Parts no longer available for 944

[Copperman05]

In relation to the replacement mat thread....

Not sure if anyone else has read the small coloum in the Post this month. Apparently Porsche will be scaling down some of the parts available for the 924/944 models. The article says "the company will in future concentrate its efforts in this area (classics) on the air-cooled models, with the result that certain components for older water-cooled cars such as the 924 and 944 may eventually become unavailable".

It then goes on the say that where demand remains high for certain parts those may be reintroduced.

So what does this mean? Is this the beginning of the end for Porsche to supply parts for our cars? What is their rational for this?

It does worry me somewhat that soon I wont be able to get some vital parts for my S2 and will have to rely on breakers yards for parts.

Your thoughts and clarification on this are welcome.

Edd

 

[38F3E1]

It's no different to the situation that exists for a lot of the classic 911s today. Many of the parts are no longer available from Porsche. If there is enough demand for a part they will periodically remanufacture.

I guess Porsche feel that the 924/944 are reaching an age when they are no longer prepeared to carry a full catalogue of replacement parts.

Ian.

 

[pauljmcnulty]

I'd guess that only very rarely bought parts would go out of availability. Either Porsche will want to make money on the parts we need all the time, or an aftermarket supplier will come up with an alternative.

Don't forget, there are already a load of parts that it makes little sense to buy new, and thus it isn't worth Porsche manufacturing large numbers. The tailgate glass is a good example.

 

[TTM]

ORIGINAL: pauljmcnulty
Either Porsche will want to make money on the parts we need all the time

They have already done that - the price for water pumps has gone through the roof.

 

[Neil Haughey]

Some parts for the 944 though have been superceeded by those developed for the 968. IMHO this is a good thing for us and it simplifies things for Porsche. I can recall Bert Gear a few months back saying that many 928 and SC parts are now obsolete. I would imagine that we perhaps have a few years left before the same effect really bites us, however we also have the advantage of a plentiful supply of scrapped 944's.

 

[sawood12]

Keeping socks of old parts is a very very expensive business. I've noticed there are already some 944 parts that are no longer available - wiper arms for example. Also there is the problem of stocks of parts that were manufactured years ago being depleted and triggering a new production batch. These parts will be significantly more expensive due to the re-manufacturing costs. A good example of this is the big red calipers being significantly more expensive than the big blacks, even though they are essentially the same part - the higher demand for big reds depleted Porsches stocks triggering a new production run with the resultant parts being much more expensive. I hope Porsche find a way of keeping older models going, maybe by focussing on parts that are unique to the cars.

I just wish people wouldn't automatically rule out OPC's when looking for new parts. I find that they are often competitively prices with other suppliers and in alot of cases are cheaper. I don't even mind paying a slight premium to buy from the OPC. Afterall if you don't buy from them then you can't moan if they decide to cease production due to lack of demand. Breakers stocks wont last forever.

 

[Diver944]

ORIGINAL: Copperman05

So what does this mean? Is this the beginning of the end for Porsche to supply parts for our cars? What is their rational for this?

It certainly is a worry. Over the 11 years I've had our car I have always been impressed by the availability of parts for a car that is now 17 years out of production. The trouble is that Porsche is a business at the end of the day and if demand for parts dries up then they will simply stop stocking them.

The only solution is to buy more parts from Porsche and not from a breaker []

But then the breakers will stop stocking 944's, and when Porsche DO stop 944 parts we'll be totally up the swannee - arrrrrrg []

 

[pauljmcnulty]

I just wish people wouldn't automatically rule out OPC's when looking for new parts. I find that they are often competitively prices with other suppliers and in alot of cases are cheaper. I don't even mind paying a slight premium to buy from the OPC. Afterall if you don't buy from them then you can't moan if they decide to cease production due to lack of demand.

Well put. I don't know what more we can do, we have it in the forum faqs, in the Register welcome letter, in every flippin' thread when people ask for parts suppliers. Then they go and order an armrest hinge from e-bay for £20 and think they've got a bargain! [][]

The good news is that the 944 was made in large numbers worldwide, so there won't be a supply problem. It's more about cost.

 

[ChasR]

The above about OPC is very true. Besides Bert who seemed just as cheap (after postage) my local OPC (Solihull) sold me a rocker cover gasket for £23 including a sump washer and the 4 doughnut gaskets that go on around the plugs. Porscheshop who quite a few people seem to use wanted £20 for just the rocker cover gasket alone!

The problem is that many dealers are often seen as 'stealers' when it is not always true.

 

[zcacogp]

There's two sides to the "Dealers are cheaper" coin tho' chaps; they may be cheaper on smaller bits, but mechanical consumables are orders of magnitude more expensive from them.

They wanted a much for a CV joint boot as many aftermarket suppliers wanted for the joint and boot. And their price for all the parts for a clutch was well into four figures.

Given this massive difference I can understand why people get the impression that they are generally more expensive.


Oli.

 

[Indi9xx]

Parts will not dry up completely... Porsche have been deleting parts for the 924/944/968 on a regular basis over the last 10 years, and then still going on to do batches every now and again to keep up with demand... a good example is 968 anti roll bars, officially deleted from production, but a batch is made every 12 months or so.

But where Porsche delete a part and there is demand, the aftermarket steps in, where there isnt the demand for a aftermarket to produce, you can generally get the part made or refurbished...

There isnt ever going to be a situation where the old watercooled cars are going off the road due to lack of parts...

Porsche at the moment is having a rough time and is having to push out disclaimers left right and centre to keep their options open.... this means putting out press releases saying things like "slow moving parts will be deleted due to lack of demand" when what they are really saying is "if things get tough for us, we may need to scale down our resources to concentrate on our key markets" Same thing happened in the early 1990 crash...