Let’s not lie to ourselves. It was reading the article “My Porsche Taycan no longer braked” (DH June 11) that made him jump. The owner of a Targa complained of a “wringer noise coming from the dashboard”. For the Carrera, Philippe describes rather “a noise at the rear” particularly audible on bumpy, degraded roads, holes, potholes, that is to say “often in the country”.
Rupture de stock
Let’s go back to June 1, 2023. That morning, Philippe left the dealership behind the wheel of the new Carrera, a 911 S type 992. The noises, he says, appeared from the first hundred meters. He brought the vehicle back to the dealership, disappointed and all the more disconcerted as he also noticed that the ceiling light was not properly fixed at the rear, which the mechanics were going to fix with Velcro. As for the abnormal noise, the workshop manager could only confirm.
In a year’s time, Philippe heard everything: he was told that the problem was with the axle, the differential or Porsche’s own PDK gearbox. The current explanation involves a fault in the active engine mounts.
Still, if the vehicle has been immobilized for several weeks, nothing is resolved. It was initially explained that the parts to be replaced were “out of stock” and “not available in dealerships.”
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To each his own ear
Already before winter, Philippe, very angry at being deprived of his Porsche since the summer, sent a protest email in German to the CEO of Porsche AG in Stuttgart, Mr. Oliver Blume. Having to settle for an automatic response, he returned to the charge the following month. “Ma Porsche, he wrote in November, has been abandoned in your parking lot since the summer. In the meantime, the expected parts arrived and were installed on the vehicle, but they did nothing to correct the extraneous noise. Wouldn’t it be wise to bring in an expert from the factory?“
However, he would like to point out that the dealers he was speaking to are “extremely pleasant, courteous and eager to satisfy the customer, but they depend on the goodwill of the brand“.
In short, the months have passed. Recently, Philippe picked up the Carrera left three weeks earlier, and the abnormal noise is still present. Imaginatively, his wife describes a sound like a “screwdriver forgotten in the engine”. Their children, a sound of “gravel”, “pans clanking” or “popcorn popping”.
“I lost the pleasure”
In any case, unacceptable noise on a vehicle costing 175,000 euros. “I lost the pleasure of driving a Porsche.”
At the beginning of June, the Porsche dealership itself recognized an “unbearable” noise and admitted that processing the file was becoming “exceptionally long”.
But it offers a glimmer of hope. Porsche is developing a new generation of dynamic engine mounts, Porsche Active Drivetrain Mounts, or PADMs, which should solve the problem.
However, the importer cannot set a date for the moment.
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In addition, other problems had to be resolved: the ceiling light which fell, the seat belt sensor which triggered unwanted warning beeps, the Bose speaker which gave up the ghost and a disturbing vibration noise audible in the dashboard on board. What was necessary was done gradually and covered by the warranty.
There remains the mechanical noise at the rear for which Philippe, tired of waiting, decided to take the manufacturer and/or the importer to court, he indicated. “A specialist lawyer will handle the matter“.
Porsche Belgium responded
Porsche Belgium/D’Ieteren has been contacted. Ms. Liana Picard, communications manager, responded: “Customer satisfaction and the quality of our service are of the utmost importance to Porsche. However, unfortunately I cannot comment on this matter at this time. We are carefully examining the situation. “
We asked: Doesn’t Porsche AG have an ex-factory quality control department? How can we explain the delivery of a vehicle with malfunctions and poor workmanship? In these cases, is a return to the factory not planned? Porsche Belgium did not respond to this.
