Porsche warranty now 2 years

Your Approved Used Porsche 928 will now come with 2 years warranty

Porsche has announced that it is increasing the warranty on Approved Used Porsches to 2 years. But is it the buyer who will end up paying?

I guess there are some things we have to thank the recession for. Car makers trying harder is one of them, and bargains galore last year on both the new and used markets.

And now we’re also seeing more being offered to buyers, like Toyota offering a 5 year warranty (although that’s about combating Hyundai) and – of all car companies – Porsche has decided to throw a bit more in to the pot to tempt used car buyers.

All buyers of ‘Approved Used Porsches’ will now get 2 years warranty in the price. Which is nice. Although you could argue that the price of the used car will end up reflecting this change as there’s no real way a buyer could prove otherwise, unlike a new car with a fixed list price.

Talk off the record to any Porsche dealer and they’ll tell you the sale price is dictated by the buy-in price plus any repairs and paint needed plus the cost of the warranty, which they as dealers have to pay to Porsche. Then there’s a margin on top which is the gross profit to the dealer.

If Porsche now expect their dealers to stick two years warranty on the used cars they sell, then presumably all this extended warranty will do is increase the cost of an Approved Used Porsche. So we asked Porsche.

We got lots of talk about how this additional warranty will help the future value and how giving a two year warranty would help buyers to keep their cars longer without fretting. Porsche were at pains to point out that this wasn’t actually about increasing used Porsche sales as their used sales are strong, it was about differentiating themselves in the market.

Unfortunately for them it came at the same time as Toyota announced a 5 year warranty on new cars to help sales and rebuild the brand. But we didn’t really get a straight answer about who is paying for the warranty.

But there is no doubt that in the long run it will be the buyer who pays up for for this warranty, even though they may see some of that back in future residuals – assuming they sell before the warranty expires. The price of a used Porsche won’t have gone up on the forecourt today by the additional cost of the warranty, but in a few months time it will be there in the sticker price.

Not that the additional warranty isn’t worthwhile. Although as a Porsche owner you can already extend the warranty year on year for the payment of a fee. It just looks like this way Porsche gets a headline and the buyer stumps up without having a choice.

A bit of smoke and mirrors going on, we feel.