Unsurprising was the usual high level of service delivered by Carrs of Exeter, from its excellent coffee to the general level of enthusiasm from the top man down. Courtesy car was a decent - clean - BMW (did you know that Porsche body panels are supplied to Porsche's Zuffenhausen base by BMW?) and Carrs' idea of cleaning the S seems to equate to most people's idea of a full valet.

The surprising bit was the need to arrange a return visit to have a leaking main oil seal replaced. A gearbox-out job apparently, thankfully under warranty. Carrs also contacted Porsche Warranty regarding the Boxster's brakes which, regular readers will know, have been causing me more and more grief of late - sticking on hard if the car is parked up for a few days and then performing pretty dismally for the first few miles of any subsequent drive. The problem is the discs are rusting, the corrosion so ingrained in a few places that even hard use doesn't clear them fully.

Porsche Warranty explained that it viewed the brakes as consumable items and further suggested that they should be thoroughly dried after cleaning the car or a wet outing. Oh please! Imagine the scene following a three-hour blat home from Heathrow in the pouring rain, tired from a Transatlantic crossing. Do I a) settle in front of the fire with a soothing drink before bed, or b) spend a happy half-hour on my knees drying off the brakes? With a hairdryer, presumably. Precisely.

However, at Carrs' recommendation I made this point, rather politely I thought, to a very nice lady at Porsche Customer Services who came back to me after a couple of days' investigation to say that she had given the go-ahead for the discs to be skimmed when the car was in for its oil seal repair. In the event, Carrs didn't consider the skimming to be worthwhile and I was delighted to see four shiny new discs on the car when I picked it up.

Even bedding in the new brakes, I'm quite shocked at the difference; I'd obviously just adjusted to the gradual loss of braking performance over time. If your Boxster doesn't seem to stop so well any more, get it checked out.

So quite enough fun and games for one month, then? Er, no actually. A few days after picking up the fresh-braked and de-leaked S, the electric hood decided to stop working, fully down and 200 miles from home. A quick call to Porsche Assist (I was aiming to use the full set of Porsche helpline numbers this month) and the car was whisked away on a low-loader within 45 minutes, a free hire car arriving shortly after, so full marks to all involved. Subsequent investigation revealed a faulty relay to be the problem.

Still managed to cram in another 1300 blissful miles over the month with a couple of weeks on the continent to look forward to soon.