Blown Engine

[rick3000]

I wouldn't stress about it. A replaced engine means you have another chance at getting an engine that will not break down. I have done two 1600 roundtrip road trips in my Boxster with no problems.
Getting a bad engine in a Boxster is just the luck of the draw. Get you car, break in the engine, and enjoy. Once you pass 25K miles your chances of an engine failure decrease dramatically. But extended warranties are always a good backup.

[JCL12]

As I understand it, porsches new policy is either attempt to fix the engine at the dealer (yuck!) or get a re-mfg'd engine from germany. I'd be much more comfortable with the latter. Obviously, it stinks it broke in the first place but at least you aren't having it fixed at the shop. If you complain in the right way, maybe you can get them to extend your warranty some more or give you a special longer warranty on the replaced engine?

[Tool Pants]

A dealer cannot replace an engine without getting the ok from Atlanta or the dealer will not get paid. As of 2005 dealers are authorized to do engine repairs.

What I think is going on. Taking an engine apart in an attempt to fix it takes a lot of time, but Porsche will pay the dealer only so much for warranty work. I have never asked the hourly rate for warranty work but I suspect it is less then the usual rate charged customers.

The Cayenne is having problems with plastic coolant tubes on top of the engine that split. The engine has to be removed to replace these tubes. This is warranty work so the dealer is paid by Atlanta to replace the tubes. One of the people I spoke to did not like it because it takes a lot of time to drop the engine and Atlanta pays only so much. So a dealer has to do this work and get X dollars when they could be using that time to make more than X dollars.

One of these days I will try to find out more details on how warranty payments work.