Quote:
john999s said:
Porsche can and should do better. Porsche can make the series 997 lighter, faster and punch even more above its weight but they choose not to because of marketing.
A few facts:
1. in their specific class, Porsche cars are always lighter than the competition with a few exceptions maybe (997 Turbo vs. F430...due to AWD).
2. Porsche quality has never been that good like it is now, owning various Porsche since 1996 and dealing with Porsche stuff since that time, I can confirm it.
3. there wasn't much "room" for making the 997 faster, the 997 Turbo already does 0-200 kph (125 mph) in slightly above 12 seconds, this is only 2 seconds away from the Carrera GT.
I agree however that Porsche could do a little bit more for the customers (who actually kept alive Porsche with their loyalty) by offering more interesting options and maybe slightly higher performance figures. Of course, if you compare a Corvette Z06 with the 997 Turbo, the Vette is a real bargain. On the other hand, compare the Z06 to other products and they look bad too in comparison, so this is really a very special situation where GM put a car on the market to raise their reputation, a car which according to various experts doesn't earn too much money for GM, if any at all.
Regarding product quality: we own three Porsche, a 997 Turbo (6800 km), a Boxster S (16000 km) and a Cayenne Turbo Powerkit (46000 km). The 997 Turbo and Boxster S have been 100% trouble-free so far, the Cayenne Turbo had four ignition coils replaced (under warranty) and was still able to go over 1000 km with the defective ones.
My former 997 Carrera S (17000 km when I sold it) got a new gearbox because I made complaints about the second gear and apparently Porsche "trusts" me since they exchanged it immediately without any questions asked (warranty).
My 996 Turbo had gearbox problems (3rd gear popping out from time to time as far as I remember) BEFORE the tuning, afterwards with a tuned 543 HP engine (RS-Tuning), no problems at all. This car did 17000 km with the tuned engine and another 50000 km or so with the new owner...no problems at all.
Before the 996 Turbo, I owned a 996 Carrera 4 Powerkit (the first customer car as far as I remember). Trouble free until I had a broken screw at the rear stabilizer bar, without PSM I wouldn't have survived it...it happened at 260 kph in a curve and I found out two days later because of the weird driving feel and some "clanking" noise.
Before that, I owned a 996 Carrera, again one of the first customer cars in Germany. This car was horrible, only problems, it was sent to Weissach for a week to find out a problem with the ignition and PCM (strange noise) and I had tons of other problems like squeaking noises, rattle noises, this car was the worst quality car in my life (and I owned Fiats and Lancias before
).
My first Porsche was a 993 Targa and although some people seem to remember the "good old times", I don't agree. The 993 had a horrible gear ratio (my car had still the first gearbox version without the later "swiss" gear ratio), it was very tricky to drive sometimes and overall quality impression was like driving a Volkswagen Beetle...the original one...horrible.
That said, I think that Porsche improved quality a lot over the past few years since the 996 showed up. Each and every year you could actually see and feel the quality improvements. I'm just a little bit disappointed that Porsche didn't make the right step with the 997 by making it looking for classy from the inside. I also don't understand the missing LED rear lights on the Turbo and all this silver colour crap inside the car really annoys me.
Yes, Porsche isn't perfect and yes, their decisions are always led by marketing thoughts and not necessarily what the customer wants. Looking at the changes at Porsche, especially over the past two years, I must however say that I'm happy that it didn't get worse. A lot of employees came over from BMW, now the same thing with former Mercedes employees who came to Porsche to help them with the new Panamera. Porsche learned a lot from them, I'm sure about it but unfortunately they forgot to learn from another important factor: the customer. Porsche reads internet forums and they even make notes about some posts, some even make it to development for further improvements. I just wish Porsche would be more concerned about customer opinion because to be honest: I owned (or still own) eight Porsche cars since 1996 but Porsche hasn't asked me once directly what could be improved or what I don't like. Of course I send them my well known letters from time to time where I describe my thoughts and my wishes for the future but usually I get only a "thank you, we appreciate your opinion" and thats it.
It got even worse, during a meeting with a high ranking Weissach employee, I was actually told to refrain from further contacts because this guy apparently just met with me to throw me a cookie like we say here in Germany. Very disappointing.
My experience with Porsche has been negative AND positive all the way: one guy I talked to many years ago about a problem was very nice and helpful, the same person who got me my Tiptronic S (well, due to an "order" from a higher rank but still...) and he was very nice again. Also the tech guy with warranty stuff, always helpful and nice.
On the other hand, bad karma from the quality management department, it seems we didn't hit off right when we met.
Btw: I achieved a lot with Porsche by talking to them directly and sending letters/faxes. A friend who owned a Ferrari can't even believe that somebody at Porsche cared about my letters/faxes, he was pretty impressed with the results. Porsche may have grown and they may have changed from many points of view but in the past, they always had an "ear" for me and my stuff, something I always appreciated. So maybe we should give them the credit of doing the right thing to survive and to be able to offer even better products than now.
Of course this shouldn't be an excuse not to improve further in the future.
Good luck porschist.. 
)
