458 Spider PPI: gotchas?

Thinking of putting an offer in on a 458 Spider. Would love to get any tips on things to ask a shop to look out for during a PPI. I did a search of these threads but wasn't able to find a list. Any help would be much appreciated!

 

Super helpful, thank you!

Newer Porsches give you the ability to download the historical rev counters to see if people have been beating the engine to within an inch of its life (RPM exceedances are categorized and logged.) Does the 458 offer anything like that?

 

This is great! Thanks so much for all this incredibly valuable information

 

In the aviation world, yes you do walk into an aviation mechanic's shop with a specific list of known aircraft 'squawks' when doing a prepurchase inspection. If you're buying a common type of airplane, most mechs will be familiar. If you're buying a special breed, then just like Ferraris, smart owners will share information on the gotchas that aren't published in any official list, or even known about by most mechs.

Usually you do a full annual inspection (very comprehensive list) but any smart aircraft buyer will ensure that they're working with a shop that knows the aircraft extremely well, and that the shop checks the 'gotchas' that aren't on manufacturers' maintenance lists, or items mandated by the FAA. For example with the aircraft I own, there is no requirement to replace both Turbine Inlet Temperature probes on any kind of schedule, yet smart owners will proactively replace these probes every 250 flight hours, since the probes wear fast, and as they wear, they indicate lower temperatures than actual. Since the Turbine Inlet Temps are two of the primary indicators we focus on to keep our engines within operating limits, wear on those probes is no bueno. Only a very specialized shop will know to replace those probes.

Sure -- but what do you do when the dealer is selling the car? Do you trust a dealer to do a full PPI and be fully honest about everything they find? I sure as heck don't.

 

Do not get me started on Cessna factory 'support' for piston aircraft. Turbine aircraft, they'll send a mobile repair team out to your location. Piston? You might get a call back in 3 weeks if you're lucky. They. Simply. Do. Not. Care.

Cessna Service Centers, too...the equivalent of dealers...I've been in the aviation biz for 25 years and a Cessna Service Center is THE LAST PLACE I would take a Cessna aircraft for service. I speak from personal experience. Where do I start...

1) "Full annual" inspection performed and signed off. Oil was drained, filter was replaced. Only, someone forgot to actually put any oil back in the engine.

2) Multiple hours spent on configuring fuel flow, manifold pressure, and RPM to manufacturer specifications...for the entirely wrong aircraft type. Had the engine overheat on departure, barely made it back to the field.

3) Brand new engine installed in aircraft. Turbo pre-oiling procedure ignored by the Service Center. Turbo failed on takeoff. A turbocharged aircraft without a turbo is like driving a car in Limp Mode, except you can't pull over...

4) Two cylinders removed and replaced. Mech forgot to torque the throughbolts, left them hand-tight. Cylinder came off the engine as power was applied. Metal went into the $85,000 engine and thoroughly trashed it.

I can go on, but you get the idea.

Bombardier is also terrible. Gulfstream, however, sets the standard for turbine aircraft support. As for piston aircraft support? Diamond isn't terrible. Cirrus can be decent.

 

Yup, I totally hear what you're saying. I have a tiny fraction of your experience with fine cars. I have taken my Porsches to both the dealer and independent shops, but don't have anything close to your experience. My thought is that you're more likely to find people who are truly passionate about certain brands working at the indie shops, rather than at dealers. We all know guys who have worked at dealers, learned their trade, and then gone off on their own to start shops that specialize on certain makes, and their reputations are excellent. I think that is where the true craftsmen (they're usually men) tend to be found these days. I could be entirely wrong, though.

I've never had a real problem with a dealer or with an indie shop; I've been very lucky.

 

Yup, you've got a really good point -- that makes complete sense. My dad has two vintage 1960s Lotus Elans, there are of course only a few people on the West Coast who have the slightest clue how to work on them...and they weren't at the Lotus dealer. You're right, a 458 is a modern car and has plenty of technical documentation and other online support for the dealers which the vintage cars wouldn't.

As far as selling kidneys...let me just put this out there. My airplane cost about what a decent low-mileage 458 Spider would cost, or a 20K mile 488 GTB. My aircraft insurance, however, is *half* what I was just quoted by Hagerty for a $250K 458. Half! And the darn thing flies. As my insurance broker said..."your airplane is a lot less likely to get stolen or wrecked than that Ferrari"...

Now when you get into turbines, that's just silly money; as my mentor used to say, "A turbine needs a job." I looked into acquiring a late-model light jet, like a Citation CJ1, for my business...but there's no way I can plausibly claim 51% business usage, nor can I justify the $2,000/hr operating cost of even a light jet.

But with piston aircraft, they're easier on the wallet. I figure $175 per flight hour just for maintenance alone on my aircraft; when you add gas, insurance, hangar space, and all the other myriad stuff like a per-hour reserve for engine and propeller replacement every ~10 years, it's about $425 per flight hour to loaf around the sky at an 'economy' cruise of about 210-220 mph. Which coincidentally is about the top speed of a 488/ F8/ etc...but the cops don't pull you over and throw you in jail

That said, you can get a simpler, slower aircraft, like a Cessna 172, which will go around 130 mph all day long and cost you $150 per flight hour, and hardly ever break on you.

I wonder, if you look at the average hours/miles that Ferraris get driven, as compared to their annual costs...it'd be interesting to calculate a "cost per hour" for a vintage Ferrari or a modern one...

Sorry I got totally off-topic! Just thinking out loud...

 

Super helpful! thank you...