Issues with my car, what can I do now?

raptor2004

Hi all, I recently purchased a 2012 Porsche Carrera S coupe automatic from a private seller. Took it in to my local mechanic who did an oil change and changed the rear tires. He told me the brake lines looked corroded but other than that it is fine but can't comment further as he has never worked on one of these cars, he didn't know the engine was at the back!

Yesterday the engine check light came on. I also noticed when I brake a bit hard the car shakes and vibrates. On the motorway the car veers the the left so the alignment is off. I went back to the seller and told him this and he basically told me to sod off and it is sold as seen.

I am getting a little worries now and don't want to spend £££ to fix an 11 year old car. What can I do?

knightstyle

So was this really a private sale? Was the car in the sellers name?  If yes to these questions I am afraid it is too late for you to claim from the seller.  You should have done more tests before agreeing to buy, unless the advert contains false information you are stuck.

Ayr_Rage

If your mechanic didn't know where the engine is on a Porsche Carrera then it's time to change your mechanic.

An 11 year old Porsche is very likely to be a money pit especially if it hasn't been serviced by a specialist or official dealer.

Do you have a copy of the advert ?

Only if it contained false or incorrect information do you have any recourse but that may have to involve legal action.

droopsnoot

Find an independent Porsche specialist and take the car them, have them check it over. They'll know what to look for, where the engine is, and will probably be able to give you an idea of cost to sort it out. Then you just need to decide whether to spend the money fixing it, or try to sell it with the known faults for a lower price. 

I'd also have them check the oil change. My knowledge of 911s is relatively limited, and more on older ones than ones that new, but there's something about them having a separate oil tank for the dry sump system that makes checking the oil level a little different than on a normal car. Presumably if they hadn't put enough in there would be some sort of level warning on the dash and you'd expect that they'd put the recommended amount in, so it's probably nothing.

I'm not sure I'd agree that an 11-year-old Porsche is "likely" to be a money pit - to me that's still relatively new for a prestige vehicle like that, and unless it's been thrashed every day it ought to still be in reasonable condition, especially if it has some sort of decent service history which I'm sure the OP checked before they bought the car. 

Keep_pedalling

You need to find an independent Porsche specialist and get the issues diagnosed and an estimate to fix. Normally with a private seller it is buyer beware, but with the symptoms you describe the seller must have been aware of the faults so you would have a decent chance of succeeding with a money claim through the small claims court unless that is the amount your paid was well under what it should have been worth in good working order.

MattMattMattUK

Keep_pedalling said:

You need to find an independent Porsche specialist and get the issues diagnosed and an estimate to fix. Normally with a private seller it is buyer beware, but with the symptoms you describe the seller must have been aware of the faults so you would have a decent chance of succeeding with a money claim through the small claims court unless that is the amount your paid was well under what it should have been worth in good working order.

raptor2004 said:

I also noticed when I brake a bit hard the car shakes and vibrates. On the motorway the car veers the the left so the alignment is off.

All the seller has to say is that they do not break hard and rarely use the motorway and or had not noticed, it is an easy get out. Pretty much everyone must know that a 10+ year old Porsche is going to have significant issues and nearly everything would be expensive to fix. 

raptor2004 said:

Took it in to my local mechanic who did an oil change and changed the rear tires. He told me the brake lines looked corroded but other than that it is fine but can't comment further as he has never worked on one of these cars, he didn't know the engine was at the back!

Yesterday the engine check light came on.

You need to check what oil the mechanic put in the engine, if he did not even know where the engine was there is a good chance he could have put the wrong oil in. You also need to establish with the ECU is saying the light is on for. 

fatbelly

raptor2004 said:

Yesterday the engine check light came on. I also noticed when I brake a bit hard the car shakes and vibrates. On the motorway the car veers the the left so the alignment is off. 

I am getting a little worries now and don't want to spend £££ to fix an 11 year old car. What can I do?

The alignment can be checked and corrected very cheaply.

You will need to get someone to do a diagnostic check on the engine light.

Obviously you will need to budget for maintenance and issues on an 11-year old Porsche. It sounds like you may need to find a garage who have a bit of experience in dealing with them. They are not unreliable for what they are but you still need to look after them.

Tucosalamanca

OP buys a car and soon proceeds to have works carried out by an unsuitable 'mechanic'.

Budget tyres are fitted and the oil is changed.

The EML has now been activated, the car also veers, shakes and vibrates.

What are the chances of these things being unrelated?

If I was the former keeper, I don't think sod off would quite cover it....

Herzlos

Keep_pedalling said:

You need to find an independent Porsche specialist and get the issues diagnosed and an estimate to fix. Normally with a private seller it is buyer beware, but with the symptoms you describe the seller must have been aware of the faults so you would have a decent chance of succeeding with a money claim through the small claims court unless that is the amount your paid was well under what it should have been worth in good working order.

According to the other thread they paid £41k for it and it's missing at least 1 service. He's then got an oil change by a random garage and put on the cheapest tyres he can find.  I've no idea how much due diligence was carried out but he also seemed surprised that it only did 25mpg.

So I think a small claim is out of question unless he gets the repairs for under £10k and he can prove that the faults weren't caused by the cheap work done after the purchase.

Herzlos

An 11 year old £100k car is still going to have £100k car running costs. To avoid ruining what's left of it's value, get it to a Porsche specialist to figure out.

For the tracking, probably messed up when the tyres were fitted, you can either take it to the place that fitted the tyres to check, or a local independent. That'll at least deal with the pull to the left and maybe the shaking.

Unless you can prove the car was in a bad state when you bought it - were any of these things apparent when you test drove it? then you've got no recourse here. It's a pretty expensive to learn though.

Goudy

Something doesn't tally.

The OP picked it up and drove it back (and got 25mpg at 60 mph).
No mention of the brake judder, pulling to the left or an EML.

Took it to a local garage that didn't know the engine was in the rear for a "service" and fit some ditch finders and now it has a host of problems.

It's not the problems since the service that doesn't tally.
It's the comment that the mechanic didn't know where the engine was!

Porsche have been making the same car for 75 years and the engine has always been in the same place.
There are tribes in the darkest corners of the amazon rainforest that know the engine is at the wrong end in a 911. 

Legs are being pulled methinks.