[ Day 26 of dead Boxsterina in the shop. ]

"T" of PCNA returned my call this morning. While that was a welcome event, he had no good news for me. He said that he had talked to the "parts expediter", "B". Among the various pieces of info and speculation: Rumor has it that several engines may have already been shipped; he has no hard information about the time frame for my engine; he should have an answer about it some time next week. I mentioned the fact that by next week we will have passed the 1-month mark of dead-Boxster-in-shop downtime, and that I would want to take further action if the answer comes back unknown or with further delay. Now, I looked up yesterday about the "lemon law", and it mentions 30 days out of service as one of its triggering elements. Without me even mentioning it, "T" seemed to suggest a lemon law remedy: give me my money back for my car. He didn't say this exactly, but that's what I thought he was suggesting, and I said that of course I didn't want to get rid of the car, because I love it.

I think a better solution is for PCNA to pull the engine from an unsold Boxster in inventory (few of these, but they exist) and put it in my car. That will be my request next week if the news is not good. Now I'm driving over to Dealer "S" to speak with "J", my salesman, to see if the sales channel can be of any use in this horror story. I would certainly be happier and more amenable to a wait if I had a good loaner rather than a generic econo-box. Think I'll also try contacting Enterprise anonymously to see if there's better choice of inventory when you aren't waving a prepaid $50 corporate rate in their face. I suspect they aren't giving me what I should be able to get for $50 a day.

Went to Dealer "S" and talked to "J" ("W", previously said to be "no longer with the company," was there too). He was very sympathetic (it's amazing how far a little sympathy will go to make a mistreated customer feel better; it's something every other PCNA person in this process could learn). He said it is good to keep him involved with car problems (of course, this wasn't a big issue until I found out the engine was not forthcoming), so that he can be involved. He immediately called "T" and left a voicemail message to be kept in the loop. Apparently "T" will usually call "J" first with info, as they prefer the dealer to be the customer contact. "J" is definitely up on the PAG engine manufacturing problems, and says that the supplier's problem with the crankcase machine is that it sometimes makes porous engine blocks, which leak oil though the crankcase! So in quality tests PAG is rejecting 70% of the engine blocks they get. That is the problem in the supply pipeline.

Inquired at Dollar Rent A Car, who said they can give me a Jeep Grand Cherokee for my $50/day rate.