Yep, you read it right – there’s been a change of guard at P_on_P HQ. Back in the summer of 2021, I started to keep an eye on the Turbo S market. I’m a huge Porsche fan and have owned countless examples over the last 17 years – including a number of 911s; 996 & 997 GT3, 996 Turbo, and my current 996 GT2. What always amazes me about the 911 is how they combine genuine everyday usability with incredible supercar dynamics and performance.

So, I started to talk about this with my good friend Matt, the owner of Matt Johnson Prestige. Matt has a profound knowledge of performance cars and a similar taste in cars, so I always trust his advice. I initially was looking at the 997 Turbo S, as I believe this is the last iteration to still have that ‘old school’ 911 feel and balance, but Matt’s opinion was that, as a daily driver, I really shouldn’t look past a 991.2. His reasoning behind this was that a more modern generation car will be less fragile, much faster, and have all of the modern toys that come in so handy on a daily driver.

I took into consideration his thoughts but nothing more was said on the subject for well over a year and, in that time, I bought and started daily driving my SL65, as reported on in previous issues of this magazine.

Fast-forward to October 2022, when I get a phone call from Matt, where he simply said, “I’ve got something that you’re going to buy” then laughed and hung up. A phone call like this always means I’m about to spend vast sums of money, so I started to prepare myself and my bank manager (my wife) for the inevitable. A few days went by, and Matt refused to reveal what this mystery vehicle was or even any details – he knows how I work and if he builds it up as much as this, there’s no way I’ll say no!

Of course, once he finally revealed the car to me, he had no such worries. He had sourced an absolutely immaculate, low mileage 991.2 Turbo S, in near enough my perfect spec: Agate grey over Bordeaux Red leather. I was sold.

After approx. 3000 miles since collection, I am still sold. The 991.2 Turbo S combines comfort, usability and surprisingly decent economy, with an absolutely earth-shattering level of performance. In wet weather, I can cover ground at a pace that would be impressive in any other car in the dry! Floods, standing water, greasy asphalt…nothing gets this car flustered. It is remarkably sure-footed which inspires confidence behind the wheel – my only concern now is for the lifespan of my driving licence!

Life with the Turbo S has been almost completely hassle-free - as you would expect from a five-year-old, 15,000-mile 911. However, there has been one issue, which was - in my opinion - turned from a molehill into a mountain by the Service Department at my local main dealer… A common occurrence for many Porsche owners, I am led to believe. What should have been a minor setback was complicated by the Service Department’s apparent lack of motivation to achieve a resolution - something which became a great strain on our relationship!

A few weeks into ownership, I remembered that I needed to register the factory-fitted tracker system for my insurance, so I promptly contacted my dealer who advised that it would only be an hour’s worth of work to activate the tracker system and connect it to my ‘My Porsche’ account, after which the car and I would be good to go. So I booked the car in for a 1-hour waiting appointment on 4th December, taking my laptop so that I could do some work during the hour slot.

Thank goodness that I did because I was still sitting there waiting three hours later! Eventually, I was advised that the work was complete at the dealership’s end and all I had to do was call Vodafone Automotive when I got home to set up the tracking services… Oh, and pay the dealer £117 for their time. When I returned home, I called Vodafone as instructed, only to be told that they could not locate the tracker or connect to the vehicle as the dealer had not activated the device properly!

Needless to say, I called the dealer straight back and expressed my frustration at the incomplete job. Notwithstanding the fact that it had taken triple the length of time that I was advised, the dealership is also a two-hour round trip from home. They offered little in the form of an apology and announced that they could not fit the car back in again for another three weeks. Not only was this an extremely frustrating level of service, considering that they were the ones at fault, but it also meant that, for those three weeks, the car was not insured against theft!

With gritted teeth, I dropped the car off once more on 21st December. This time, instead of suggesting that I wait at the dealership, I was given a courtesy car “just in case”. They advised that they still expected to (re)complete the job that day but, failing that, they would “definitely” have the car back to me before Christmas.

Unsurprisingly, however, Christmas came and went with no word from the dealership and so, on the 27th of December, I called for an update only to be told that they hadn’t even looked at the car yet…but they assured me that they would prioritise the car and I would have it back for New Year. This nonsense went back and forth throughout the entire month of January with no resolution.

Sometime in January, the dealer tried to start blaming Porsche Technical UK, and then Porsche Technical in Germany but, strangely enough, when I told them I was going to contact Porsche UK to raise a complaint, the car was suddenly fixed within 48 hours. By this point, they had had it for 55 days and nights!

As you would expect, my faith in the service department has been severely rattled. They tried to apologise in the form of a £400 discount on the major 3rd service which was carried out last month, but this still cost me £1,750 and, when I collected the car, I drove it 50 yards down the road to be confronted with a dashboard warning ‘Cooling Fault - Consult dealer’! Thankfully, I had also just renewed my factory warranty for an additional two years, at a cost of £1,950.

Just a final word on my SL65: the car was bought by a collector in Dublin, who approached me directly via Instagram to see if the car could be purchased. It has been exported to join a wonderful collection of metal and I’m delighted it’s gone to the right home and will look back fondly at my time with it. In a perfect world, I would have just chucked a cover over it and kept it, as I’m sure values will do very nicely over the next decade, but, with a couple of new additions on the way, it made sense to let it go and free up some storage space, especially as I got a very fair offer for the car.

Porsche 991.2 Turbo S Running Costs

Date acquired - 'oct 2022

Total mileage - 17,815

Recent mileage - 3,624

MPG - 19.6

Expenditure - see text