My Cayman woes... RX59 KLA

[Andy L]

Wasn't sure where this post would best fit, but given it's about a car I owned (for a few weeks anyway...) I thought here was a good a place as any.

 

After selling  my 2004 2.7 Boxster two years ago I'd been looking forward to my next purchase for sometime. After setting a budget of up to £27kmi started looking at Cayman's and 911's in the run up to Christmas. I saw a good number of cars and quickly settled on a Cayman as the car to go for. It was th n just a case f finding the right car for me.  Then in early Christmas a gen 2 Cayman S came uomfpr sale at Stratstone in Cardiff. The dealership had recently lost its Aston Martin franchise and was now selling a selection of used sports and prestige cars. The car was almost a perfect spec for me, black, turbo alloys, PDK, sports chrono plus, sports seats, heated leather, Bose, media interface, CD changer, blue tooth and extended navigation. the car had done 33k miles and had a good service history with almost new tires (N rated), Stratstone had also put new front pads and disks on the car and serviced it.

 

I drove down to Cardiff to view the car (280 mile round trip..) and very quickly became smitten with the car. There were some very light swirl marks in the paintwork as you'd expect from a car of this age, but the sales guy agreed to have the car fully machine polished by a local specialist as part of the sale. A few days of negotiation followed and I managed to secure the car at a decent price. I then picked the car up on Friday 23rd December.

 

By the time I got home the car was filthy, so I washed it off then put it in the garage where I dried the car off. Once dry I started to apply the paint sealant I brought specifically for the car. It was at this pint this point things started to go wrong. Firstly I noticed that the sealant wasn't gliding on the paintwork as I'd expected. I rubbed my finger over a few of the panels and it was immediately clear that the car hadn't been machine polished at all despite the sales guy telling me on the Wednesday that the detailed,was coming in to polish the car on the Thursday. I called the dealership who were full of excuses, but quickly agreed to pick the car up after New Year to get the car detailed correctly. I then went back out and finished the car then tried to load the CD's into the headunit. Only one CD would fit.... This wasn't the end of the world as I'd play most music either via an iPhone or USB, but it was a disappointment. I called the dealership again, more excuses, but no offers to correct this issue or give me some compensation.  

 

When I collected the car we'd been unable to connect my phone to the Bluetooth. The PCM could see my phone and my phone could see the PCM, but wh n the code was entered the connection was unsuccessful. I was told this was something to do with the SIM access profile settings and we'd be able to resolve it remotely.

 

Over Christmas I drove the car a fair amount and completely fell in love with it. I was looking forward to getting the phone and polish sorted, but these were minor issues. The car was filthy again so I give it another clean. It was here when things got an awful lot worse. I clean my cars properly, jet wash the dirt off, then wash with the two bucket method and finish with a jet wash rinse. I then dry with microfibre towels. Whilst drying the car my heart sank. I found two areas at each of the rear corners of the roof where the lacquer was flaking off the paint. I then found another area of flaking lacquer at the bottom of the passenger A pillar. Finally I found another two sreas of flaking lacquer on each of the sills. Having examined the car thoutoughly before agreeing to buy it and having washed it previously and not noticing these issues, I can only think that someone (possibly the previous owner) had used some form of wax concealer to hide these issues and that the jet washing and cleaning had washed this away.

 

Another call to,the dealer and they agreed to look at the paint when they collected the car in a couple of days. In the meantime I did some research on flaking lacquer and it seems that this is caused by earthier incompatible paint/lacquer or the car being left too long between base coat and lacquer being applied. The only way to truly rectify the issue is to have the paint stripped and given a complete respray. I spoke to Stratstone about this after they'd collected and examined the car, but all they would agree to is have the cars paint touched up and then complete the polishing work as promised. They wouldn't even entertain the idea of a full respray, but despite trying to convince me that this was simply a couple of localised issues that would be resolved with there proposed work they would not warrant against any future peeling of the lacquer. To add insult to injury they'd had confirmation from Porsche that the car had never been fitted with phone preparation... They were however to retrofit this for me if I was happy to give them another £1000 for the privalage. I told them to keep th car and refund me my money, which a couple of days later they did.

 

i write this here because I'm sure that Stratstone will patch the paintwork up and the car will look even more impressive than I'd did when I brought it if it's been polished. However knowing what I now know about peeling lacquer I'm far from convinced that there patch up job will solve the issue fully, and I wouldn't be surprised if the issues come back again. 

 

I think I've had a very lucky escape with this car, but the next owner might not be so lucky to spot the problem when they are still legally entitled to reject the car. If you're looking for a used Cayman be very weary of this particular car.

[Forum Admin]

Thanks for sharing, it seems you did have a lucky escape.  Onwards and upwards though  

[DJMC]

Paid a £100 deposit over the phone to Stratstone in 2014 for a TTS. Got there and it was parked up strangely with the O/S rear corner up against the showroom glass at 45 degrees!?

 

Looked at O/S rear corner, now I'd been alerted to it, and shut lines were askew. Of course they "knew nothing about it".

 

Refunded me my £100. Another close shave!

[Andy]

That does sound like a lucky escape, if the previous owner or even Stratstone themselves had covered over the paint issues, then god knows what else you may have come across! 

[jonnyboy]

I think you did well to get your money back. Ultimately it sounds like you bought an 8 year old car with a couple of patches of peeling lacquer. Given it didn't blow up or have any mechanical issues it sounds like you've handed a good car back.

 

Devils advocate as I am a car dealer but tarnishing the car in this way I don't think is very fair. The reg is there for all to see and it may affect someone selling in future. Given the recent Cayman R on ebay that had a big section cut and shut out of the sill these issues are pretty easily sorted. 

 

The dealers should have done what they said initially and just detailed the car I guess BS is something you can't sometimes avoid in the car industry especially with a chain. It sounds like they have been very accommodating after that initial sale though. 

[Andy L]

I appreciate your view as a trader, but I think that the vast majority of consumers would walk away from a car with a ticket price of around £27k if there were visible signs of lacquer peel. To have this issue present itself within a week of ownership was extremely unsettling. However in addition to the paint issue the car turned out to not have the CD changer or telephone prep that it was advertised as having. Just one of those issues on there own are enough reason under the consumer rights act 2015 for anyone to reject the car in the first 30 day of ownership.

 

On the req issue, I'm simply providing people with background information, so if they are considering purchasing this car they are fully aware of a potential problem with the paintwork. If someone knows about this but feels confident that the touch up job is sufficient then at least they've had the opportunity to consider it before making a decision. I don't see there is anything wrong with that.

 

if you had a car for sale on your lot and you were aware of a similar issue, wouldn't you make potential buyers aware so they could make a decision knowing the car warts and all?

[CaymanDave]

Definitely agree that you did the right thing Andy, i've had similar experience but wasn't so lucky with the dealer, I ended up having to take legal action and it took ages to get the problem sorted out.  The long and short of it was the dealer had to pay the legal costs and I had to wait longer for a resolution.  

 

IMO, if you pay a premium for buying from a dealer then you expect to get a premium service and a car that doesn't have faults.  Otherwise why pay the premium??  

[jonnyboy]

14 hours ago, Andy L said:

I appreciate your view as a trader, but I think that the vast majority of consumers would walk away from a car with a ticket price of around £27k if there were visible signs of lacquer peel. To have this issue present itself within a week of ownership was extremely unsettling. However in addition to the paint issue the car turned out to not have the CD changer or telephone prep that it was advertised as having. Just one of those issues on there own are enough reason under the consumer rights act 2015 for anyone to reject the car in the first 30 day of ownership.

 

On the req issue, I'm simply providing people with background information, so if they are considering purchasing this car they are fully aware of a potential problem with the paintwork. If someone knows about this but feels confident that the touch up job is sufficient then at least they've had the opportunity to consider it before making a decision. I don't see there is anything wrong with that.

 

if you had a car for sale on your lot and you were aware of a similar issue, wouldn't you make potential buyers aware so they could make a decision knowing the car warts and all?

 

We have a different way of dealing with stuff like that yes. With a big chain its hard for them to have the attention to detail and no one person might have looked at that car in enough detail to spot the issues. You admit to being a keen detailer. You didn't spot it. You mention something had been down to cover these patches up but I'm not aware of any product that will hide a patch of peeled of lacquer other than putting laquer on and fixing it (a very easy process that you would never know had been done)  A couple of lacquer patches and an easily made error on the car having or not having a multi CD player these are VERY minor things to encounter on a used car. The horror stories you hear on some cars I dont know how you would have dealt with that. It seems that yes they dropped a bollock not doing the detail they said they would thats poor and theres no excuse but it sounds like they have been pretty good in trying to resolve the issues. 

 

I honestly think you are doing the car and the dealer a great disservice with this post. If the cars half decent spec and I was a punter I'd be rushing to nip in on the deal at 27k. 

Edited January 30, 2017 by jonnyboy

[DJMC]

Jonny, my experience with Stratstone left me feeling they absolutely knew the TTS was a wrong'un, otherwise why try to hide the very area which was damaged? Andy is quite right to criticise them here. The car, if sold again by them, will remain a rogue until someone does a proper job and sees it fully and properly rectified.

 

My experience with Mercedes UK in 2014 was similar, although this time I was sucked in and brainwashed by their hype. Collected my used car and as they whisked off the silver logo'd cloth there it was, immaculate! And so I didn't do the checks I would have if it was a private purchase. Mug.

A few weeks later I collected a large stone chip on the bonnet which led me to check the "already checked" paint only to find half the car had been re-painted.

Merc immediately offered to buy the car back, or re-paint with 30 year warranty. And if I didn't like the paint job they would still buy it back. They had the car in, found it had somehow missed the 121 point check, found 13 defects including a buckled front wheel, re-painted it beautifully and I opted to carry on with it until a few months later when the roof started leaking water onto my elbow. That was the last straw and it went back for a full refund after 5 months of ownership.

On the one hand Merc UK reacted perfectly in the way they handled my issues. On the other hand, how did the car "miss" their used car checking regime?

The moral is, unfortunately, that with rogues around the used car buyer can trust nobody in the car dealer world. Check, check, check, everything.

 

The TTS I finally bought was from an independent Porsche dealer in Edinburgh. Exactly as described when I flew up. No issues whatsoever afterwards.

It may well be the case that the small indy has far more to lose than a large chain if they don't sell proper cars.

 

[Porker]

56 minutes ago, DJMC said:

Jonny, my experience with Stratstone left me feeling they absolutely knew the TTS was a wrong'un, otherwise why try to hide the very area which was damaged? Andy is quite right to criticise them here. The car, if sold again by them, will remain a rogue until someone does a proper job and sees it fully and properly rectified.

 

My experience with Mercedes UK in 2014 was similar, although this time I was sucked in and brainwashed by their hype. Collected my used car and as they whisked off the silver logo'd cloth there it was, immaculate! And so I didn't do the checks I would have if it was a private purchase. Mug.

A few weeks later I collected a large stone chip on the bonnet which led me to check the "already checked" paint only to find half the car had been re-painted.

Merc immediately offered to buy the car back, or re-paint with 30 year warranty. And if I didn't like the paint job they would still buy it back. They had the car in, found it had somehow missed the 121 point check, found 13 defects including a buckled front wheel, re-painted it beautifully and I opted to carry on with it until a few months later when the roof started leaking water onto my elbow. That was the last straw and it went back for a full refund after 5 months of ownership.

On the one hand Merc UK reacted perfectly in the way they handled my issues. On the other hand, how did the car "miss" their used car checking regime?

The moral is, unfortunately, that with rogues around the used car buyer can trust nobody in the car dealer world. Check, check, check, everything.

 

The TTS I finally bought was from an independent Porsche dealer in Edinburgh. Exactly as described when I flew up. No issues whatsoever afterwards.

It may well be the case that the small indy has far more to lose than a large chain if they don't sell proper cars.

 

I was a bit reluctant to buy off a dealer, would the premium really be worth it? In the end it was, developed a fault just after the warranty ended and they agreed for me to get it fixed at their expense at my local Indy. 1st class service from Dove House.