The reason I'm writing is to warn others of the poor experience that I've recently had from an OPC by giving you something to think about - I won't be naming the dealer in question as my money was returned in full but the whole experience was quite an eye opener.
I recently saw a beautiful (and very expensive) car for sale on Porche's approved used website.
It was just over a year old with low miles and was everything I was looking for.
I spoke to the dealer, put down a holding deposit then made the 240 mile round trip to view the car.
It was stunning.
I was told that it had been a Porsche management car and because of its high value would have in all likelihood only been driven by a Director or Dealer Principle. A part ex figure was agreed for my car and we shook hands on a deal.
There were a couple of items that needed doing on the vehicle and a collection date was set for around 3 weeks.
During the next few days I was browsing through this website, looking in the section relating to my new purchase, when completely by accident I came across a photo of (what I believed to be) the car at the Porsche Experience Centre in Silverstone.
As you can imagine I was somewhat horrified bearing in mind what I'd been told of its history.
More emails with the dealer confirmed my findings so I asked a number of questions:
How long had the car spent at Silverstone?
How much wear was there on the ceramic brakes?
How many launch control starts had it done?
Had the gear box oil been changed?
The car had in fact done all of its just under 4000 miles on the track.
The ceramic discs were 2/3 worn.
The car had done 361 launch control starts.
The gearbox oil hadn't been changed.
By now the beautiful car that I had imagined owning was somewhat tainted, especially as the OPC would not replace the discs (they were within Porsche tolerance) though they did offer to change the oil....!!
I'm well aware that these sports cars are designed to be driven hard but the wear and tear on bushes, bearings etc after a year on the track, let alone a potential £20k bill for brake parts in the future, was unacceptable to me when the car was being marketed at top money and the dealer had catagorically misled me about its history.
They say that every day is a learning day, my deposit was returned in full but I will never buy another car (even from a main dealer) without delving into its full history first.
I recently saw a beautiful (and very expensive) car for sale on Porche's approved used website.
It was just over a year old with low miles and was everything I was looking for.
I spoke to the dealer, put down a holding deposit then made the 240 mile round trip to view the car.
It was stunning.
I was told that it had been a Porsche management car and because of its high value would have in all likelihood only been driven by a Director or Dealer Principle. A part ex figure was agreed for my car and we shook hands on a deal.
There were a couple of items that needed doing on the vehicle and a collection date was set for around 3 weeks.
During the next few days I was browsing through this website, looking in the section relating to my new purchase, when completely by accident I came across a photo of (what I believed to be) the car at the Porsche Experience Centre in Silverstone.
As you can imagine I was somewhat horrified bearing in mind what I'd been told of its history.
More emails with the dealer confirmed my findings so I asked a number of questions:
How long had the car spent at Silverstone?
How much wear was there on the ceramic brakes?
How many launch control starts had it done?
Had the gear box oil been changed?
The car had in fact done all of its just under 4000 miles on the track.
The ceramic discs were 2/3 worn.
The car had done 361 launch control starts.
The gearbox oil hadn't been changed.
By now the beautiful car that I had imagined owning was somewhat tainted, especially as the OPC would not replace the discs (they were within Porsche tolerance) though they did offer to change the oil....!!
I'm well aware that these sports cars are designed to be driven hard but the wear and tear on bushes, bearings etc after a year on the track, let alone a potential £20k bill for brake parts in the future, was unacceptable to me when the car was being marketed at top money and the dealer had catagorically misled me about its history.
They say that every day is a learning day, my deposit was returned in full but I will never buy another car (even from a main dealer) without delving into its full history first.