Archive for the 'Porsche' Category

Blogging now resumed as we switch to a new site and a lot has happened in 3 weeks!  The urge to buy a car overcame me and I bought a Land Rover Defender last week - a diesel of course. So cute. And practical where I live out in the country - yes it has real mud from a real field. And with so many advocates locally that I ended up testing one.

 The 911 is up for sale ( call me if you want to benefit from the low low price I can get from a dealer! ) and a Mini Cooper S beckons next if it goes. If it doesn’t fetch a proper price then I won’t be sad to keep it. Just unlikely to upgrade based on depreciation. But that’s not really fair - I’ve suffered far worse with other cars eg an Audi A8 that lost 28k in 12 months!

So from passionate advocate to neutral seller? Not really - still a mad fan as I have the 22 year old one to fall back on. But no longer an advocate. Ultimately the service experience has been very good, the product is brilliant. But the sales experience has resulted in the opposite result from that desired. Emotions are funny things but ignore them at your peril !

 Now the Land Rover and the Mini buying experiences…. I’ll save that for tomorrow

Porsche, Uncategorized, customer experience | No Comments

I thought it was all sorted but no….. The Porsche dealer phoned to pay the whole thing. Common sense prevails. I just have to get the car there now for 2 days. No one has come back to try and give me a better price for my car in order to buy another

So where am I emotionally 5 weeks after all the excitement of wanting to buy a “new motor”.

At 3 weeks I’d moved from raving fan to neutral at best. At 5 weeks I’ve had time with the car again. An empty road down to the coast at dawn. A few beers with local fans who’ve bought them and I’m back in the fold. But….

But they have generated the desire to change car. They wanted to prise me from something special and get me into something even more special. But they weren’t able to close on it. So now I have mentally detached but not attached to the next thing. They have put me in mind to switch.

So I’m out trying new motors…. But no calls coming from Porsche whilst I’m prospecting. Aston Martin? Went to see round the factory last year – drool!! Drop dead gorgeous but no way to drive it everyday, more fragile than a china cup in field of bulls, and half the fuel consumption. It might be British Racing Green, but its certainly not environmentally green and a pain to keep filling up. An Alfa Romeo like the one we hired and burned across Europe in. A steal for such good looks and a great drive, even if the diesel is the one to go for. Or a Mini like my daughter’s or the Cooper S I drove when the tyres were being changed on my car. Totally impressive to drive even in basic form, the Cooper S is a barrel of laughs and I’d have to give it away to make it depreciate as far as the Porsche.

Will I sell my dearly beloved? Maybe. Will I buy another new Porsche, unlikely. Am I a raving fan again….getting there

Porsche, customer experience | No Comments

So the nice guy at Porsche who does know what’s wrong with the car has rung up and explained it properly. A coherent reason why the car is worn.

It says “Play in O/S/F rack end” and everyone has explained that to be a problem with the steering rack. It isn’t. It’s a problem with the track rod end where it meets the steering rack. The track rod takes a real bashing and knowing the roads where I live I’m not surprised its worn. Nothing wrong with the steering rack as I thought….

So sound explanation. I’ll book it in. That’s all it took

Interesting to write down a journey as it occurs. I’ll look back and see what my personal ethnography says about root causes…..

What do I feel about buying another….back to neutral. Still passionate about the brand, but would I go sell them to my friends. Not at this moment. one of the guys I persuaded to buy one has been on text as I write……

I can already see where it ends though…. you guessed it: “The Best Service is No Service”.

Porsche, customer experience design | No Comments

So the saga runs on with calls back and forth yesterday. In summary the service experience was great because they used it well to get me to really want to upgrade. Exciting stuff. I want to buy another car. So far so good.

But the old car has two faults it shouldn’t have and there’s only a 2 year warranty on it, not 3. They want me to pay, so I say no - that’s the crunch.

Read on…

Yesterday I got a call with the good news and the bad news. They’ll pay for the oil seal but not the worn steering rack. Of course I escalate. Obviously a well worn path to HQ and a nice gentleman who handles my rising frustration well. But using the words “failed part” isn’t going to get me to a point where I expect to pay for German engineering twice. I can’t get a coherent argument about why I should have to pay. All arguments lead back to its not covered by warranty any more. Ok but 2.5 years old.

So what’s the escalation process? There isn’t one. That’s it.

Hmmmm. I’ve mailed the dealer back to get them to pick it up and see what they will do. After all they want to sell me another car. And if they dont I wont buy another Porsche. And I’ll stop “selling” them - I’ve reached 3 from a target of 6 locally. Most of all I’ll feel a right plonker for paying insane amounts of money on a wonderful car that breaks.

As I said to the guy at HQ “this isn’t about the money, its the principle that the steering rack shouldn’t wear”. It angers me. To me this brand is engineering and reliability. No other car can do o-60 in 4.9 seconds, 25 to the gallon every week and be so damn fine to drive at any speed. My 21 year old Porsche doesn’t break. I read stories about how the Le Mans winning 917 was engineered. To say that it’s not their problem that a steering rack wears after 2.5 years is an insult to the brand. I don’t accept it.

And of course, there’s another problem. The resale offer on mine is mildly offensive so far. Let’s see where it goes next.

I really want to buy another one, but I’d be a double plonker to buy one if they don’t respect their own product. So far that’s what they seem to be saying the sales arguments about depreciation and engineering don’t really apply when it’s down to them.

Watch this space….. I have every faith that Porsche will come through.

Porsche, customer experience design | No Comments