When it comes to luxury cars, Porsche is a beloved-brand because it’s well-known for making high-quality and high-performance cars. Despite that reputation, Porsche, like any other automaker, isn’t perfect, and Porsche has made mistakes in the past. Here’s a look at why some owners are suing the automaker over a potentially expensive infotainment issue.

An overview of this infotainment class-action lawsuit against Porsche

As Car Complaints reported, this alleged issue started in the spring of 2020 when Porsche infotainment systems received an update for their SiriusXM radios. One of the plaintiffs in this lawsuit was the owner of a used 2011 Porsche Panamera that they had bought in 2012. According to Car Complaints, despite not being a SiriusXM customer, that plaintiff allegedly received that SiriusXM update, and that’s when the alleged issues arose. 

This update allegedly caused the car’s Porsche Communication Management (PCM) system to malfunction. Car Complaints reported that the plaintiff alleged that their PCM would reboot every few minutes, even when the Porsche’s engine was turned off. This repetitive rebooting allegedly caused a lot of other issues too. On top of that, the plaintiff alleged that this update was automatic, and they had no choice in the matter.

Car Complaints said that the plaintiff alleged that their PCM would make a “loud static sound” every time that it rebooted. This was annoying for the plaintiff, but the plaintiff also claimed that the constant rebooting did permanent damage to their car. The plaintiff claimed that this issue degraded the battery, damaged the car’s hard drive, and damaged the PCM itself.

This is a potentially costly problem

Since the PCM manages things like audio and navigation in a Porsche, this damage to the PCM could potentially lead to a lot of other issues. According to Car Complaints, this lawsuit alleged that, due to the damage to the PCM, Porsche owners also allegedly experienced issues regarding their “navigation, radio, sound and phone systems.” 

For one plaintiff, they claimed that fixing this issue was a somewhat expensive one. According to Car Complaints, that plaintiff needed to pay over $3,200 to replace their Panamera’s PCM. On top of that, the plaintiff claimed that they couldn’t drive their Panamera for more than two months. Other owners may get similar quotes since, according to Car Complaints, replacing the PCM unit may cost between $2,000 to $4,000. 

This isn’t just a potentially costly and dangerous issue, either. According to Car Complaints, the lawsuit also alleged that this is a widespread problem that affects a lot of people. 

Which Porsche models are allegedly affected

The lawsuit claimed that, since this issue allegedly originated after an update to the car’s SiriusXM radio, any Porsche models that received that update could also be experiencing this issue. That’s why this class-action lawsuit involves “All entities and individuals who, on the date the Update was transmitted, owned or leased a Porsche vehicle equipped with an XM radio antenna and Porsche Communication Management (PCM) system 3.0 or 3.1 that received the Update.”

On top of that, this lawsuit claimed that a Porsche dealer told customers, “If your Porsche PCM has started malfunctioning the Sirius XM update is likely the issue.” Despite that alleged statement by that dealer, as Car Complaints wrote, the plaintiffs also alleged that the automaker hasn’t done anything to fix this alleged problem. 

Furthermore, this lawsuit alleged that Porsche should’ve known that the Sirius update would’ve caused problems for owners. That being said, Car Complaints did not report what the Porsche owners are demanding from Porsche. And of course, since this lawsuit is a very recent one, these are simply allegations and Porsche may not end up being legally at fault for these alleged issues.