Meeting with Sales & Service Managers - questions to ask

[Henke]

I have a meeting setup this week to meet with the sales manager and the service manager at my local dealer where I have ordered my Taycan 4S. The order is in stage 1, freeze date is in about 3 weeks and delivery date is currently early December.

The purpose of the meeting is to build up a rapport with these folks prior to receiving the car and to receive some assurances on how issues would be handled etc. I would appreciate any advice the forum can give me on what questions I should be asking. Here is my current list of questions:

• I've heard about various issues with the car, how would any problems be handled by your team?
• What is your escalation procedure?
• What is a typical turnaround time to fix common problems and recalls? Some people have complained about being without their car for weeks, parts coming from Germany
• What is your policy for loaner vehicles when my car is off the road?
• How many trained Taycan technicians do you have at this location?
• Common problems include logging in to the car, loss of power, charging issues at EA - how have you handled these problems? How long have they taken to fix?
• For a major software update, how long would you have the car? What is the success/failure rate of a major software update?
• How do you communicate with me when you have the car? Will it be easy to call in and speak to a human being etc?

Thanks for any additional recommendations you may have for me!

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[Kevin BM]

Wow - sounds like you have a great OPC. Can’t get my salesman to talk to me at the moment

 

[daveo4EV]

• I've heard about various issues with the car, how would any problems be handled by your team?
• What is your escalation procedure?
• What is a typical turnaround time to fix common problems and recalls? Some people have complained about being without their car for weeks, parts coming from Germany
• What is your policy for loaner vehicles when my car is off the road?
• How many trained Taycan technicians do you have at this location?
• Common problems include logging in to the car, loss of power, charging issues at EA - how have you handled these problems? How long have they taken to fix?
• For a major software update, how long would you have the car? What is the success/failure rate of a major software update?
• How do you communicate with me when you have the car? Will it be easy to call in and speak to a human being etc?

#1 - they will do the best they can and most issues can be resolved in 3 days or less - but depending on parts availability, severity of the problem, and extended diagnostic steps that may be required we can not offer at this time an fixed time frame for hypothetical problems
#2 - We escalate to Porsche North America Technical support that may engage Porsche Germany as necessary - this process can take days or weeks.
#3 - depends on the dealer if the dealer can’t solve the problem normally Porsche NA can step in and arrange alternative transportation.
#4 - not enough
#5 - power issues is currently resolved via recall, EA issues are routinely undiagnosible and EA is not associated with Porsche - visibility into EA issues is very very poor and your local service technician or Porsche NA can not do anything with regards to EA charging problems unless they can be reproduced at local fast charging facilities with in reasonable reach of the service center. repair times vary based on circumstance and parts availability and again I would be suprised if they can commit to a fixed time frame for hypothetical problems
#6 - cars leaving that factory at this time have no pending software updates and future updates should not take longer than a day. Success/Failure aggregate statistics are corporate confidential information and can not be shared at this time.
#7- depending on the dealership and service techs I’ve personally found it easy to call in and check status - YMMV

I’d be surprised if you get any concrete responses to you hypothetical question. How long will it take to fix my car? I don’t know until we’ve diagnosed the problem. Some problems “can not yet be fixed” - for example my 2021 Cayenne currently has a common, but rare check engine light problem - it has been diagnosed 3 times time, and root cause is unknown and Porsche held car for diagnosis for over 90 days - they are aware of an issue in this space with the Cayennes fleet wide and have committed to providing a software fix at some future date, but can not provide a time line. If I choose to pursue it Porsche must buy the vehicle back under California lemon law. The current state of this problem is simple: yes it’s a problem, there is no actual fix at this time, we are working on a future resolution to this issue with an unknown time frame for delivery of the fix. If you/I require a better answer for this actual (vs. hypothetical) problem your only option to look elsewhere for a vehicle after Porsche buys the broken unfixable one back. And this is for a vehicle with far more history/experience than porsche has with a pure EV…

if you do get concrete answers to your questions they will be lies and platatudes. No one can honestly answer most the questions you are putting forward since it requires predicting the future for hypothetical problems.

with regards to the software update: my car took 4 days, and a forum member and person I know personally took over 60 days due to part failures induced by the update and the ordering time and lead times for the replacement parts. The answers to most of your questions are unknowable and will vary based on circumstance and contemporary environmental conditions that can not be foreseen. If you want that kind of certainty I’d suggest you go with a higher volume vehicle that is less bespoke than the Taycan and therefore has higher volumes and fewer specific problems.

I appreciate the spirit of your requests, but honestly you are asking for certainity where there can be none.

most of your questions boil down to: when my Taycan breaks for some future unknow reason at some future time how long can I expect to be without the vehicle?

the _ONLY_ honest answer is: We don’t know but will try and minimize the time you are without the vehicle, but it can (and has) taken months sometimes to resolve these issues.

good luck with you meetings - I’ll be interested to here the lies responses you get.

 

[F16HTON]

@daveo4EV has hit the nail right on the head. As of today, your car has zero issues because it has not been built yet.

It may never have an issue in the future either. I understand you are using past performance to predict future performance, however just about everything you read about here on the Taycan forum will be old news by the time you receive your car.

There may be no issues, or there may be many new issues that have been determined to exist. Hard to say.

When you get your car, there will be no software updates to be installed. The dealer will not be installing any updates because they will have been performed at the port when the car arrives.

I'd try to not get too anxious over things, there is no need to control an issue that does not currently exist.

 

[Wakesurfer]

I have a meeting setup this week to meet with the sales manager and the service manager at my local dealer where I have ordered my Taycan 4S. The order is in stage 1, freeze date is in about 3 weeks and delivery date is currently early December.

The purpose of the meeting is to build up a rapport with these folks prior to receiving the car and to receive some assurances on how issues would be handled etc. I would appreciate any advice the forum can give me on what questions I should be asking. Here is my current list of questions:

• I've heard about various issues with the car, how would any problems be handled by your team?
• What is your escalation procedure?
• What is a typical turnaround time to fix common problems and recalls? Some people have complained about being without their car for weeks, parts coming from Germany
• What is your policy for loaner vehicles when my car is off the road?
• How many trained Taycan technicians do you have at this location?
• Common problems include logging in to the car, loss of power, charging issues at EA - how have you handled these problems? How long have they taken to fix?
• For a major software update, how long would you have the car? What is the success/failure rate of a major software update?
• How do you communicate with me when you have the car? Will it be easy to call in and speak to a human being etc?

Thanks for any additional recommendations you may have for me!

My two cents.................if you are entering into an automobile purchase agreement and this is the starting point....................buy something else. You do have some questions that can be answered like what is the policy for loaner vehicles, how do you communicate with me, etc. All of the other questions are so subjective and open ended no one will be able to answer them with any certainty.........and if they do and something happens with your car and the dealership cannot live up to their responses to your questions what are you going to do??? What it it takes 5 months to get parts from Germany and they projected 6 weeks, or the tech that works on Taycan's quits and there is no one qualified to work on your car until they hire someone else? You are setting yourself up for levels of frustration that are most likely inevitable.

My car has not experienced any of the issues that others post on this board. I took delivery in late February, received the recall/update notice in April, made an appointment, took my car in, drove home in a loaner and two days later drove back delivered the loaner and drove home in my car. No issues before the update and none since.

 

[daveo4EV]

Thanks for any additional recommendations you may have for me!

reading between the lines of your questions I recommend you do not buy a Taycan.

 

[daveo4EV]

I have a meeting setup this week to meet with the sales manager and the service manager at my local dealer where I have ordered my Taycan 4S. The order is in stage 1, freeze date is in about 3 weeks and delivery date is currently early December.

The purpose of the meeting is to build up a rapport with these folks prior to receiving the car and to receive some assurances on how issues would be handled etc. I would appreciate any advice the forum can give me on what questions I should be asking. Here is my current list of questions:

• I've heard about various issues with the car, how would any problems be handled by your team?
• What is your escalation procedure?
• What is a typical turnaround time to fix common problems and recalls? Some people have complained about being without their car for weeks, parts coming from Germany
• What is your policy for loaner vehicles when my car is off the road?
• How many trained Taycan technicians do you have at this location?
• Common problems include logging in to the car, loss of power, charging issues at EA - how have you handled these problems? How long have they taken to fix?
• For a major software update, how long would you have the car? What is the success/failure rate of a major software update?
• How do you communicate with me when you have the car? Will it be easy to call in and speak to a human being etc?

Thanks for any additional recommendations you may have for me!

have you asked these questions of your local Tesla service center -I owned Tesla (5) for 7 years - ROFL laughing at their responses..

 

[mikeva]

This is my observation also ^^^

 

[CandianPorsche83]

My two cents. These questions have very little chance of building any rapport. Rightfully or wrongfully you are putting them on the defensive before your car even gets here.

 

[dwaltchack]

My two cents. These questions have very little chance of building any rapport. Rightfully or wrongfully you are putting them on the defensive before your car even gets here.

totally. If I was the dealer and you hit me with that I'd send you elsewhere. there's plenty of customers and everything is backordered.

 

[Henke]

My two cents.................if you are entering into an automobile purchase agreement and this is the starting point....................buy something else. You do have some questions that can be answered like what is the policy for loaner vehicles, how do you communicate with me, etc. All of the other questions are so subjective and open ended no one will be able to answer them with any certainty.........and if they do and something happens with your car and the dealership cannot live up to their responses to your questions what are you going to do??? What it it takes 5 months to get parts from Germany and they projected 6 weeks, or the tech that works on Taycan's quits and there is no one qualified to work on your car until they hire someone else? You are setting yourself up for levels of frustration that are most likely inevitable.

My car has not experienced any of the issues that others post on this board. I took delivery in late February, received the recall/update notice in April, made an appointment, took my car in, drove home in a loaner and two days later drove back delivered the loaner and drove home in my car. No issues before the update and none since.

reading between the lines of your questions I recommend you do not buy a Taycan.

My two cents. These questions have very little chance of building any rapport. Rightfully or wrongfully you are putting them on the defensive before your car even gets here.

totally. If I was the dealer and you hit me with that I'd send you elsewhere. there's plenty of customers and everything is backordered.

OK, I get the message, a pretty resounding "these questions are a waste of time".

Has anyone attempted to build rapport with their dealership prior to getting their car? I'm not expecting perfection, but I would like to know that if there is a problem, the dealership is on my side. I like to be a good customer in the hope that the dealer will be more inclined to go an extra mile to help me if there is an issue.

 

[daveo4EV]

I’ve found over the years rapport = spending money and being a regular customer - very little comes from talk - but if you’ve purchased and followed through with actions as a reliable and reasonable customer dealers will do their best to help you.

at least that has been how it works for me.

 

[4thPcar]

I’d really like to know…. Is there any answer an honest Porsche employee might give you that would cause you to NOT buy a car? If not, why bother asking them? You are not marrying the dealership. At end of the day you are just another customer. They won’t be taking you home to meet the family.

 

[BTN1]

Questions seem rather intense.
Like a setup for failure regardless of any type of car mfg..

If attempt is to build rapport, I think this will do exactly the opposite...just my penny x 2...

 

[chrisk]

(Only) The loaner policy question is a useful one in my opinion.
A few years ago I was ready to buy a Mercedes GLC 43 but the Merc dealer was not offering loaners and that was a deal breaker for me because that would have been my only car.
I bought a Macan S instead. The Macan had been at the dealer many times for repairs and maintenance but I was
never without 4 wheels since I was always offered a loaner.

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