Why I like Porsche cars, and LOVE the Porsche company

It has been said before that I am obsessed with Porsche. Well, obsessed might be a tad over the top, but I do indeed like the cars.

However much I like the cars, though, I LOVE the company.

Years ago, I bought a slightly used 944S2. It had 96,000 km on the clock, and was in generally good condition, although a lot of maintenance items were coming up, due, or overdue. Not surprising, as the owner traded it on a Ferrari, so he must have been a poser, rather than a car guy.

I persuaded the vendor to do ALL the maintenance, by the simple tactic of walking away, and being uninterested in a car that needed so much work. After all, I had worked and waited YEARS to be able to afford (and justify to myself) a Porsche, there was no way that I was going to jump on the first one available that was in my price range - I could wait. So I walked away - until the offer came a month or so later, "What would it take to get you into the Porsche that you looked at?" The answer to that was, "A lot."

At the time the car fell (just) inside the Australian law that stipulates that car manufacturers must stock parts for (at least) seven years after the car that they fit goes out of production. I know that some manufacturers rigorously apply this rule, from the other angle - seven years and one day after a car model is no longer sold, they destroy all the available, unique, spare parts. If the parts also fit a continuing model, then obviously this doesn't apply. They don't discount and sell them, they destroy them - I can only assume that they get some tax benefit by writing them off. This information comes from friends that worked in the parts division for separate car manufacturers, and they were personally directed to do the destruction - by driving a forklift over panels, and smashing plastic parts with a hammer, as examples.

Porsche doesn't do that.

I had a mishap with some road debris - a piece of wood used as packing fell off a truck, and took out the protective engine under tray.

I rang the dealer, the only dealer in my city, and enquired about a replacement.

Questions about what vehicle, what year, what part were followed by "Certainly, in stock, available ex-Melbourne, it will be here by Thursday." Almost as surprising, the price was entirely reasonable.

This is a part for a vehicle almost 30 years old, that hasn't been built or sold in any form for 27 years, and even then only sold about 14,000 examples world-wide.

The manufacturer not only buys the parts (I don't think even Porsche does their own plastic injection molding), but the part number indicates that this is the THIRD revision of the part. The parts catalog software shows that the most recent changes were made AFTER THE CAR WAS OUT OF PRODUCTION.

So, to summarise:
Porsche keeps buying and stocking parts for cars that are 30 years old.
Porsche keeps IMPROVING parts for cars that they no longer make.
Porsche keeps stock of these parts in Australia, where they only sold 128 of the cars in this example.

I told you that I LOVE Porsche, the company - maybe you can see why.