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Jay Leno welcomes finely rebuilt Porsche 356 into his garage

Not a month after the Porsche 911 Reimagined by Singer visited Jay Leno's garage, another artfully restored Porsche has rolled in. This time it's a 1957 Porsche 356A Outlaw, the "outlaw" moniker referring to Porsches that have been restored outside the bounds of period-correct orthodoxy.
This 356A was literally done from the ground up by Michigander Chuck Olenyk, the floor of the car having fallen apart so badly that he couldn't remove the roof at first since it was holding the vehicle together. Olenyk said that of the 2000 hours over seven years that he spent restoring the car, 500 were spent just on repairing the rust. That's undoubtedly some of the reason why when he tried to sell the unrestored car as a roller in the nineties for $1,000, no one would take it off his hands.
Olenyk fitted a mildly tuned engine from a Porsche 912, the transmission from a 356B, the brakes from a 356C, Fuchs mags and a modified replicar Speedster roof from Intermecchnica. It lacks nothing even with just 115 horsepower, and it adds to that with charm and aural appeal. You can see and hear the full story in the video below.

Car owners getting more irritated with their repair experiences, study says

The J.D. Power U.S. Customer Service Index Study (CSI) is a barometer of a vehicle owner's happiness with the service experience. While it wasn't all bad in the 2023 study, the overall owner satisfaction score dropped. This year's tally of 846 out of 1,000 is two points down from 2022, the 43-year-old study's first decline in more than 28 years, and one point down from 2021. However, the overall score remains well up from the pre-pandemic scores of 821 in 2018 and 837 in 2020. The study claims the stumbling block is the horde of BEV launches. The flood into the new energy space has created a recall rate among EVs that's more than double the rate for ICE vehicles. Furthermore, dealership service department knowledge of EVs isn't on par with internal combustion engine expertise, leaving EV owners less satisfied with service advisors compared to ICE owners. Chris Sutton, VP of automotive retail at J.D. Power, said, "As training programs for service advisors and technicians evolve, EV service quality and customer experience must address both the vehicle and the unique customer needs. The EV segment has the potential to spur massive convenience improvements in how customers service their vehicles — but weÂ’re not seeing the benefits yet." Matters are slightly worse for all owners, though, with labor and parts shortages contributing to longer wait times for service appointments. The CSI study surveys owners and lessees of one- to three-year-old vehicles to gauge their happiness with service at franchised dealer or aftermarket service facilities for maintenance or repair work. The criteria in order of importance are service quality (32%); service advisor (19%); vehicle pick-up (19%); service facility (15%); and service initiation (15%). Lexus retains the top spot for luxury brands, giving it three wins in four years. The Japanese automaker won in 2020 as well, its run interrupted by Porsche in 2021. Cadillac, Infiniti and Acura complete the luxury top 5.  For mass-market cars, Mitsubishi wins again after a victory in 2021 and falling to fourth last year. It's followed by Mazda, Buick, Subaru and Mini.  Considering the different service needs and service experience of different body styles, the study has broken results out by segment for the first time. Lexus earned a second victory thanks to winning the premium SUV segment, and Mitsubishi earned a second victory by winning the mass-market SUV/minivan category.

Charles Morgan drives a wicked air-cooled Porsche 911 GT2

Porsche has made a fantastic array of driver's cars over the years, but few can still drum up the kind of excitement as the first 911 GT2. It launched in 1993, based (appropriately enough) on the 993-generation model to serve as a homologation special, and remains a cult classic over two decades later. So to review one, the blokes at Carfection brought in Charles Morgan, former managing director of his family's sportscar manufacturer. The 993-gen GT2 was the first of its breed, packing a 3.6-liter twin-turbo flat-six cooled by air and good for 430 horsepower, all driven to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual. It had a full roll cage, plastic fenders riveted over the wider track, and... little else. It was raw, engaging, and extremely rare. Only 57 road-going examples were made, and these days they're trading hands for stupid money that only investors could afford – but could not afford to drive lest it crash into a write-off. Little wonder that Harry Metcalfe opted for a non-original example that had been brought up to GT2 spec in the aftermarket, and that's what Mr. Morgan is driving here as well. That may make it less authentic, but it still looks like a blast to drive along twisting country roads. See for yourself in the eight-minute clip above, brought to you by the same chaps who used to make the Xcar videos. Related Video: