read this please

[Cloudsurfer]

I see merit in both sides of this argument. On the one hand, as someone with a finance background, who also happens to be a professional pilot, I completely appreciate market pricing. And there is truth to the notion that if these cars were known to all make it to 100k with only affordable, routine service that they would be worth more in the open market (as used vehicles). So far I have certainly benefited from this, as my cost of ownership so far has only been a fraction of what it would have been had I purchased new, or even went the route of Porsche CPO pre-owned. Now, obviously, in the unlikely event my engine lets loose, those numbers will significantly change.

The problem that I do have with the situation is this: These have been design defects since day one, and as such, are design defects that Porsche has decided to not rectify. I am also quite certain that these defects have not been rectified due to pressure from the Accounting Department saying not to do so. For them, it is more profitable to save the likely few hundred dollars a car it would cost to have fixed this close to a decade ago, even with the risk of out of warranty settlements (which may or may not have been attorney influenced) and even the possible actual lawsuit. Now, I'm not sure that the costs associated with the loss of reputation are factored into their argument.

Only Porsche has the true number of failures and unfortunately, even their numbers aren't totally accurate, as they exclude a good percentage of failures where the car never went to a dealer or a factory crate motor was never ordered.

The other real problem for 90% of us on this board is the fact that Porsche knows that we, as a group, will likely never buy a brand new car from them, so our loss of respect for them as a company will not cost them anything, as any car maker really only cares about selling new cars and could largely care less what happens to the cars once the original owners sell them. This also explains why there have been far more documented cases of goodwill engine replacements issued to original owners versus second or third owners.

In my ideal world, I think Mazda handled a similar situation with its motors (which developed after many cars were on the road) very admirably by offering a 100k warranty on those engines. I do also believe that the previous issues were rectified in future production cars. Do I think Porsche should offer a similar program for these cars? Yes. Does that mean that I necessarily support a Class Action Suit against Porsche? No.

I would like to see Porsche handle things better for the few folks who do wind up in the position of requiring a new motor, but unfortunately, I don't think that's going to happen. And, while I consider my attorney a very good friend, in general I'm not a huge fan of the idea of having a law firm generate millions in revenue from a settlement on a case so that you and I can all get checks for $50. Does anyone really think that in such a case the loss of $40 million (plus their legal fees) is going to help them bring you and I a better car?

Patrick

[Jaxonalden]

Well said Patrick,

I guess what I was really getting at with the lawsuit was to see if Porsche would do the same thing Harley-Davidson did with its Twin Cam 88 engine. I bought a '99 FLHTC with the first year 88 Twin Cam. The engines inner cam bearings were coming apart and destroying the engines. With documented cases, Harley-Davidson was forced to warrenty just those cam bearing from future failure. If a failure occurred the service department would order a repair kit that would consist of new bearing, cams, seals and gaskets. Labor is waived for the repair and the warrenty is good until 50,000 miles are on the clock, I think. My bearings were swapped out at 12,000 miles at no cost to me.

That to me is reasonable compensation to the customer for a design flaw. Should Porsche stand behind their product and do the right thing if the two (RMS/IMS) problems occur in a resonable mileage window? Yes. Do we need to go to the lengths of having to file a lawsuit? No. But Porsche should do the right thing.

BTW, Porsche designed, built and tested the V-Rod engine and its bullet proof!