German engineering is highly regarded, and there’s a reason for that. In fact, there are four, says this guy. They range from better state education through to greater societal respect for engineers. It’s a cultural thing. But what does the Porsche owner in the UK do in lieu of all those engineers?

The Porsche what now?

As eagle-eyed readers/students of the Porsche marque already know, there is no Porsche model 404. However, 404 is an internationally recognised computer error message and as cars become more electronically driven, so to speak, it’s as big a challenge as any getting under the hood, oily fingers mechanical issue.

Calling all cars (owners thereof)

However, as with any other special interest brand, there’s a strong community of Porsche owners out there who are happy to share the quirks of their cars (and more importantly, how to get round them). And while some of these issues are pretty intricate and unlikely to be a showstopper if you’re just prowling through town in your 911, others are fundamental head-scratchers. Here’s a great example.

Uh oh. Flat battery alert. What to do?

Simple, right? Pop the lid, attach the jump leads and boom. Well, metaphorically, anyway. But the 911 (and 911, Cayman and so on) need electronics to open the bonnet. And you’ve no power. As this cheery Porsche owner explains, it soon gets worse. While Porsche have helpfully added a manual handle, it opens the wrong end of the car. That’s the storage bit, not the business end, guys.

Hang on, though!

If you’ve every owned a lesser car (which is most of them) you’ll know that sometimes having an extra battery on board is worth its weight in gold. Which, when you factor in the cost of carrying an extra car battery in terms of fuel consumption, is just as well. And that’s exactly what Porsche suggest in their ‘Good to Know’ owner’s manual.

Bright spark?

The boffins (the German equivalent thereof) suggest that the reluctantly stationary driver attaches jump leads they’ll also be carrying in a storage space that barely holds a case of beer to the interior fuse box and away they go. Couldn’t be simpler!

A wise man once said…

“Experience is the thing you get just after you need it.” He wasn’t wrong. But most experience is hard-won. Let’s be honest here – while Porsche makes the most beautiful, best-performing and, dammit, sexiest cars on the road, there are many moving parts and a good few chips and circuit boards, too. The key is to bypass the need for experience and simply have on tap advice from experts.

That’s us!

Porsche is in our blood and everything we do. Design 911 are your go-to guys for all things Porsche. We are not just troubleshooters so much as experts dedicated to ensuring every Porsche owner enjoys these lovely examples of German engineering to the max.

But flat batteries? Don’t start us on that.