4S CT ownership didn't get off to a good start

[12ACD]

I took delivery of this lovely looking car in early February and was absolutely delighted with it.

10 Days and less than 300 miles later it was being recovered to a Porsche Approved Repair specialist after I damaged a wheel.

Doesn't look too bad does it? Those two images above have lead to a close to £20,000 insurance claim.

So life with the Taycan 4S CT hasn’t gone as smooth as we were hoping.

I managed just under 300 miles in the first 10 days I had the car, then coming home from the gym one evening hit some debris/hardcore that had been washed into the road after heavy rain. Effectively I’ve heavily kerbed a wheel and there’s a tiny scuff on the bodywork. Annoying but it is what it is. The impact wasn’t enough for the tyre to deflate, so I drove home and all was good and continued using the car until I figured out what it was going cost to repair.

There’s a chunk out of the wheel rim and a bit out of the side wall of the tyre and a scuff on the rear wheel. So new front wheel and tyre and a refurb required on the rear. Well that’s what I thought.

Over the next few days I used the car normally and it drove completely normally, but I was a little worried about the small chunk of tyre missing so kept it to short journey's

So I looked at buying a new wheel/tyre – £2,500 for the front, plus a refurb on the rear plus a little bit of paint so at that point I’m making an insurance claim. That’s where things started to go wrong.

The car was recovered to one of the Porsche Approved repairers – M&A Coachworks, North London. They inspected the car and phoned me a few days later.

It needs a new wheel and tyre for the front, a new wheel and tyre for the rear (Porsche don’t allow refurbs and if you replace the wheel you have to replace the tyre also despite it being brand new and undamaged).

New lower front splitter, new wheel arch and indicator, paint to lower edge of front bumper.

Porsche insist that due to the nature of the impact the suspension strut and entire suspension assembly on the corner concerned are replaced as they are made from Aluminium and may be damaged.

As the steering rack is a sealed unit and non serviceable that also may be damaged and required replacement, as this is attached to the steering column which is a sealed unit and may be damaged that also requires replacement.

The strut mounting point then had to be stress/crack tested, the bodyshell then needs to be put on a jig for an alignment check. Total cost around £15,000 + vat.

All for what is effectively a kerbed wheel.

So I objected with the insurer who agreed to an independent inspection, two in fact. Neither of which displayed any damaged to any of the huge list of components that have been slated to be replaced.

I asked if they could replaced the front wheel/tyre, take the car to a Porsche OPC for inspection and alignment check to see if any extra work was required – of course the insurers were all for this, the accident repair centre weren’t and stated unless all the work was carried out that they’d deemed necessary the warranty on the car would be invalidated by Porsche based on their assessment as a Porsche Approved repair centre.

So here we are a month later and the work has been authorized and I get the car back about mid April. The reality is no longer want it back.

With loan car costs, recovery costs and two inspection costs we're at close to £20,000.

My business partners 4S saloon also left on the back of a low loader for the second time in three months last week. It just looks like we're not meant to have these cars. Between us we've not had an insurance claim/accident in 25 years then we have 3 in three months.

Effectively I can't drive this Taycan on the roads in and around where I live for fear of damaging it (my business partners saloon suffering the same fate). It simply can't deal with the road surface/pot holes in the way any of my other cars (or business partners cars) can. i.e. normally. If a kerbed wheel leads to a complete suspension change every time it happens "as a precuationary measure" these cars are very quickly going to become uninsurable.

I've driven all sorts of cars over the years and I've never been "scared" to drive anything through fear of damaging it. Same goes for my business partner. There are just so many occassions now when we both feel we simply can't use the Taycan that it's pointless keeping them.

So when they both arrive back from repair they will be going.

My first foray into Porsche ownership is going to be a short one and I'm unlikely to be visiting again. Which is a shame, these are lovely vehicles but I just can't own a car that I'm scared of driving through fear of damaging it through normal daily driving.

 

[WuffvonTrips]

Porsche insist that due to the nature of the impact the suspension strut and entire suspension assembly on the corner concerned are replaced as they are made from Aluminium and may be damaged.

As the steering rack is a sealed unit and non serviceable that also may be damaged and required replacement, as this is attached to the steering column which is a sealed unit and may be damaged that also requires replacement.

Sorry to just pick one aspect of your sobering and disappointing report...but how transparent was the process that arrived at Porsche's conclusions, e.g. do they have specific data such as impact forces, or is there just a list of things that they want replacing whenever their approved repairers identify wheel damage?

 

[12ACD]

Sorry to just pick one aspect of your sobering and disappointing report...but how transparent was the process that arrived at Porsche's conclusions, e.g. do they have specific data such as impact forces, or is there just a list of things that they want replacing whenever their approved repairers identify wheel damage?

This is an arbitary list of things that require replacement in incidents involving a damaged wheel as dictated by Porsche to the Porsche Approved repairers. The fact there is no visible damage to any of the components that require replacement is irrelevant. The potential that there may be damage is enough to consider complete replacement. No specific tests are required to determine if damage has occured - it's simply a policy of replace it all.

It is made very clear that the warranty will be void if you do not follow the repair procedure once it's been estimated and diagnosed.

Effectively all the sub contracted "Porsche Approved Repairers" in the UK are reading from the same manual and are required to follow this process.

Neither I nor the insurers are happy about this but the threat of void warranty means there's effectively no appeal. With all that in mind I now have no interest in owning this car go forward and neither does my business partner with his saloon.

 

[Murph7355]

Following your woes on PH.

• Did they break the pricing down for each bit?
• I can partly understand the wheel and tyre situation
• Presumably the lower front splitter, wheel arch, indicator, and lower edge of front bumper were actually all damaged?
• The suspension/steering thing is the one that seems odd. Cars get thumped all the time in day to day driving. You'd think an alignment check and an inspection would tell them whether there were any fundamental issues, and replace if there are any issues. It just seems so wasteful of resources (on top of the sheer expense - which Porsche won't care about as they aren't paying)

I suspect they'll hide behind liability issues. But you'd think with their engineering talent they could check and test these things without simply saying "replace the lot". Sealed units in racks etc seems daft too. Though I guess they are lifed to the car.

Have you asked your insurer to sort/tackle this? I'm surprised they're not going nuts about this, and it sounds like it's being left to you? If I were you, I'd forget about the ins and outs and just leave it to your insurer to sort. Ultimately the scale of the claim, especially with you being claim free for so long, is unlikely to hurt your insurance that badly (do you have protected NCB?).

Good luck with however it turns out. It'll be worth bearing in mind that this sort of thing might not be restricted to Porsche these days...ultimately that's what we have insurance for (and let the insurer deal with it).

 

[12ACD]

Following your woes on PH.

• Did they break the pricing down for each bit?
• I can partly understand the wheel and tyre situation
• Presumably the lower front splitter, wheel arch, indicator, and lower edge of front bumper were actually all damaged?
• The suspension/steering thing is the one that seems odd. Cars get thumped all the time in day to day driving. You'd think an alignment check and an inspection would tell them whether there were any fundamental issues, and replace if there are any issues. It just seems so wasteful of resources (on top of the sheer expense - which Porsche won't care about as they aren't paying)

I suspect they'll hide behind liability issues. But you'd think with their engineering talent they could check and test these things without simply saying "replace the lot". Sealed units in racks etc seems daft too. Though I guess they are lifed to the car.

Have you asked your insurer to sort/tackle this? I'm surprised they're not going nuts about this, and it sounds like it's being left to you? If I were you, I'd forget about the ins and outs and just leave it to your insurer to sort. Ultimately the scale of the claim, especially with you being claim free for so long, is unlikely to hurt your insurance that badly (do you have protected NCB?).

Good luck with however it turns out. It'll be worth bearing in mind that this sort of thing might not be restricted to Porsche these days...ultimately that's what we have insurance for (and let the insurer deal with it).

I have a full breakdown of the work required from the approved repairer based on the centralised computer system they all use (that links with the insurers).

I had two inspections done, one by the insurers (who have been very helpful) and a second independent inspection. Neither of which documented any damage to anything other than the wheel and surrounding bodywork, but both refered to the policy determined by Porsche to incidents of this nature.

The repairer effectively holds all the cards. The insurers hands are tied since they can't over ride the void warranty threat which ultimately is coming from the manufacturer.

We have two of these cars as company vehicles, we're now into over £40K of insurance payouts in the first 3 months between them for what have been very minor incidents.

Where do you think Taycan insurance premiums are going? It's quite absurd actually. These are meant to be daily drivers, expensive daily drivers sure, but they aren't supercars yet the repair costs on them are absurd.

We've taken the decision to get out of them both now whilst the market is still so bouyant and still getting "overs" on nearly new cars.

Fortunately we bought these rather than lease them, so we can simply sell them. I see no long term ownership potential with these cars with this scale of repair costs.

 

[Vercingetorix]

I wonder what the data recorder says. That front wheel hit something and hard. I could easily see this doing a lot damage. That wheel/tire combo probably weighs 60 lbs.

 

[12ACD]

I wonder what the data recorder says. That front wheel hit something and hard. I could easily see this doing a lot damage. That wheel/tire combo probably weighs 60 lbs.

The impact wasn't severe enough to puncture the tyre.

Any Data log is irrelvant anyhow - any "structural" damage the necessitates wheel repacement automatically triggers all the associated parts I detailed in post 1.

In this case the "log" is - Does the wheel require replacement = Yes, Then all attached compnents are to be replaced.

 

[Jhenson29]

I agree with selling the car(s) if you don’t like the repair costs.

 

[BigBob]

Were you always planning on getting insurance to cover the damage - Is that why you went via the Porsche recovery route? Complete hindsight talking here, but did you consider taking it in to a high end repair shop and getting it priced to do yourself? I guess it depends on your insurance excess amounts too?

Anyway, total nightmare for you (and your insurer), sorry it's worked out like that.

 

[12ACD]

Were you always planning on getting insurance to cover the damage - Is that why you went via the Porsche recovery route? Complete hindsight talking here, but did you consider taking it in to a high end repair shop and getting it priced to do yourself? I guess it depends on your insurance excess amounts too?

Anyway, total nightmare for you (and your insurer), sorry it's worked out like that.

Initially I was just going to buy a wheel/tyre myself, but once I got the cost of that and the other small bits and pieces it made "sense" to claim. My excess isn't big.

The car didn't actually need to be recovered it drove just fine. It's only the insurers being risk averse that they sent a low loader to collect it.

Once in the insurers hands they automatically send it to one of 14 Porsche Approved Repairers in the UK - you can see who they are here:-

https://www.porsche.com/uk/accessor...tenance/repairexpertise/recommendedrepairers/

Interestingly Porsche have no facilities themselves - these are all outsourced to third parties who are required to conform to set repair guidelines produced by Porsche. Mine was number 6. That's who my insurer has an agreement with for Porsche Repairs.

There was legislation in 2003 that stated you didn't have to use manufacturer approved repairers (I've found this out after the fact) as long as they use Porsche parts, however I've not had a straight answer to if that does or doesn't affect the warranty.

Warranty is the crux of the issue here. The threat of warranty removal on a brand new vehicle removes your options.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. It looks like I should have just swallowed the £4K repair costs for wheels and a bit of paint myself and carried on. That just leaves you wondering what you're insured for.

 

[Jhenson29]

That just leaves you wondering what you're insured for.

Yes, depends on how you view insurance.

I only have it for catastrophic loss and keep very high deductibles. It would have never crossed my mind to turn this in for insurance.

 

[WuffvonTrips]

Ignoring the insurance aspect...what would happen presenting a damaged wheel at a Porsche dealer?
Wheel replaced, no checks for other damage?
Wheel replaced, checks for other damage?
Wheel replaced, checks for other damage plus replace everything required by Porsche Warranty including items that can't be checked for integrity?
Redirected to Porsche Approved Repairer?

 

[BigBob]

Initially I was just going to buy a wheel/tyre myself, but once I got the cost of that and the other small bits and pieces it made "sense" to claim. My excess isn't big.

The car didn't actually need to be recovered it drove just fine. It's only the insurers being risk averse that they sent a low loader to collect it.

Once in the insurers hands they automatically send it to one of 14 Porsche Approved Repairers in the UK - you can see who they are here:-

https://www.porsche.com/uk/accessor...tenance/repairexpertise/recommendedrepairers/

Interestingly Porsche have no facilities themselves - these are all outsourced to third parties who are required to conform to set repair guidelines produced by Porsche. Mine was number 6. That's who my insurer has an agreement with for Porsche Repairs.

There was legislation in 2003 that stated you didn't have to use manufacturer approved repairers (I've found this out after the fact) as long as they use Porsche parts, however I've not had a straight answer to if that does or doesn't affect the warranty.

Warranty is the crux of the issue here. The threat of warranty removal on a brand new vehicle removes your options.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. It looks like I should have just swallowed the £4K repair costs for wheels and a bit of paint myself and carried on. That just leaves you wondering what you're insured for.

I guess it depends how much it effects your premiums. Just seems crazy (wasteful, time consuming etc) to 'fix' all of that stuff for a couple of cracked wheels. Or maybe it doesn't, i suppose you'll never know.

 

[BigBob]

Ignoring the insurance aspect...what would happen presenting a damaged wheel at a Porsche dealer?
Wheel replaced, no checks for other damage?
Wheel replaced, checks for other damage?
Wheel replaced, checks for other damage plus replace everything required by Porsche Warranty including items that can't be checked for integrity?
Redirected to Porsche Approved Repairer?

I'm not sure if the dealerships offer it in the UK. But seen plenty of threads from US guys saying they take out wheel/tyre insurance from the dealers. Should porsche be giving you £250 for a new tyre and then sending the car off for £20k of maintenance. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

 

[artdept]

damn. Ive heard "you got to pay to play" but this is crazy

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