Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Hi All,

My 964 will need a 2-year service by the end of this year. It had an engine rebuild by Strasse in Feb 2007 and a "low mileage" service by PARR in Jan 2008. The point is that neither PARR nor Strasse are cheap, they charge about £80 per hour labour. So, the question is, would you recommend an OPC over these independents for routine servicing?
Do they do discounts for older cars?

I live near Caterham so I have the choice of Guildford OPC, Tonbridge OPC and Mid-Sussex OPC.

Your advise/experience/recommendation will be greatly apreciated.

We have a good relationship with Tonbridge, several of my members use them for servicing & other works as well as parts supply. Not sure of their current labour rate for older cars but it was £77PH & they will compete if they can against indies. They give you 10% discount on bits for both servicing & general supplies.

Give them a ring on 01732 361222 talk to John Hoskins for parts & Aaron Thompson for Servicing.

My 1982 944 is going to Mid Sussex Porsche on Wednesday for a belts change and 12K service. They have quoted £750 including parts and VAT.
As I have no service history, I'm looking forward to getting a clean bill of health for the car

They will let you supply your own parts and other TIPEC members seem very happy with the service.
Peter Rowe is the man to talk to at Mid Sussex.

Will let you know how everything works out after they've lifted the bonnet

IMHO. i would never use a OPC for servicing a aircooled.. if the OPC Mechanics can't plug their computor in they are completly lost.
they know nothing about them and will charge you a fortune for the privilage of messing up the carbs and timing of your car.


there are so many really good independ early porsche speciallist in your area... use them

Sorry Helen, I asked that comment about Tonbridge, it turns out that a couple of their older guys were working on 944/924/911 when they were current & given the amount of older cars that we see & hear of serviced there that seems to be true. I suspect what you say could be true for some OPC's though.

when i had mine serviced recently at OPC i asked about knowledge of older models and service receptionist introduced me to technician who serviced my car, chap about 45 who had worked for OPC for about 25 years, also labour charge for older cars is £75 per hour which isn't far off indie prices

I saw a 964 in OPC Reading up on the lift the other day.

Times must be hard

Personally our OPC was around £130 p/h recently whereas Northway (who I believe are much better) are £50p/h. They are quicker at the jobs too.

That £130 is new stuff, ask what they do on pre-996 most do around the £75PH mark.
One of my guys had his 993 in for some heater blower work & was loaned a 997S whilst it was in, work took 4 days & John took a day off to have a play with the 997!

Times are hard, the 20K service intervals on new Pork & new sales down mean most OPCs have idle workshops. Far better to get work in at a lower rate & when we talk to Tonbridge they're quite open about that.

Popped into Silverstone OPC to pick up some parts for my head job spotted this in the car park..






Its a Carrera 924 GTS not many about, apparently its an original, was booked in for some engine work, !!

Found the staff very friendly & helpful with the techy very knowledgeable about 944's even rang Andy at Promax for me, as they didn't have the head nuts in stock excellent service allround.

cheers

Thank you all for your feedback. My 964 is relatively "modern" (no carbs, and you can plug a laptop into it!) so perhaps they can cope with it!
I will give them a call after the hols.

Got my 944 back on Thursday and very happy.

I'd been quoted £750 for the belts and 12K service.
Good feedback to let me know of other possible things for future repair.
Also decided to pay £60 for the radiator to be flush out and refilled.
£80 for the brakes to be flushed and refilled.
Needed two tension rollers at £133.

Courtesy car for the two days

All in at just over a grand and goes beautifully now.

Thats just lovelly

Hi Stathis

We met at the rolling road day in Horsham.
I'm with RH on this one. I had a 12K service done by Mid Sussex (the usual valve clearance check and oil) and they were the same as RH quoted which was only a little more than Camtune but instead of getting a Corsa as a loan car Porsche gave me a new 997 C2 for the day. That's worth the extra in my book.

How much extra?
Its not cheap to hire a new Porsche for a day , might be worth checkin how much to change the drive belts on mine.

The courtesy car is £25.00 for the day. That basically pays to bring your insurance excess down from £10,000 to £250.

Mine was a Boxster S for the two days