1500 USD for an alternator and new battery right?

[blinkwatt]

Buy a Boxster Bentley manual. $70
Buy a battery from Sam's Club. $85
Alternator from www.************************************************************ and D.I.Y. for $280 - $350(tiptronic - manual)

http://www.************************************************************/search/product.aspx?sid=fxzu3o55dqqkca4504u0ci2w&makeid=800019@Porsche&modelid=1388358@BOXSTER%20S&year=2001&cid=alternator@alternator&gid=2412@Alternator

[blueillusion97]

+1 for the above

But i got my alternator rebuilt for $150 and local napa store with life time waranty

[gstoli]

FYI, while browsing on ebay I found this
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsche-911-Boxster-Bosch-Alternator-97-2003-120-AMP_W0QQitemZ360029123874QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item3 60029123874
Remanufactured and with 90 days warranty for 139$. You might want to give it a try.
or this
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1997-99-PORSCHE-BOXSTER-FACTORY-ALTERNATOR-120-AMP_W0QQitemZ320224120089QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item3 20224120089
or this
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/97-98-99-Porsche-911-Boxster-Alternator-58696A_W0QQitemZ320224597932QQcmdZViewItem?hash=it em320224597932

1500$ for an alternator???? Come on...
George

[steve00s]

The sad thing is that a lot of people just don't know any better and pay these kind of prices to the Porsche dealers. I think that it is a crime.

[Bob Z.]

I stopped by HBL when I lived in Maryland - some snotty folks at that time and they made it seem I was wasting their time. Regardless, that is way too much coin to fork over! And there are lots of independents in your area - I used to take my 930 to a shop in N. VA but I cannot recall who they were...great place though.

[racer_d]

Realize that a shop like HBL will use PORSCHE parts.. A porsche battery likely goes for double a normal "sears" battery if you will. Same with the Alternator. Then factor in the approx $100/hr labor charge.. Then consider that all of this work is done at "book rates" - not necessarily the actual amount of time a seasoned tech needs to perform said work. The book could say this is 8hrs of labor ($800) but it might only take someone 4hrs to do it.. hence a nice profit for the shop.

Does $1500 sound high? yes.. but did they give you the breakdown of how they got to that number? specific part costs and labor costs?

A new battery for a 6 year old car? yes that seems reasonable. I am suprised that the alternator is also an issue too... I have never had to replace an alternator in 20 years and 300,000 miles of driving history.

There are lots of "independant" shops nearby.. Intersport in McLean, ASG and IMA in Fairfax are 3 off the top of my head. I will say that most independant Porsche shops labor rates aren't much less than dealers these days. Shops like this also tend to get their parts from the Porsche network too, unless you specifically ask for something else to go in.

[Perfectlap]

^ this book rate issue really ticks me off. Who wrote this book...smurfs?
I could see Papa Smurf taking 30 minutes to change an O2 sensor, you know since he only has three digits per hand. But an eperienced, certified mechanic?
And it's not like you have a choice to not pay the book rate either.
INdependent shop near really aren't all that much cheaper than the local dealer and they refuse to install parts you provide. One guy wanted to charge me about 5X's per spark plug vs. what I found on Pap-parts or autohauz.
I mean c'mon I can see a marginal mark up but not enough to buy the product several times over.