Travis Cole

Edit: Sorry, should have posted this in the West regional forum. Thread here could be deleted.


I'm about to buy a 2007 Cayman S, and need to decide where to have it serviced. It will be my first Porsche.

I live in San Francisco, and Aldo's is very close to home, but Vanguard is close to work.

Any recommendations? I'd prefer places near SOMA or *** Hill.

The car has pretty low miles, so hopefully this will just be oil changes for a while.

I'm happy to pay for good work, but I feel like I might get more for my money from an independent. Happy to be told wrong though.

lithium1330

oil change is pretty easy... most indy shops that work on European cars will be able to do it. Even spark plug change (4yr/40k miles IIRC) can be done by most euro shops. Where you'll want to have someone who has worked on the Boxster/Cayman is air filter change and hydraulic fluid check... those require accessing engine bay from top. And unless they've experience removing the carpeting, etc... they may struggle through that a bit after reading up on it online.
If you want to venture to East Bay, there is Sharkwerks and South bay has Flintworks... heard good things on both, though I have no personal exp. as I do most maintenance myself.
If you are PCA member, you can post to the local chapter for input as well.

Travis Cole

Thanks for the info!

I've posted a similar question to the Golden Gate PCA boards, we'll see what I find out.

westwest888

Griffin Motorwerke in Berkeley services my cars. Easy BART ride back to SF while they work on it. Very motorsports friendly shop.

Travis Cole

I've decided to go with Vanguard. They are just a few blocks from work, and I've been very impressed with their attention to detail. They've been very honest about what's necessary and unnecessary, and very willing to explain in detail anything they need to do, or potential problems I might have.