I bought a 98R Porsche 996 (current shape 911) from a reputable independant/specialist in June this year. I was pleased with the car and it came with 12 month warranty issued by a small outfit never heard of before.
The dealer told me the warranty was transferable and the policy stated transfer was OK (but subject to underwriters decision) and a £25 fee provided car sold privately.
The car wasn't for me and so I advertised it last month with balance of warranty and sold as such. When I sent the policy off for amendment, the broker bounced it back and said the underwriter was no longer transferring warranties on certain models (like Porsche!). I'd done just 4,000 miles in 4 months and made no claims on the policy.
Spoke to the dealer and the insurer. They agreed to transfer policy provided car undergoes 99 point check at the dealer at my cost. The dealer blames the insurer, the insurer says he will waive the £25 fee. Trouble is I sold the car with the transferable warranty and agreed with the buyer to sort it out.
The dealer now wants 2 hours labour to do the inspection at my cost. When I asked what if anything was found, would it be covered under warranty, the dealer says "we'll cross that bridge when we come to it". I'm not happy about this open ended agreement but want to keep my buyer happy.
Car is booked in on Thursday for the check. How would you handle this?
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It does seem like a bit of a run-around, but if you're happy with the price you got privately then I'd stump up the 2 hours labour cost (must be < £100). It always seems tricky selling expensive cars privately. If you have a buyer, keep him sweet!
I'd do it, but also have a go at the dealer, you've spent decent money with him and they're trying to do you for £100.
After all what is their 99 point check going include without having factory diagnostic machines? Washer fluid levels and a quick thrash round the block I reckon.
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Despite the obvious temptation to say "996? You lucky, lucky person" I must say you are on a bit of a sticky wicket.
The warranty states transferrable subject to underwriters' decision. Regretably, this would suggest you should have checked with the warranty outfit before advertising.
Anyway, what's done is done, so how to proceed. I would assume that a couple of hour's labour at a Porsche specialist is not going to be peanuts. Is there scope for you to ring the purchaser and explain that the warranty transfer is subject to inspection and would they meet you halfway? Failing, that, it is the smaller of the bullets on offer, so take a gentle bite on it.
As regards the larger bullet (anything being found during the inspection); Provided the car is still under your ownership and the fault is included under the original warranty, then there is no way they can back out of fixing it under the original contract.
Fingers crossed for a clean inspection and favourable underwriter's decision, although you have to accept that the two do not have to go hand in hand.
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If you are anywhere near Runcorn I can put you in touch with an independent who I find revving the socks off a Porsche on his rolling road every other time I go there. He trades as ABG Racing and charges £30/hr - tho I suppose Porsche hours might cost more?
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Isn't it amazing how many times we hear of the used car buyer turning from customer to pawn the moment the deal is done...in a familiar game played by the dealer/warranty combo.
I guess this car would have cost £25-£30K and it came from a specialist of repute yet they sent it out with a tin-pot 12mth insurance based warranty....unbelievable.
A true specialist should have given this car a thorough service and fresh MOT prior to you collecting it. They will be liable for faults up to six months after sale anyway and frankly it might have been in keeping with the prestige nature of this for them to have offered to stand by the vehicle themselves for a further 6 months rather than involve a third party warranty.
For the original selling garage to be inspecting this vehicle at two hours labour just 4mths/4K after they sold it to you is plain daft, ten minutes (free of change) on the ramp would confirm anything important they needed to check.
If you go through with all of this just tell them you will be holding them responsible under current consumer law for any faults found.
Personally I'd rather tell the buyer he takes it without warranty, unless he pays all transfer costs. If he's not happy offer to cancel the sale and re-sell it on the basis of no warranty.
In progressing this as the warranty guys want you risk the garage finding something that they refuse to pay for and that the warranty company will find is excluded. Then you still can't complete the sale without paying for the inspection and the repairs!
I do wish you luck and hope it is far smoother than these worse case scenarios.
M.M
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The car was closer to £40k! (Haven't seen any 996's below £35 yet). The dealer supplied it fully serviced, 2 new tyres, years MOT, 12 month warranty etc. They were pleasant to deal with and the sale to me of the car couldn't be questioned.
I then sold the car, cash swapped hands etc and showed the buyer the warranty document, period to run etc and told him I would send it off with a cheque and he'd get in back in due course. All this was done after the sale was agreed and only a week or two later did the bad news come back from the broker.
The warranty was "tin pot" in that it had a £2,000 per claim limit. Not that useful on a tiptronic 996 if it is needed in anger, however if I had suffered major problems in the 12 months, my first call would have been the supplying dealer as suggested.
The problem is now the car is sold and the buyer doesn't yet have his warranty. The comments here will help in my conversation with the dealer tomorrow prior to the new owner taking the car down there for a check.
We're in Surrey/Sussex, so a bit far for Runcorn.
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Sorry if it's a bit off topic, but how did you find the 996 to live with as a day to day prospect? I ask as a 996 is one of the potential contenders to fill the present gap in the Bagpuss garage following return of the company car. Naturally subject to approval by Mrs. Bagpuss...
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Unfortunately I didn't rate it as a practical day to day car. You couldn't get much other than a few bags of shopping in the "boot", I had to always travel light as only a small suitcase fit. You could only fit two children in the back, the roof line was too low for adults even on a short journey.
The car drew too much attention which in this country is a bad thing. I was always worried where it was parked, often had kids in Astra's wanting to have a go at the lights, BMW's up the back on the motorway because my personal speed limit was never enough for them.
The handling was not that impressive for public road use. I am sure it's a great track car, but I found the back end a bit twitchy on wet leafy roads compared to my previous gizmo'd Audi S3's.
The upside was it did about 30mpg driven carefully and had a fantastic sound when opened up.
I had to buy a second car to complement it, going to the tip, to the airport etc and ended up with a 96N Golf 1.8GL with electric everything for £2,200. For the following weeks the discrepancy between the two didn't seem to be worth £35 grand to me and so I sold the 996 and use the Golf as my only car.
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Thanks for the reply.
I live in south Germany so the attention thing isn't really an issue as Porsches are fairly common here and you can get a good 3 year old Carrera 2 for around 45,000 Euros. On the other hand the lack of boot space could be more of a problem, even though the local dealer tried to convince me that the boot is bigger than it looks. I'll leave the big decision until after the winter anyway as I guess 300bhp rear engined sports cars aren't ideal transport when there's 2 feet of snow on the ground.
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