OPC Service pricing

[Jon61]

18 minutes ago, Virglas said:

Just been quoted £900 by Cardiff ops for a 4 year service. They say the service includes a belt and spark plug check.....aren’t these supposed to be hanged at 4 years regardless?

Yes, spark plug are to be changed every 4 years according to the schedule (but only at 60,000 miles if that is sooner, not at 40,000 miles, which is why they are not listed with the 40,000 mile/4yr service).

But the service schedule says only that drive belt should be checked "at 40,000 miles, but no later than every 4 years". I must admit I don't understand this - if it looks OK after 40k/4yrs, so they really not check it again for until 80k/8yrs??

[topradio]

Spark plug check? What do they do, take them all out, take a look and then put them back?

[Virglas]

2 hours ago, Jon61 said:

Yes, spark plug are to be changed every 4 years according to the schedule (but only at 60,000 miles if that is sooner, not at 40,000 miles, which is why they are not listed with the 40,000 mile/4yr service).

But the service schedule says only that drive belt should be checked "at 40,000 miles, but no later than every 4 years". I must admit I don't understand this - if it looks OK after 40k/4yrs, so they really not check it again for until 80k/8yrs??

If I choose to take the car to a reputable Indy instead of an ops how much would I devalue the car by?

[topradio]

7 minutes ago, Virglas said:

If I choose to take the car to a reputable Indy instead of an ops how much would I devalue the car by?

I used an OPC for the 1st service and then an indi for the 2nd (4 year service). I have no intention of selling the car for a long time, but if I were, I would expect that an OPC would try and kick me in the b*ll*cks.

I have never traded in any car and when selling privately I am happy that I could demonstrate to a potential purchaser that the car is in extremely good condition and had been looked after a lot better than some in the Porsche approved fleet. And I would expect to get the same for it as if I had it serviced by the franchise.

My indy told me a story about a customer who brought his 911 to him for service. Some time later he traded it in and the OPC had his trousers down because it had been serviced outside the network. By coincidence the next owner of the car also brought it to the indi for service and told them that he had questioned the dealer about the service history. They told him not to worry as they knew the indi and that they used genuine Porsche parts and the car would have been serviced just as well as they would have done.

[Jon61]

13 minutes ago, Virglas said:

If I choose to take the car to a reputable Indy instead of an ops how much would I devalue the car by?

I think that's an impossible question to answer, as there as as many possible answers as there are people, and it also depends on the context.

I think logic would say that if it is indeed a good indy and they use Porsche parts, it should make no difference. And if you were not to sell the car for several years then it might indeed make no difference at that point. But, rightly or wrongly, I think many people prefer to see a Porsche stamp for a car's early life - probably a bit longer than the original warranty period. (If you wanted to extend the warranty, that brings its own issues too.) And if you were selling the car soon, I strongly suspect that potential buyers would try to use the non-Porsche stamp as a bargaining tool. Depends on you whether you caved in to that of course, and it depends how 'in demand' your car was in other respects, how keen(/desperate) you were to sell etc.

There are definitely some people who keep taking their Porsches back to an OPC for servicing for much longer than I would, which I think is just throwing money away. OTOH, some will go straight to an indy after the 3 years is up. I'll probably use an OPC once more (for my 4 yr service) then go to Addspeed (my local indy). My judgement is based on a number of things, of which the glossiness of an OPC's premises, quality of coffee, the appearance of the ladies on reception (!) and the loan car are much further down the list on importance than they seem for some people. And in general, I respect the service I get from my Indy much more than OPCs in general (see another post I made earlier today about the Porsche GB-owned OPC that I have bought three cars from: http://www.BoXa.net/forum/topic/82383-hatfield-or-reading/?do=findComment&comment=1117066)

 

[Stuart21UK]

1 hour ago, topradio said:

I used an OPC for the 1st service and then an indi for the 2nd (4 year service). I have no intention of selling the car for a long time, but if I were, I would expect that an OPC would try and kick me in the b*ll*cks.

it gets to a certain age and they aren't interested in the car anyway, my 987 was sent to trade ratehr than sold in OPC as it was IIRC 7 years old come px time

[Virglas]

1 minute ago, Stuart21UK said:

it gets to a certain age and they aren't interested in the car anyway, my 987 was sent to trade ratehr than sold in OPC as it was IIRC 7 years old come px time

That’s interesting. Are there hard and fast criteria ie age/ mileage?

[Stuart21UK]

no dont think so, there are several networks that own OPC's so it could vary based on individual policy but also the sales demand too..plus the rarity of car at a guess

[Greenman]

18 hours ago, Jon61 said:

But the service schedule says only that drive belt should be checked "at 40,000 miles, but no later than every 4 years". I must admit I don't understand this - if it looks OK after 40k/4yrs, so they really not check it again for until 80k/8yrs??

It’s checked at 4years 40k ( and changed if needed), it’s then changed at 6 years (regardless of miles or condition)

[Jon61]

11 minutes ago, Greenman said:

It’s checked at 4years 40k ( and changed if needed), it’s then changed at 6 years (regardless of miles or condition)

Ah yes, I'd missed the "Replace drive belt" item in a separate section. I find the info on this in the service book very confusing. Reading all the lines on drive belt together implies that (for less than 10k miles pa), the belt is changed at Y6, Y12, Y18 etc, and checked at Y4, Y8, Y10, Y16, Y20 ...  So by my reckoning, it looks like from Y4 onwards, it's either checked or changed every 2 years apart from Y14 where nothing is done, and it goes from a change at Y12 until Y16 before it's next checked. If the reasoning is that a new belt (at Y12) doesn't need checking just 2yrs later at Y14, then why is there a check at Y8 after a change at Y6?

[mneil]

Thought it was a no brainer to have it changed instead of just checked. Most of the work is done to get to it anyway and a belt hardly breaks the bank.

[Greenman]

1 hour ago, mneil said:

Thought it was a no brainer to have it changed instead of just checked. Most of the work is done to get to it anyway and a belt hardly breaks the bank.

Yes, but, you will just end up confusing the OPC as I found out when I tried to change the air filters ahead of time. It’s fine if you keep track of everything but don’t expect the OPC to know when things are due.

4 hours ago, Jon61 said:

then why is there a check at Y8 after a change at Y6?

I suspect the Y8 check in this scenario is a mistake.

[mneil]

5 hours ago, Greenman said:

Yes, but, you will just end up confusing the OPC as I found out when I tried to change the air filters ahead of time. It’s fine if you keep track of everything but don’t expect the OPC to know when things are due.

 

Thank goodness for Revolution Porsche 😃

[RBD914 v2]

On 10/1/2019 at 6:18 PM, Green Genie said:

Hi Guys

Let me introduce my self been lurking on here for about a year, and have gained some very good advice from this forum, thanks to all. This is my first Porsche.

The car spec. (for those of you who like this stuff) 981 Boxster 2.7 2015 in Guards Red. 20 inch Carrera S wheels in satin platinum, PCM, park assist F&R, cruise, PDK, SD wheel, SE, 2 Zone climate, Heated seats, plus a few bits I've forgotten.

I purchased my car at three years old from Porsche Hatfield with 7500 miles on the clock and one prior owner, with the two years OPC warranty. The car is now due its second service, the first in my ownership 4years/40000 miles. The car is now on 10500 miles approximately.

So now the fun part 😃 OPC Hatfield want £1380.84 local to me 

                                           OPC Cambridge want £1199.89 not to far from me

                                           OPC Colchester want £1077.18   1.5 miles away

                                           OPC Silverstone want £975.00 the only OPC vaguely close to me 1.5 hours away!  But they are on the fixed priced service menu. 

I wasn't expecting Porsche service to be cheap but wasn't expecting such a price difference, BTW all prices are based on me being a PCGB member.

The car is an absolute joy to drive and I've no faults to report to add on to the service, apart from MOT and airbag recall. The car is booked in with Silverstone towards the end of this month for all work to be done. I'll report back when this has taken place. Let's hope I've chosen the right OPC it would appear reviews for all the above OPC's vary so we'll see. 

Any thoughts on the above pricing?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My GTS is due its 4 year service in December so I called into Edinburgh OPC today to see how bitter the pill would be...

Well I was pleasantly surprised, £875 for the service including plugs and brake fluid, also check drive belt and drain channels. This includes a 10% discount on parts and labour for PCGB membership.

Discussed renewing warranty for another two years, 111 point check £195, 2 year warranty £1190, 2 years assistance £285.

So altogether just over £2,500 for 2 more years of worry free motoring, that's around £100 per month.

Seems reasonable value to me for such a high performance car, especially when he told me the story of a recent PDK gearbox failure, which cost an owner who had decided to save a few quid by not renewing his warranty, wait for it..

 .................. £9,000...yikes!

They want the car for two days and will give me a Porsche to play with for the whole two days!

Done deal!

R

[khushy]

On 10/1/2019 at 6:21 PM, Scubaregs said:

Hi and welcome. Did you consider using an independent specialist ?

 

Go indi - find a local bosch dealer - everything on the car is bosch lol

[Nobbie]

10 minutes ago, RBD914 v2 said:

My GTS is due its 4 year service in December so I called into Edinburgh OPC today to see how bitter the pill would be...

Well I was pleasantly surprised, £875 for the service including plugs and brake fluid, also check drive belt and drain channels. This includes a 10% discount on parts and labour for PCGB membership.

Discussed renewing warranty for another two years, 111 point check £195, 2 year warranty £1190, 2 years assistance £285.

So altogether just over £2,500 for 2 more years of worry free motoring, that's around £100 per month.

Seems reasonable value to me for such a high performance car, especially when he told me the story of a recent PDK gearbox failure, which cost an owner who had decided to save a few quid by not renewing his warranty, wait for it..

 .................. £9,000...yikes!

They want the car for two days and will give me a Porsche to play with for the whole two days!

Done deal!

R

That's a decent price for peace of mind over a couple of years on a high performance car. Glad you're keeping it🙂

[Virglas]

Car serviced today. £1320 included major service, replace brake fluid, replacement drive belt, mot and two front tyres.  Seems reasonable?

[Stuart21UK]

On 10/18/2019 at 4:42 PM, Nobbie said:

That's a decent price for peace of mind over a couple of years on a high performance car. Glad you're keeping it🙂

£70 per calendar month to warranty it for 2yrs (and have breakdown) is a lot IMO, don't get me wrong I did the same up until 5 years old but it's still 70 quid a month nonetheless

[Scubaregs]

Warranties are sold for a reason, they make money off of them. 

You pays your money, (or not) you takes your chances.

[RBD914 v2]

7 hours ago, Stuart21UK said:

£70 per calendar month to warranty it for 2yrs (and have breakdown) is a lot IMO, don't get me wrong I did the same up until 5 years old but it's still 70 quid a month nonetheless

Well, I see that Revolution offer a Premium Protection Plan that provides warranty cover plus free servicing, the cost is............yep  £100 per month!

So the same as my OPC is quoting for a 4 year service and a two year warranty with assistance cover.

The difference being my OPC is local to me, I get a shiny new Porsche courtesy car, nice dealership facilities, the Porsche warranty cover includes worldwide recovery and repair anywhere in the world, and it adds value to the car come sale time. Plus the next 2 year service interval at year 6 should be cheaper, so lowering the cost.

Guess I will stick with the Porsche warranty and servicing at £100 per month - seems like good value to me!

My thoughts, as a reality check, is that it's only the cost of a good night out for two, with food and drinks once a month!

[jason3.2s]

Are the Indy prices increasing for newer cars, as the OPC warranty on a 981S onwards seems a no brainer for me.

 

[Stuart21UK]

5 hours ago, Scubaregs said:

Warranties are sold for a reason, they make money off of them. 

You pays your money, (or not) you takes your chances.

yeah you are right and I probably got most of the cost back but it just grates me the fight I had to get genuine work covered...

[Patt]

I use Revolution for my servicing.  They have to prove they used genuine Porsche parts and be VAT registered.

This has had no impact on any warranty claims I've had either.

[Gorsh]

On 10/23/2019 at 6:21 AM, RBD914 v2 said:

My thoughts, as a reality check, is that it's only the cost of a good night out for two, with food and drinks once a month!

That's man-maths Rob!

I'm with you though, I did the same at the 4 year service and quite likely will again at 6 years so long as the cost hasn't ramped up.  I bought my car from an indy just after the factory warranty had expired, so a few months later I had the 4 year service done early and the 111 point check (at OPC Kendal, the check was half price with the service), but they found the condensers were leaking slightly and had to be replaced before I could buy the warranty - on inspection they said it was corrosion rather than stone damage so had the car been under warranty they were covered which would have saved me £1k!

As with all insurance it's a calculated risk - it's a fair argument that the cars are pretty reliable and it would be unlucky to have repairs costing more than £2500 in a four year period, so I can see both sides of the argument.  I'd rather have peace of mind against a big expense though!  OPC Edinburgh have given you a decent deal there, I might give them a call when my 6 year service is due in about 15 months.

[Patt]

I guess I'm just born unlucky - current warranty bills stand at £8000 !

I am in two minds to extend in March or not