Cars We Drive!

[Dino944]

To be fair, I'm sure someone *could* have fixed it with some combination of 3m adhesive, zip ties, some scrap plastic plus a bit of plastic welding, whatever. People work around broken clips all the time on cheaper cars or older cars where plastic has gotten more brittle and replacement bits are hard to find.

But it was a porsche so they took the $$$.

Edit: it is like my buddy who is looking at a huge bill on his Model Y for a crunched liftgate. You could totally fix it for 1/4 of the cost using traditional bodywork in a way that would look totally fine on the outside and not be noticed by most observers. The panel is steel, there's no magic tesla/EV wizardry there (there is a camera on that panel, but not near the damage). It might be the single most normal piece on a Tesla. Bondo, maybe a bit of welding, blend some paint, you've got a passable fix that's almost invisible from outside (and come on, it is a silly looking crossover kid hauler that's already been repaired once from a parking lot hit and run...)

But he's at a nice body shop driving a tesla...so $$$$

Well, if you are just leasing a car or you aren't going to keep it very long, or its an old cheap car that you want to keep alive sure, then maybe you go with Earl Scheib because really who gives a F*ck.



But if its a nice car and you plan to keep it, you probably want it done correctly, by guys who know these cars and work on them all the time.

Fixing a Tesla

I continue to be amazed by your eidetic recall for this sort of minutiae.

I feel like I should be giving you these sorts of details about every sort of car or watch incident or service I have because you have a more detailed grasp of every service anyone you've ever met has had than I do of my own vehicles and devices!

Do you write this stuff down or are you really just a savant? It's really impressive.

One of my kids is the same way with written info. Kid is basically like a walking talking wikipedia for so many things but has a normal memory for information received verbally. Will really help if the kid goes into certain fields that require a lot of information retention but not sure careers like that will exist in 20 years.

Yes, I'm slightly insane and retain all sorts of silly information from stories I hear, and articles I've read especially if it is about cars or watches. I remember dirty limericks my dad taught me as a boy and can quote all sorts of movie lines. I even know what the covers look like on certain car magazines that had articles that I read as a kid in the 1980s...January 1986 Road & Track every current production Porsche in Guards Red, the 911 Carrera, 944, 944 Turbo, 911 Turbo, and 928S. Other stupid facts off the top of my head horsepower for all of them in the order listed 200, 143, 217, 282, 288. May 1986 cover of Car and Driver the then new Ferrari 328GTS in red, 0-60 5.6 seconds. I can remember comments by the authors, "Once the transmission is warmed up it's slicker than cocaine dealer's lawyer." I remember movements for various watches, how much the cost in year X (16520 Daytona $3,800 in 1994, $4,350 in early 1996, $5,100 in late 1996, then $5,500 etc).

If write something down, it's like it's locked into my brain. Back in the day, I could nearly write down a professor's lecture verbatim, quote it on exams, and easily apply it to fact patterns for exams...so lots of my classmates wanted copies of all my class notes.

I'm insane enough to drive my friends crazy, but they keep coming back for more! Go figure...I guess they are gluttons for punishment.

Frfr. I had my 3 year service in June and was recommended to replace my spark plugs. The Porsche Service Center told me the cost and I don't remember what the cost was. I just know it was a couple $1000. And this is my OWN CAR!!!

Meanwhile @Dino944 is remembering all these details about everyone else's cars.

A few years ago it cost me just under $1,900, but that included replacing the V belt and I had coupons that knocked $320 off the bill. They just keep hiking of the prices to pay for the fancier waiting rooms and espresso machines. When I first got my 981S in 2014 the labor rate was $130. After building the new showroom it went up to $160. Now it's $239 per hour and this was the first year in a long time that they didn't jack up the labor rate.

 

[otc]

But if its a nice car and you plan to keep it, you probably want it done correctly, by guys who know these cars and work on them all the time.

I dunno…there’s something to be said for keeping the original bumper in place with its original factory paint.

Replacing the whole thing and praying the shop can nail the color seems a lot worse than finding an alternative way to hold a plastic trim piece in place.

 

[jbarwick]

Frfr. I had my 3 year service in June and was recommended to replace my spark plugs. The Porsche Service Center told me the cost and I don't remember what the cost was. I just know it was a couple $1000. And this is my OWN CAR!!!

Meanwhile @Dino944 is remembering all these details about everyone else's cars.

I had to look mine up for you to give you an idea. I recall Porsche was maybe 20% more than these costs at an indy.

Spark Plugs: $550
Cabin filters: $267
Brake Fluid: $191
Oil Change: $275
Didn't have coolant done on mine.

All of these were reasonable but tires from Porsche were a joke. The tires alone were like 2x what you could order them for online and maybe 50% more than what the shop charged me.

 

[patrick_b]

I've heard you can get around Carfax reporting if you fix on your own but given the history of my car, all owners were not DIY individuals from what I can see. Submitted a dispute with Carfax so we will see.

I will say that carfax while useful directionally is far from perfect/accurate. I often wonder about a relatively late model car with no oil changes listed. It's certainly possible that someone bought a Porsche or M car and only changed the oil once in 30K miles but it seems more likely that it wasn't reported accurately.

 

[Piobaire]

So what's a Peak Porsche going to cost with a 60% tariff?

 

[Dino944]

I dunno…there’s something to be said for keeping the original bumper in place with its original factory paint.

Replacing the whole thing and praying the shop can nail the color seems a lot worse than finding an alternative way to hold a plastic trim piece in place.

I used to believe that, and it sounds like that would be true. But I have to tell you, these days, it's not always the case. Some companies, don't paint all the car parts on the same day, especially since some parts are plastic and not metal (perhaps sometimes the paint doesn't adhere quite the same way on plastic as it does on metal.). No joke, I've seen a few new cars where the front bumper cap or back bumper cap, were slightly off in terms of color shade from the rest of the car. In some lighting it might not be noticeable and in others it's more obvious. Not to mention, BMW has an entire department where not only do the install certain what I think they call portside installation options (or at least they used to call them that), but they also have a department where cars that get damaged in transit get parts repainted, repaired and sold as new and there is no carfax for those. So be very careful next time you take delivery of a new vehicle.

I had to look mine up for you to give you an idea. I recall Porsche was maybe 20% more than these costs at an indy.

Spark Plugs: $550
Cabin filters: $267
Brake Fluid: $191
Oil Change: $275
Didn't have coolant done on mine.

All of these were reasonable but tires from Porsche were a joke. The tires alone were like 2x what you could order them for online and maybe 50% more than what the shop charged me.

That's really cheap for a Porsche oil change! My local Porsche dealer wanted $550 for an oil change, but I brought a coupon from a competing Porsche dealer that was getting $295. I'm sure they make money on all the people who are too lazy to shop around. I've seen coupons for brake fluid flush for $240 at Porsche dealerships.

The indy that a lot of people use, really isn't much of a bargain. Last I saw when I was comparing pricing, his labor rate was $10 more per hour than the dealership. Maybe because they do a lot of track support that is how they justify having a higher labor rate? The only thing I've had them do is replace tires and do an alignment at the same time.

I still think it is still worth it to check with dealers for tires and installation. On my MB the dealer was actually the least expensive option...which completely shocked me!

 

[jbarwick]

Well $3,200 or somewhere there about for 4 Pilot Sport 4S was laughable…

 

[Texasmade]

So what's a Peak Porsche going to cost with a 60% tariff?

According to the Porsche forums, this is just a negotiation tactic to get Germany to buy more US natural gas so nothing to worry about

 

[Dino944]

I'm not 100% sure but I think the green hat thing is more of a mainland China. My parents are Cantonese (Hong Kong) and this was never a thing with them.

My Chinese friends didn't have any issues with the color green or a green car. They never heard of the green hat. They also said their families are very superstitious about various things.

 

[HRoi]

I still think it is still worth it to check with dealers for tires and installation. On my MB the dealer was actually the least expensive option...which completely shocked me!

Well $3,200 or somewhere there about for 4 Pilot Sport 4S was laughable…

I suspect the service manager has a lot of latitude on tire pricing. I never used to use the dealer for tire replacements, but my new SA quoted me prices that were slightly slightly below tire rack’s. Since the car’s usually already there, it was more convenient to just let them do it. Still got hosed on dat $239/hr labor eats, I guess?

 

[patrick_b]

Thoughts on the S/T by Chris Harris. Every car YouTube channel’s had a go with the S/T but I quite like Harris's take and (much like Henry Catchpole’s videos) they are always well produced. Lovely spec as well in a gorgeous PTS Blue [Manaus?]. Not the same press car that everybody reviewed last year.

Loved his observation that Porsche chose the transmission as the key feature that makes this model special. Pairing a fantastic gearbox with the lightweight flywheel instead of more power or downforce, faster Ring time or bigger wang. It's all about the engagement.

If you make it to the end, he does a few laps with a 20 something passenger who is clearly not an enthusiast. The ear to ear grin he has was really fun to watch. It's like watching a future car guy being born. Give that kid a year and he'll have traded in his Honda Jazz for a Civic Type R.

 

[sugarbutch]

If you make it to the end, he does a few laps with a 20 something passenger who is clearly not an enthusiast. The ear to ear grin he has was really fun to watch. It's like watching a future car guy being born. Give that kid a year and he'll have traded in his Honda Jazz for a Civic Type R.

I'm pretty sure that's this guy:

 

[VaderDave]

My Chinese friends didn't have any issues with the color green or a green car. They never heard of the green hat. They also said their families are very superstitious about various things.

Over the years I have had quite a few clients of Chinese descent set up trusts and create corporations and LLCs and FLPs. Almost every one of them came up with a name for the entity that included "Green" in it--they all said that green is the color of money, so that's a good thing.

 

[NakedYoga]

I remember dirty limericks my dad taught me as a boy

 

[Roikins]

Over the years I have had quite a few clients of Chinese descent set up trusts and create corporations and LLCs and FLPs. Almost every one of them came up with a name for the entity that included "Green" in it--they all said that green is the color of money, so that's a good thing.

Yeah, aren't a lot of Chinese into the green jade thing for prosperity and longevity?