wasn’t brought up on my recent service. I guess they could have done it and not told me. The service advisor couldn’t identify what some of the codes were on the invoice. Said he’d get back to me to clarify, but never did and had rather lost will to live not getting replied to by them.

 

[D00notD00d]

I’ve seen similar rip off prices here for pulling out 6 plugs and cleaning them.
If I remember correctly it is on the 4 year service list. I negotiated that this check was included because the battery had been out a few months earlier for a cell replacement.

There is a service bulletin for MY20 to address water leaks into the car and/or battery compartment mentioned in this thread
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/2020-taycan-water-in-battery-area-inside-car.19082/
The fix is simply to remove an unsuccessful membrane. Maybe the membrane isn’t present on MY21 onwards and the problem has been fixed.
If water has entered the HV battery trays because a seal is ineffective that’s a manufacturer or repair defect. I understand special & expensive equipment is needed to pressure test the battery compartment.

 

[anonymouse]

It’s ’recommended’ rather than service schedule. They intimated that as they’d suggested it, it may invalidate the warranty

Oh here we go, it's "drain checks" all over again. This is one of the main irritations I've had with Porsche: dealers invent things that are "optional but mandatory" and bully us into thousands of pounds of work; and meanwhile Porsche UK seems toothless, disinterested, and unwilling to set out a clear service schedule. I even wrote to the UK MD asking them to clarify the £500-£1000 "optional" drains check and got a brushoff with no real understanding of the customer perspective.

 

[BigBob]

Oh here we go, it's "drain checks" all over again. This is one of the main irritations I've had with Porsche: dealers invent things that are "optional but mandatory" and bully us into thousands of pounds of work; and meanwhile Porsche UK seems toothless, disinterested, and unwilling to set out a clear service schedule. I even wrote to the UK MD asking them to clarify the £500-£1000 "optional" drains check and got a brushoff with no real understanding of the customer perspective.

Porsche UKs dealership wanting to do the work in my case so not a surprising reaction I guess.

 

[D00notD00d]

Re-posting this as it was lost in the forum data roll-back/outage.
The table below shows Uk Porsche dealer ownership and their maintenance costs.
Its purpose is to enable pricing comparison across owner groups & monopolies.
Please contribute recent prices paid.
To illustrate I've included my recent costs.
@Administrator /everyone: Is there a smart way of posting/linking to this table so forum users can both easily see it and contribute?

Location​	Owner​	2 yr Service £ & Date​	4 yr Service £ & Date​	Other Maintenance £ & Date​
Chester	Sytner | Penske Automotive, USA #2
Edinburgh	Sytner | Penske Automotive, USA #2
Exeter	Sytner | Penske Automotive, USA #2
Glasgow	Sytner | Penske Automotive, USA #2
High Wycombe	Sytner | Penske Automotive, USA #2
Leicester	Sytner | Penske Automotive, USA #2
Mid Sussex	Sytner | Penske Automotive, USA #2
Silverstone	Sytner | Penske Automotive, USA #2
Solihull	Sytner | Penske Automotive, USA #2
Cambridge	Lithia Motors Inc | USA #3
Colchester	Lithia Motors Inc | USA #3
Stockport	Lithia Motors Inc | USA #3
Wilmslow	Lithia Motors Inc | USA #3
Wolverhampton	Lithia Motors Inc | USA #3
Portsmouth	Group 1 Automotive Inc | USA
Bournemouth	Group 1 Automotive Inc | USA
Guildford	Porsche AG | Germany
Hatfield	Porsche AG | Germany
Mayfair	Porsche AG | Germany
Reading	Porsche AG | Germany
South London	Porsche AG | Germany
West London	Porsche AG | Germany
Leeds	JCT600 | UK
Newcastle	JCT600 | UK			PSCB Rear discs and Pads; £3100; 5/25. 1 of 8 surfaces had delaminated.
Sheffield	JCT600 | UK
Teeside	JCT600 | UK
York	JCT600 | UK
Bristol	Dick Lovett | UK
Newport	Dick Lovett | UK
Swindon	Dick Lovett | UK
Tewkesbury	Dick Lovett | UK
Aberdeen	Peter Vardy | UK
Perth	Peter Vardy | UK
Tonbridge	Lind AG Ltd | UK
Norwich	Lind AG Ltd | UK
Preston	Bowker | UK
Bolton	Bowker | UK
South Lakes	Parker and Parker | UK
Hull	Lister | UK		£668; 9/24
Brooklands	Brooklands Automotive | UK

 

[D00notD00d]

Background to my last post above:

Like Veterinary Practices, Car Dealer Ownership is being consolidated, sometimes regionally and sometimes by giant USA owned corporations, some with Private Equity backing and funding by the likes of Blackrock and Vanguard. Those guys don’t get out of bed for anything less than a 20% return. They’re happy to pay a premium on lowly UK share prices. Expensive investment by dealers in EV servicing resources and the new monopolies there will have been a factor. Another is Porsche AG's requirement that all dealer premises look the same and are updated every 5 years or so. Customers end up paying for all that.

Sytner is owned by Penske, the USA’s 2nd largest Automotive Company. A bunch of other dealers have recently been acquired by Lithia, the USA’s 3rd largest Automotive Company. And the importer Porsche GB and its Porsche Retail Group dealerships are owned by Porsche AG\VW.

Porsche GB (& therefore Porsche AG) pretty much has a monopoly on sales and servicing in and around the M25. It has recently extended this by purchasing Porsche South London from Lithia, who had only acquired it 5 minutes previously. Note Porsche Brooklands is an independent Porsche Service Centre close to the M25, it only sells Approved Used, not new cars.

As with the Veterinary example, where the pet insurance, pet medical supplies and veterinary hospital practice supply chain has quietly been swallowed up by PE, allowing price fixing and ‘work manufacturing’, (e.g. Air Con 'servicing') the UK Competition and Markets Authority has not looked after consumers and has been allowed to look the other way. Porsche AG controls sales and parts pricing, and possibly maintenance too.

 

[Bennachie]

Service items are:
Replace Pollen Filter
Replace Brake fluid
Various optical Inspections/checks pre and during test drive
Check water drain from charging ports

Not a lot.....

 

[BigBob]

West London PRG. 05/25. 38k/4yr service.

£1000 incl VAT

Breakdown (excluding VAT)
Inspection £300.
Pollen filter and window cleaner fluid (ffs) £83.
Brake fluid £231
Smart service values program every 20k miles (no idea what this is!?)? £162
Wiper blades £62

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