The specialist
A Porsche will never be cheap to run, but this service and repair specialist aims to ease the burden
Running your Porsche on a sensible budget is the philosophy here. As Cotswold Porsche Specialists founder Lee Jones puts it: “We are committed to low-cost Porsche ownership through good-value labour rates and servicing, low-cost spares and intelligently targeted repairs.”
That means being realistic about what a car needs now, and what it is likely to need in the future – diligently written out as a ‘road map’ in the boss’ own hand on the back of every invoice – and offering a choice of spares, from genuine Porsche to used. It’s a warts-and-all review of a car they can pick away at over time. “Even cars of 10 years old have one,” says Jones. “As they get to 20 years and older, the map gets bigger.”
The supply of secondhand spares is what the business was founded on back in 2012, although things have come a long way since. “We just expanded sideways,” Jones admits. “Now the breaking side of things is really non-existent, although we still have a healthy inventory.” That growth encapsulates not only the servicing and repairs, but also, more lately, car sales from a separate office and storage site across the road.
The secondhand parts store remains impressive, with everything from ABS pumps and steering racks to cylinder heads and even a complete M96 engine. There are new genuine Porsche parts racked up, too, including a job lot of factory sports exhausts for the 996 that Jones admits were too hard to resist at $5000 each. “If we haven’t got the part you are after, we can normally source it new,” he adds.
There’s a fixed-price menu, which starts at £220 for a Boxster service and £649 for a clutch, with a brake-fluid change at £69 for all models. “We do everything from changing wipers to engine rebuilds,” says Jones. “Servicing dominates and I’d say the Boxster 987 is the most common car, followed by the 986. We also have a reputation for fixing transaxle cars. With the upturn in values, we are seeing more and more of these. We still consider ourselves enthusiasts first and business owners second, so we know how Porsche customers expect to be treated.”
There’s a computerised four-wheel alignment set-up – “Porsches eat suspension components” – and three lifts in the workshop next door, where a 997 GT2 nestles, a Cayenne is having a misfire attended to and a 987 Boxster is in need of new coolant pipes. Roughly 20 customer cars wait outside, including a few transaxle models, while the satellite sales office incorporates a customer pool table for when life returns to something approaching normality.
With only a 993 cabrio in stock on our visit, the showroom currently doubles as storage for Jones’ own collection, plus a ’76 Carrera 3.0 that’s in for an engine rebuild. “I’d always dreamt of owning a Porsche and bought a 964 – which is a story in itself,” says Jones. “I then got a 924, which is what I’d wanted all along, then another, because they seemed such good value. My mate recorded a programme about a Porsche breaker, and once the seed was planted I’d quit my job as a chartered engineer within six months!”