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Old 02-02-2009, 08:54 PM   #9
johnsimion
Registered User
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Missouri
Posts: 112
Way out of Line

I think it's kind of ridiculous to say that the forum is on the take. Do you think Brucelee just makes these posts up? HAHAHA.

I read dozens of horror stories on these posts and concluded that there is a definite failure problem compared to other cars. I also agree that the failure percentage cannot be quantified for a number of reasons. It is scary, but we can draw a pretty good guess that the percentage isn't really high enough to worry about:

NHTSA: 11 reports of Boxster engine failures
BBB: 7 complaints to PCNA about Boxsters, NONE specifically mentioning engine failures
Consumer Reports lists most years of Boxsters as "Much Better than Average" for "Major Engine Problems".

Some people have obviously had more than their share of problems, but with over 200,000 Boxsters produced, if there was a failure rate of even 1% on that amount of production, there should be over 2000 blown engines. People here will cite a bunch of anecdotal evidence to the contrary and even claim a failure rate much higher than that, but their estimates are biased by their own experience. In point of fact, nowhere will you find anywhere near 2000 complaints of blown Boxster engines. In fact, you'll be lucky to identify 200 separate cases (many of the reports out there are duplicates). These well-meaning folks would extrapolate from their own bad experience that there MUST be a huge failure rate, and that is faulty logic.

If there is a major engine failure problem above, say, 1%, then we must logically conclude that 99% of these failures go completely unreported and UN-complained about. However, such a conclusion runs contrary to human nature, especially in the day and age of the internet. There is no logical reason why the 2000 people who supposedly suffered engine failures would remain silent about it. Certainly those who had engine failures in this forum are vocal enough. SO, if these people complain, why not the rest? Why aren't there a whole lot more complaints than there are???

I suspect the actual failure rate is probably 0.5% or less overall. That may very well be 3 times the failure rate for other engines, and therefore I do not excuse Porsche for it. However, if the failure rate is 1% or 0.5%, this means there is about a 99% chance you will NOT have an engine failure. And that's why I think the problem is greatly overstated.
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