Porsche Carrera GT Stop-Use Order Has Left Owners With An Undriveable 'Paperweight'

Porsche’s iconic twenty-year-old V10 screamer supercar Carrera GT has been lying dormant for nearly a year, and owners are starting to get antsy. In April of 2023 Porsche issued a recall affecting 489 examples of the 1300 Carrera GTs built in 2004 and 2005 for potential catastrophic suspension failure. Shortly thereafter the recall was expanded to all Carrera GTs with a recommendation that all owners stop using them indefinitely. A source who wishes to remain unnamed has confirmed that Porsche does not currently have parts available or any ETA of repairs. So you can buy a Carrera GT for around $1.5 million, but you definitely can’t use it.

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Recall campaign number 23V241000 explains that “the spherical joints that connect the wishbone suspension components on the front and rear axles can fail due to damage from mechanical stress and corrosion.”

Owners are advised not to drive their vehicles until the repair has been performed. Dealers will inspect the suspension joints. If damage is found, owners are advised not to drive their vehicle until it is repaired. Once parts are available, dealers will replace the spherical joints, free of charge. Interim letters notifying owners of the safety risk were mailed April 27, 2023. A second letter will be sent once the remedy parts are available, anticipated 3rd Quarter 2024. Owners may contact Porsche’s customer service at 1-800-767-7243. Porsche’s number for this recall is APA3.

When you enter a CGT VIN into the NHTSA’s recall lookup site, you get the following messages:

Screenshot: NHTSA.gov

In reaching out to Porsche for a statement on this issue, I received the following from Porsche Cars North America Manager, Product Communications, Frank Wiesmann:

We regularly monitor the quality of our products. As part of this, we recently identified there is the potential, in rare instances, that the spherical joints that connect the wishbone suspension components on the front and rear axles of the Carrera GT may be susceptible to corrosion over prolonged periods of time. Owners affected have been contacted and, are now being updated on the remedy plan. The remedial action – which will be carried out in due course – involves a component replacement which will be carried out for free at the owner’s convenience. Out of an abundance of caution, we have recommended that owners not to drive their vehicles until the replacement can be carried out. No incidents attributed to this concern have been reported.

There appear to be two camps of Carrera GT owner reactions to this stop-use warning here in the U.S. as many continue to drive their CGTs as if nothing has happened, while others have kept their cars parked. Some UK-based CGT owners have said that the recall has caused their insurance companies to remove coverage for road use due to the stop-use message from Porsche. I reached out to my own collector car insurance agent to see how things look in the U.S. right now. His reply, “Since it’s a safety issue and warned by Porsche and the NHTSA, any claims would not be covered as there is a no use order in place.”

Hey Doug, are you still driving the car you bought last February? You might want to put it in the garage for a while, or you’ll likely be on the hook for any damage if you suffer the bad luck of a suspension failure at speed.

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Interestingly this potential for catastrophic suspension failure doesn’t seem to be hurting the collectability or value of these cars in any way. Possibly because most collectors don’t actually put miles on them regardless. A 600-mile example sold recently on Bring A Trailer for $1.8 million, while a desirable Fayence Yellow example sold at RM Sotheby’s Las Vegas sale last November for $1.54 million. Carrera GT sales nearly doubled between 2019 and 2022, and though the market cooled slightly in ‘22 and ‘23, values trended upward in the later half of the year, well after the stop-use order had been issued.