If there’s one thing that the Jalopnik audience agrees on, it’s that most new cars are entirely too overcomplicated, which makes maintenance and repairs all but impossible to do on your own. Last year I stumbled across a video of a Volkswagen technician changing the cabin air filter on an ID Buzz, and the array of unreasonably complicated steps required to perform this simple task. Now, a Porsche technician shared a video of the steps necessary to replace the engine air filter on a Panamera, and to the surprise of no one, it’s an unnecessarily complicated process, too.
Rather than simply unclipping the air box and replacing the engine air filter, Porsche Panameras require dismantling of the entire front of the car–including both front wheels and their respective fender liners, as well as the entire front bumper cover–in order to perform the five second job of tossing out the old filter and replacing it with a fresh one.
Expensive cars are expensive to maintain
The vast majority of the time required to perform this service is dedicated to removing and replacing the engine bay perimeter trim, the wheel-well liners, and front bumper. Knowing Porsche, the hourly labor costs for service center work are likely to be extremely expensive, so this simple service likely costs a pretty penny. I reached out to Porsche for comment on why the Panamera’s engine air filter is so difficult to access, and a representative gave no comment, but did say that is the way every single Panamera engine air filter has been accessed since the model was introduced back in 2010.
I’ve explored why used German super sedans are so cheap to buy in the past, and the answer comes down to expensive, frequent, and complicated repairs. Expensive cars are expensive to maintain and repair, thus making them poor value propositions. If you think you’ve found a killer deal on a used luxury vehicle, don’t forget to leave a lot of headroom in your budget for complex and pricey repairs.
