Are Porsches expensive to maintain?

As a purveyor of sporty, premium products, German automaker Porsche has a range of SUVs, sporty saloons and sportscars that often set the benchmark in their respective segments. We are often asked whether brands such as Porsche are expensive to maintain, and while local information surrounding the exact costs of maintaining the Stuttgart-based company’s vehicles is quite limited, we look at the information available.

Be realistic about what you are buying

As content creators at a major publication such as AutoTrader, we consider ourselves to be car enthusiasts. We trawl the website daily, looking at our dream vehicles, while many of us on the team have experienced the potential pitfalls associated with purchasing an ‘affordable’ premium car out of warranty or maintenance plan, only to discover that they are far costlier to maintain than we had imagined.

This leads us to recommend the following: be realistic about the product that you are buying. If you only have the budget for a small hatchback, purchasing an older sportscar or premium vehicle is a risk that could leave you with a repair or service bill that you are unable to afford. Many premium automobiles utilize high-quality parts in order to ensure longevity and maximal performance or luxury, which means that maintaining them can be costly versus a so-called ‘regular’ vehicle.

It is most certainly possible to purchase an older Porsche model, particularly the early Boxster and Cayenne models, for the same price as a new A-segment hatchback, but one must always consider that these products were once four or five times the cost of the average vehicle out there, meaning that maintaining them will certainly be more costly than your run of the mill hatchback. Also bear in mind that a pre-owned premium vehicle will have more wear and tear items such as a clutch, suspension components, cambelts/timing chains, brakes, tyres to worry about versus a newer entry-level vehicle. These items, because they are often designed for high-performance products, will be more expensive than parts for more mass-produced vehicles designed to be cost-effective forms of mobility.

The Driveplan

All new Porsche products sold locally come with a 3-year/100 000 maintenance contract that covers all servicing and just about all components on the vehicle, besides the tyres, for that specific period. This is of course subject to interpretation, with excessive driver abuse that results in the premature replacement of parts being an exclusion to the plan. The Driveplan can be extended to 5-years/100 000km too, should the owner wish to have a longer maintenance contract. Older pre-owned vehicles bought from a Porsche Centre come with maintenance contracts that vary from 6-months to 2-years, with the mileage of the vehicles capped to a maximum of 150 000km.

What if it is out of its Driveplan?

Porsche products out of their Driveplan maintenance contracts can then be serviced by an independent Porsche workshop, you can do it yourself, or have your local Porsche dealership that carried out the maintenance on the vehicle during its Driveplan do the work. Porsche is owned by the Volkswagen Group, meaning that certain models, particularly the SUVs, will share common mechanical bits with various Audi and Volkswagen products, meaning that generic, lower-cost parts may be an option for those looking to save money.

Since all of the products from the brand are considered luxury or high-performance models, maintenance costs can become expensive as these parts are engineered to be stronger and have a better tolerance for the rigors of performance driving. An independent workshop may use generic or original Porsche parts and will have lower bottom-line costs, which may make servicing with them cheaper, just ensure that the workshop in question is reputable. Doing things yourself is an option, but since these products are often technically quite complex, we’d recommend leaving it to the experts.

Basic servicing includes the changing of the engine oil, the oil filter and the air filter while items such as spark plugs, brake pads, fuel filters and pollen filters are often changed at a major service. At each service, the vehicle will also be inspected for any potential maintenance requirements that require immediate attention or fair warning to the owner.

In 2019, the late Malcolm Kinsey published his annual Kinsey report in which the parts bin pricing for the then brand new Porsche Cayenne was compared with key rivals from BMW, Volkswagen and Volvo while also providing an interesting comparison with some more affordable SUVs. While this particular report is two years old, it does shed light on how much a Porsche costs in relation to other premium products with which it competes. If we look at the table below, the Porsche compares well with cars in a similar price bracket, often being the same or slightly cheaper in terms of parts pricing.

2019 AA KINSEY REPORT		EXECUTIVE CROSSOVER
PARTS DESCRIPTION		VOLVO	*PORSCHE		VW	BMW
PRICES INCLUDE VAT		XC 90   D	CAYENNE		TOUAREG V6 TDI	X5  x DRIVE 3.0 D
		MOMENTUM	AUTO		LUXURY	AUTO
RETAIL SELLING PRICE	R	1 047 169.00	1 296 000.00		1 024 800.00	1 194 296.00
PARTS BASKET AS % OF SELLING PRICE		27.31%	24.96%		32.62%	32.19%
AIR FILTER	R	721.05	1 138.97		1 161.50	595.79
OIL FILTER	R	373.18	393.89		316.25	309.67
POLLEN FILTER	R	1 151.15	1 129.51		1 132.75	3 018.68
SPARK PLUG EACH	R	N/A	309.35		N/A	N/A
GLOW PLUG EACH	R	607.20	N/A		879.75	685.01
R/H WIPER BLADE	R	961.40	994.56		822.25	1 050.82
FRONT BRAKE PADS	R	2 530.00	5 721.39		4 594.25	5 150.59
REAR BRAKE PADS/SHOES	R	1 897.50	3 467.14		2 392.00	2 025.01
SUB TOTAL : A	R	8 241.48	13 154.81		11 298.75	12 835.57
CAM BELT / TIMING CHAIN	R	3 466.10	2 917.43		2 547.25	2 044.33
FRONT BRAKE DISC	R	2 909.50	6 313.53		5 238.25	5 654.79
REAR BRAKE DRUM / DISC	R	2 175.80	3 406.95		2 846.25	2 250.25
FRONT SHOCKABSORBER / STRUT	R	4 579.30	15 548.73		27 082.50	16 512.25
REAR SHOCKABSORBER / STRUT	R	4 705.80	9 606.05		7 613.00	11 180.13
CLUTCH PLATE	R	AUTO	AUTO		AUTO	AUTO
PRESSURE PLATE	R	AUTO	AUTO		AUTO	AUTO
FLYWHEEL	R	AUTO	AUTO		AUTO	AUTO
FAN BELT	R	2 251.70	1 053.49		891.25	462.83
SUB TOTAL : B	R	20 088.20	38 846.18		46 218.50	38 104.58
BONNET	R	23 782.00	26 813.97		21 447.50	25 522.28
FRONT BUMPER SKIN	R	15 053.80	16 700.48		13 455.00	19 509.07
GRILLE	R	7 653.25	2 405.53		11 557.50	1 529.03
L/H FRONT FENDER	R	11 448.25	10 479.19		10 246.50	12 260.90
WHEEL RIM	R	13 282.50	24 365.05		31 165.00	11 700.56
L/H HEADLIGHT ASSEMBLY	R	28 209.50	24 353.61		37 944.25	49 362.39
FRONT WINDSCREEN	R	17 204.00	11 035.91		14 950.00	10 357.66
AIRCON CONDENSOR	R	9 004.75	7 118.86		9 395.50	9 447.62
RADIATOR	R	8 981.50	8 369.68		6 463.00	12 875.34
R/H FRONT DOOR	R	21 631.50	20 389.81		15 007.50	29 844.55
R/H REAR DOOR	R	19 987.00	19 430.06		15 007.50	29 703.55
R/H FRONT WINDOW GLASS	R	10 056.75	3 043.13		2 397.75	8 397.37
REAR BUMPER SKIN	R	19 734.00	15 002.07		13 972.50	23 085.27
L/H REAR FENDER	R	13 662.00	34 605.66		30 130.00	46 391.93
BOOT LID / TAILGATE	R	20 872.50	24 579.93		21 045.00	24 961.59
L/H TAIL LIGHT ASSEMBLY	R	6 894.25	7 799.18		7 440.50	6 448.94
REAR WINDSCREEN	R	10 246.50	15 009.23		15 122.50	12 056.46
SUB TOTAL : C	R	257 704.05	271 501.35		276 747.50	333 454.51
TOTAL : A + B + C	R	286 033.73	323 502.34		334 264.75	384 394.66