Joe Croser Northamptonshire, UK

Model 997.2 Turbo

Year 2010

Acquired December 2015

I just bought new stereo knob covers for the PCM 3 in my 997.2 Turbo. These little 0.5-gram beauties cost me twice their weight in gold at £60 for the pair, or $78.

Daylight robbery or ‘Porsche tax’?

You decide. But while foolish folk like me will fork out silly sums to fix a tiny problem, Porsche will no doubt continue to lick their finger before holding it in the

wind while setting parts prices. Smarter people than I may even choose to live with their ageing interior as it degrades, but I am just too fussy for that.

It all started in early summer when I noticed one edge of my volume knob cover appeared to be peeling away. On closer inspection I realised that it wasn’t peeling away; a small section of it had snapped clean off. I don’t remember catching it with anything but it was no longer whole… no longer perfect. I left it a day or three and then noticed the right-hand knob had also lost a section.

I live almost centrally between three OPCS, which means I am about an hour away from one. Too far to simply drop in, when buying parts I almost always pick up the phone and speak to the parts guys. They are invariably helpful and generous with their time and they always successfully translate my limited vocabulary and creative descriptions into actual parts numbers and prices.

I called Porsche Kendal as I knew I’d be asking for the parts to be posted. They are a small family-run operation and have been so very helpful in the past

when I was tracing the history of my car – which turned its first taxed wheels in their showroom – so I wanted to give a little back.

I placed the call and steadied myself for a taxing £15 to £20 price tag. £60 was a shock, but I couldn’t deal with the cracked discs. Other than the cost, the process was painless; five minutes on the phone, two days of patiently waiting and my little gems arrived in their bubble-wrapped packaging.

As it happens you can’t buy the covers by themselves, so I received two whole replacement knobs. As mine were in great shape I took the easy-fitting route and replaced only the discs, which was an easy pry-out and press-in task taking no more than a couple of minutes. The results are worth it. The PCM 3 is again perfect, resplendent in Satin black.

If my whole car cost $80 per gram it would be worth a whopping $127 million. More importantly it would never be mine. Thank goodness the important and heavy stuff like the engine and the astonishing chassis with its AWD system are cheap, relatively speaking of course.