Carlsen Porsche verses Rector Porsche

Having grown up in Palo Alto.  Carlsen was one of the few dealerships I was familiar with.  I mean, my parents bought our first Volvo from the dealership between Charleston Road and El Camino Real.  The dealership is no longer located there and most likely moved to another location. During that period, Carlsen Porsche used to be associated with their Audi dealership and located on Embarcadero Road in Palo Alto.

Carlsen Porsche:

Not until I bought my first Porsche did I experience the service first hand.  I was initially biased toward Carlsen Porsche because they have free Porsche loaners (Boxster, Cayenne, and Cayman) as well as one of the service advisers was someone I knew and met through a local car group.  They had a couple years back moved their dealership and service from Palo Alto to right off Highway 101 in Menlo Park.

Because there was only two service advisers there, they don't really go out of their way except for their best customers (i.e. spend a lot of money at their dealership buying cars).  For the rest of Porsche owners, they take a fairly nonchalant attitude. This I feel is both unprofessional as well as just annoying.  If I'm spending thousands on a service, I would like to be treated well and get updates on status of my car instead of feeling like I just left my car in a black hole.

Rector Motors/ Porsche:

My first experience with Rector Porsche was when I first bought my car.  Rector Motors is one of the more traditional combination Audi & Porsche dealership, located right off Broadway Ave from Highway 101 in Burlingame.

I needed to get a key made as well as receive my 30K maintenance.  Both were done there.  Unfortunately, one of the spark plug sleeves cracked right after service and I had to return my car to the dealership.  Because of that incident, I decided to try Carlsen.  I would like to point out that Rector immediately took my car back and fixed all of the outstanding issues.  At Rector Motors, they have a handful of service advisers, all competing for your business.  I'm not sure if they are commission based but there are several advisers that I would all recommend.  Hector, George, as well as Paul.  I ended up choosing Paul Medina as my service adviser because he knew one of my friends.  Paul also always went out of his way to get me an Audi loaner. 

Rector does not have free loaners they regularly give out to their customers.  They have a rental company on site that loans cars out to their customers, and they do have select new Audi loaners as well.  I believe if you own an Audi they charge you a nominal fee for these loaners while your car is being serviced.  For Porsche owners, the loaners are given by most service advisers to their customers complimentary.  I really like this about the dealership.  The service department is extremely helpful and for parts they usually offer it to me automatically near cost, which is a great improvement over Carlsen.  Carlsen treats me like I'm stealing from them when I ask if there is any parts discount.

End of the day, I would highly recommend Rector Motor service department for their information and attentive staff, as a great parts department.