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8 HIDDEN COSTS OF 718 SPYDER OWNERSHIP PORSCHE WON'T TELL YOU! · Performance Car Ownership with Gary

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: An engine shutting down or running incredibly rough just before failing.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: But some of them were very hastily repaired by dealers.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's get the verdict out of the way first because you know you're about to hear a lot of intimidating numbers, and I don't want you to think I made this video podcast to talk you out of buying a 718 spider.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, you know, I'd buy mine again tomorrow.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: But there is a gap, a real one measured in dollars between what the sales team doesn't tell you and what owners like me actually pay year after year, long after the paperwork signed, and the finance guys already moved on to the next customer.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Today I'm giving you the eight of those uh costs, real ones from my car, not a press loaner, my own 2021 Miami Blue Spider, six years after purchasing it new with the invoices, you know, to back it up.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: By the end of this video, you'll know exactly what I know, and you'll know it before you sign, not after.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Believe me, that timing matters more than almost anything else.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in case you're wondering, I'm a PCA national track instructor.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: I run the spider on track at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park about six weekends a year.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll definitely talk about track use costs with this car, you know, a little bit later.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: No sponsors here, no paid reviews, no PR car sitting in my driveway for a week before it goes back to the fleet.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Just real ownership, real numbers, and my real experience.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Keep in mind, I'm not comparing this uh spider to some new buyer's fantasy of what a Porsche costs to run.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm comparing it to my own ownership history, uh, which includes a 987 box draw I owned and tracked uh before this one.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: That comparison isn't flattering for the spider's uh money side of that ledger.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what nobody on the sales floor is going to walk through before you drive off that lot.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: The effect of the depreciation and you know, the allocation game, the insurance surprise, the parts and labor bills, that massive tire bill, everyday consumable parts availability, the soft tops design flaw, and the potential engine concern nobody wants to talk about.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And why it costs so much for winter storage for this car.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Also includes some tips to minimize those costs.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go through them one at a time, and yeah, we're gonna be talking numbers, real US dollar numbers.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: All right, number one, depreciation, and what you pay just to get one in the first place.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the thing about the spider: a lot of prospective buyers don't fully appreciate going in.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: This has always been an allocation car, which means depending on when and where you buy new, you're not gonna be just paying MSRP, you might be paying an ADM.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's an above dealer markup on top of it.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now I've seen owners on Renlist report that they've paid$10,000,$20,000, or even$40,000 over sticker for a well-spected spider when demand outpaces supplies, which you know what, it always has.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And in many cases, you're required to add on a minimum of$20,000 to$30,000 of options, you know, when you order it.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know what you're thinking.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's not just a spider problem, that's a sports car problem.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what, you'd be right.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: But here's what the sales team won't walk you through.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Paying that ADM doesn't just cost you at the register, it costs you a gain at resale time because the used car market prices off MSRP, not what you paid over sticker or those redundant options.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you eat that markup twice.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: But since you're buying these cars used, so there's no ADM right now, right?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, correct.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: But now you're dealing with that, you know, summer convertible dealer markup, which can easily add 20% to the price.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And because these cars are so popular, you know, because you can't purchase them new right now, most sell used above what their original MSRP was.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, insurance, and it's not just the premium that'll surprise you.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: I know what you're thinking.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Gary, it's a sports car.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, insurance is higher.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, full coverage estimates for a 718 Spider run anywhere from$2,700 to over$3,600 a year, depending on trim, and real owners have reported anywhere from$525 that I pay for eight months to over$4,000, depending on your city, your state carrier, and of course your age.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: That range alone should tell you something.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Shop around.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Don't take the first quote your carrier hands you.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the part that actually catches most people off guard.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: More than one spider owner has told the exact same story.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Their car shows up in their insurer's system as a boxster, not a spider.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: A base boxster, which definitely matters a whole lot if you're on the an agreed value policy.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because if this car ever gets uh totaled, you do not want your insurer arguing that the closest replacement is a boxster GTS and cutting you a check that's 20 grand short of what you'd need to actually replace your spider.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Call your agent, confirm the VIN is coded correctly.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do it before you need it, not after.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, and this is the one that shocked me the most, coming from my old 987 uh Porsche Boxster S.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: The parts and labor bill on this car is not in the same universe as my previous Porsche.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let me just read you uh some of my invoices because numbers like this are more convincing than anything I can just say about it, right?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, slow down with me here because these are the real ones off my own paperwork.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: An oil change, just an oil change, ran me$333 just in labor plus$174 in parts.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Cabin oil filter replacement,$87 in labor for a filter that itself costs$110 from Porsche.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: PDK transmission fluid, just the fluid itself from our Porsche dealership.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Not the actual service, just the fluid was$255.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Spark plugs replacement, parts in labor.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Although keep in mind, on this flat six, that's not a five-minute job.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: It came to twelve hundred dollars.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Rear brake pads, parts only, no labor attached, eight hundred and four dollars and seventy-five cents.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I'm not making this up.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: $108 for wiper blades as a parts line on, you know, the annual service.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Again, my 987 Box Dress never hit numbers like this for the same categories.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now I fully expect this to be a fundamentally more expensive car to maintain both in the parts and labor to some extent, but nobody on the sales floor is going to explain that to you before you sign on that dotted line.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: All right, number four tires.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean this literally budget for every single year.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: I replace mine once a year.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Cost, you know, about uh$2,300 every year, like clockwork.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm on Michelin Pilot 4S's.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: If I was replacing them with the Cup 2s that came on the car from the factory with a higher cost and lower wear rating, it could easily be another 25% more costly because there's no way they'd last a year.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, that includes my six weekends of track use, but I only drive, you know, about 4,000 miles per year outside of track days.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're doing more track days than me, be sure you budget for that number coming around a whole lot faster.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: All right, number five.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And this one isn't really about money, it's about time.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, on a track weekend, that's worth just as much.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Consumables for this car, brake pads specifically, are not always sitting on a shelf, any shelf in the whole country.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: I've had more than one occasion where I needed pads and had to wait weeks.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Not because nobody makes them, even aftermarket options, but because Porsche dealers' inventory on GT parts fluctuates.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: And when it's back ordered, it's back ordered.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: I missed a track weekend a couple of years ago because we couldn't get the parts within the two weeks.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Owners on RenList report the exact same headache.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Some go straight to aftermarket parts, just to avoid the whole situation entirely.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Be sure to keep this in mind if you're planning your season around track days.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Order early, don't wait until the week before your track day.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Number six, the soft top.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a genuine design issue, not a maintenance one.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: The spider's manual top has a documented flaw, carried over by the way from the previous generation 981 Spider, which tells you Porsche knew about it and didn't fix it.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: The retracting tensioner makes direct contact with the side fabric during top operation.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And over time, that contact can wear a hole straight through.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Porsche's own answer to owners who flagged it has essentially been to wait until it happens and then we'll replace it.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: If under warranty.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: If it does fail out of warranty, you're looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of$2,000 to$2,500 for a replacement top.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And who knows how much labor to get it installed.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: There are preventative steps owners use, which I mentioned in a previous video.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'll drop a link to that one in the description down below.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: But nobody hands you that maintenance tip at delivery, that's for sure.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: All right, number seven.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And this one is more of a tax than a repair.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now those Michelin uh Pilot Sport 4S or the COP2s need to be stored at above 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: So what that means is when they're on your car and your car is stored anywhere below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, you list you risk cracking the tires, the sidewalls, and within the tread pattern itself, which definitely puts the tires at risk.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: You absolutely cannot move the car if the tires are below 20 degrees uh Fahrenheit.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, Michelin recommends you wait till it warms up to above 40 degrees Fahrenheit before you even try moving those tires.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: That also includes pushing on the tires, dropping the tires, doing anything, any kind of movement with the tires.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it's critical that you keep your car in a heated, in a heated uh storage uh facility in the winter time.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um and heated storage facilities, they typically run about$500 a month, which is about double what unheated storage facilities uh require.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you definitely want to keep that in mind because there's absolutely no way you want to be out there on track or on the street with any of the freeze cracking in those tires.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I definitely suggest you winter store your car in a heated storage facility to definitely protect those tires and also you from tire failure.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: All right, number eight, the engine story that nobody wants to talk about.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to be careful here because this isn't common, but it's real and it's expensive enough that you need to know about you know what's going on going into this whole purchase.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Back in 2021, Porsche issued a recall for approximately 190 vehicles.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: That includes 2012 model, uh, GT4s, 718 spiders, as well as the GTS 4.0 liter, due to defective connecting rods.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: These rods which connect the piston to the crankshaft were found to potentially crack or actually loosen due to manufacturing defects in their surface material.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this could have led to catastrophic engine damage, stalling, oil leaks, you know, or even fires.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Porsche's ultimate response was to replace the connecting rods, or in some cases, the entire engine free of charge per you know the recall that they had.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this primarily affected some cars built between August 2020 and January 2021, though only about 20 cars or so had been delivered to owners at the time of the recall announcement.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, sure, these cars were all addressed under warranty, but some of them were very hastily repaired by dealers, while others received replacement engines to be swapped out by those dealers.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Were the dealer repairs done properly?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Only time will tell, right?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's also been a few oil pump failures that have been noted for the 718.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: After doing some digging through Renless forums, some owners describe scenarios where a sudden loss of oil pressure, which is often signaled by dashboard warnings that literally say low oil pressure have resulted in engines shutting down or running incredibly rough just before failing.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: In some of these cases, metal shavings were found in the oil filter as well as the oil pan after the dealership was able to inspect the vehicle, suggesting internal damage by oil pump lockups or failures that have, you know, just stopped lubrication.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: And this issue has been noted in some cars outside of the recall batch and some as new as 2023s with very low mileage.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, another rare issue that has been reported are the vario cam actuator bolts failing on the engine, which has actually resulted in engine failures.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: The bolts that secure the vario cam actuators control the camshaft timing on the engine.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And these aluminum bolts have been implicated in rare instances of engine failure by potentially shearing or loosening under stress.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there have been some aftermarket solutions created for this issue, such as the steel bolt replacements from companies such as Demand Motorsports that have been adopted by some owners to mitigate that risk.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I would definitely encourage anybody that is shopping for one of these cars to purchase a warranty because any potential issue with the engine will be super expensive to fix.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Ideally, I would also prefer to stay away from the cars under the specific recall that Porsche issued for the Conrad failures that had its engine repaired by Porsche dealers.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: At the very least, you should know if any car you're considering is one of those.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: Fortunately for me, mine isn't.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And just so you know, replacing the engine in a 718 Spider is going to cost you$40,000 or more.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, after all of that, you might be wondering why I still have this car and why my answer at the very top of this video was still yes, I'd definitely buy this car again.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: And here's why my wife still asks me to take her out in the spider on date nights over anything else in our garage.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Miami Blue does that to people.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not exaggerating one bit.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Every PCA event I instruct at, every Most Port weekend at Porsche Parade, this car stands out and earns its keep in a way no spreadsheet can fully capture, that's for sure.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: The costs are real.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: I just gave you eight of them with the receipts, but so is everything on the other side of that ledger.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, it still wins.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: So who should be buying this car?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Someone going in with eyes open on maintenance and potential repair costs.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Someone who tracks their car and budgets for consumables, tires, pads, parts lead time proactively, not reactively.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Someone who wants an analog, manual top, naturally aspirated, gorgeous car experience that, keep in mind, isn't going to exist much longer in this segment.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And who shouldn't be buying this car?
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone expecting boxer level running costs, anyone who can't stomach a$1,200 spark plug bill without feeling, you know, a little bit sick about it.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And anyone who isn't willing to plan ahead for consumable replacements.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: If this kind of honest, numbers-driven ownership experience is useful for you, do me a favor.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: Hit the like, share this video with friends and family, and subscribe because the next video in my real ownership series is already in the works and it picks up right where this one leaves off.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you haven't checked out my honest owner five year review of my 718 Spider, it's right here.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Check it out and I'll see you there.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, what cost would you add to this list?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, owners tell me in the comments.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: What cost caught you off guard that I didn't cover here today?
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: I read everyone.