In a similar vein …. Not being very technically savvy I tend to avoid the shite ownership experiences of tyre kickers and payment problems, and I’ve put my trust in recommended dealers, whilst even so acknowledging of course that there are some rogues out there.
Our recent (eventually positive) experience comes to mind …
On our French road trip in July in our recently bought 996GT3, we discovered a rather annoying and worrying fault. On the first day we began to notice a knocking and rattling coming (it seemed) from under the car. Now I knew that Porsche had limited weight by doing away with sound deadening material in the GT3, but this noise was new and very noticeable at speeds up to 50mph.
I checked it out at the services as best I could but couldn’t see anything untoward. We made it to the channel tunnel without anything drastic happening, but we were dead worried, having a round trip of a couple of thousand miles to go!
We drove off the shuttle and mercifully the sound had gone.
After about half an hour we began hearing it again when travelling at slower speeds, but we could feel absolutely nothing wrong with the car’s handling so we threw caution to the wind and had a great drive down on the autoroute. As soon as we slowed for the toll, there it was again. We pulled into our hotel for the night, puzzled and more than a little apprehensive. We’d let tomorrow decide..
Next morning we started off - and it was gone! But It started again about 30 minutes later..
Basically, as the journey went on, and right until we reached our destination, we realised that these noises only manifested themselves after about half an hour’s driving. Thinking back, I probably hadn’t used it for journeys much longer than that between taking delivery of the car from Williams Crawford and setting off for France. I had heard the noises before, but it was all a new driving experience to me anyway, and with the wonderfully sonorous Mezger engine, I put it all down to the raw and elemental sort of car it’s meant to be!
But now we were realising these noises only occurred after half an hours driving, and so it couldn’t be inherently part of the car’s intended operation.
We didn’t use the car much after we’d arrived in Provence as we all piled into my daughter’s Dacia SUV hire car to go anywhere.
Before our return trip I phoned Williams Crawford and spoke to the chief technician who quite rightly said it would need to be up on a ramp to properly inspect it and of course that if I was in any way concerned then I should take it to the nearest Porsche garage.
That wasn’t going to happen though - it was a few hours away and the temperatures were 38/40 at that time, and the pool was far more attractive - and the car was driving fine (apart from the bloody noises)..
So we drove back - with the noises just the same, no better, no worse. …
When we arrived back I phoned Adrian Crawford and sent him some video of the noises filmed from inside the car and he quickly said to book it in and they’d sort it out.
I’m about 2 hours from Williams Crawford - I started using them in Plymouth as I used to live in Cornwall, but have kept on because, well, I like them and rate them - and, point of story, I can also if I’m lucky arrange to have their courtesy car, which I then did as I left them to get to the bottom of the problem.
It took a few days but the invoice tells the tale - that first they tested it (presumably for over half an hour) and heard the noises, investigated and replaced the ant-roll bar d bushes, and re-tested. Noise still there. (After 30 mins driving presumably) they tracked the noise to the top front strut mounts area on both sides, and so removed both front shocks and replaced the top mounts.
More testing, noise still there.
They then replaced the shocks with Bilstein B16s, carried out ride height adjustment, and… at last, noise gone!
They went on to retest/set the geometry, four wheel alignment check etc.
A bill of over 2k, all covered on the buyer’s warranty that Williams Crawford give on pre-used cars.
And the car now drives fabulously.
Now of course they’re not the only good ones - I’ve heard of good things about JAZ too. But getting recommendations from people is a really good way to have more enlightenment - and less shite!