Win-win & the art of selling a Porsche privately

[Boxster_racer]

Reading other threads about how much mark up traders put on cars, it seems obvious that buying and selling privately is a win-win for both parties...
I may have to sell my lovely Boxster S early next year, it will still have a years worth of full OPC warranty and assist. What advice do you have to sell it privately and reach a win-win?

[Porsche911R]

private sellers seem to want OPC money.

so yes a win win if the seller is realistic.

Seems harder the more expensive you go.

[nickpan]

Price is everything.

You’re not offering a warranty, finance or PX so you’ll need to price/discount accordingly.

When you factor in the above and then account for your time, you’ll often find there’s a strong argument for S.O.R with a reputable dealer.

[HTP99]

When spending £10's of thousands, the majority want the perceived reassurance (whether rightly or wrongly) that a dealer gives, you will have to be significantly cheaper than a dealer to have any chance and once you factor in tyre kickers, time waster, test pilots, people who don't show, idiots, advertising costs and your time, it may not be worth it selling if yourself.

[Boxster_racer]

Porsche911R said:

private sellers seem to want OPC money.

so yes a win win if the seller is realistic.

Seems harder the more expensive you go.

Thanks ! What would you say is realistic? Say an OPC is selling same car for £38k, private sale should be £33k? (The car would be transferred with one year of OPC warranty and assist)

[Boxster_racer]

nickpan said:

Price is everything.

You’re not offering a warranty, finance or PX so you’ll need to price/discount accordingly.

When you factor in the above and then account for your time, you’ll often find there’s a strong argument for S.O.R with a reputable dealer.

Thanks nickpan. The car would come with one year transferable OPC warranty + assist, so that should give big peace of mind. I wonder how much finance and p/x would account for.

[Boxster_racer]

HTP99 said:

When spending £10's of thousands, the majority want the perceived reassurance (whether rightly or wrongly) that a dealer gives, you will have to be significantly cheaper than a dealer to have any chance and once you factor in tyre kickers, time waster, test pilots, people who don't show, idiots, advertising costs and your time, it may not be worth it selling if yourself.

Thanks ! Yes, absolutely, this is my major concern. Maybe through the p/h forum or the Porsche Club ?

[n12maser]

nickpan said:

Price is everything.

You’re not offering a warranty, finance or PX so you’ll need to price/discount accordingly.

When you factor in the above and then account for your time, you’ll often find there’s a strong argument for S.O.R with a reputable dealer.

+1

[JayK12]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

Pain staking and I agree with this, Id not sell mine privately unless I knew the buyer. Either PX or SOR. The hassle is not worth it. I had 2 incidents after having bought and sold 20 cars in 6 years of driving.

1. Integra Type R - Guy wants to come at 10pm, its dark so meet him at a local petrol station. He brings 2 cars full of people. Looks at it, says its too slow, moans alot. I say im going home and then he says he will buy it but wants to come to my house. So off we go with his group of friends and he pays £150 deposit, never seen him again.

2. EVO 9 - I was contracting for HP but they banned contractor for parking in their secure car park, I was on a night shift. Someone transferred me £100 as he said he wanted the car before seeing it. Took him out in it, he and his mate looked around it. I left it at the hotel i was staying at, and came back in the morning and the car was gone. I think they switched the spare keys as they just walked up to it and took it.

Since then I only sold one of my cars privately, and that was to a friend.

[Adam B]

Boxster_racer said:

Thanks nickpan. The car would come with one year transferable OPC warranty + assist, so that should give big peace of mind. I wonder how much finance and p/x would account for.

Zero for me, as if I finance a car I would do it via a finance company / mortgage top up.

I much prefer to buy and sell privately, and if I was after a Boxster and your car was a good one and had an OPC warranty and the price was right I would be keen.

Sold a Boxster S to a fellow PHer some time ago.

2 weeks ago i sold my 997.1 turbo (black/black, low miles, good spec and manual) so may be a guide of sorts.
A reputable specialist said it was a £60k retail car, they offered 52 to buy outright or £5k (incl VAT) to SOR (so I would have got 54 probably once they had been chipped down 1). Sold privately for 57, but knocked 1k off as it was a friend (unrequested).

Edited by Adam B on Tuesday 7th August 10:29

[EGTE]

I advertise on specialist forums only, the ones mainly populated by true enthusiasts (so no, not PH....)

Last two transactions (one sale, one purchase) were extremely pleasant, hopefully for everyone.

[edc]

EGTE said:

I advertise on specialist forums only, the ones mainly populated by true enthusiasts (so no, not PH....)

Last two transactions (one sale, one purchase) were extremely pleasant, hopefully for everyone.

This can work well especially if you have an audience who is generally more receptive to preventative maintenance and mods. It doesn't work so well if you just rock up and are on your 7th post on that forum.

[Boxster_racer]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

Thanks for sharing these v painful experiences. The guys at Ashgood are very good, so I may revert back to them.

[DJMC]

HTP99 said:

When spending £10's of thousands, the majority want the perceived reassurance (whether rightly or wrongly) that a dealer gives, you will have to be significantly cheaper than a dealer to have any chance and once you factor in tyre kickers, time waster, test pilots, people who don't show, idiots, advertising costs and your time, it may not be worth it selling if yourself.

...and the majority want... FINANCE and aren't clever enough to realise it's available on the high street.

Put my TTS on AT for £25k three years ago, having sold many cheap cars there. Not a sniff. Nothing.
Nobody has £25k, they want to finance it. Had to sell it to Audi in the end.

[GT4P]

Had no problems selling my last 2 Porsches privately,first to see have bought and both have been very pleasant transactions. Would always look at buying privately over a dealer and to add I have seen some pretty shocking looking dealer cars that are less than 3 years over the equivalent private car!
As always proceed with care,weed out the time wasters as most transactions seem to start with an email these days (some I never even bothered to answer)and you should not have a problem with a private sale /purchase no matter what the cost of the car!

[JayK12]

GT4P said:

Had no problems selling my last 2 Porsches privately,first to see have bought and both have been very pleasant transactions. Would always look at buying privately over a dealer and to add I have seen some pretty shocking looking dealer cars that are less than 3 years over the equivalent private car!
As always proceed with care,weed out the time wasters as most transactions seem to start with an email these days (some I never even bothered to answer)and you should not have a problem with a private sale /purchase no matter what the cost of the car!

Should not........but they can always come back and try and steal it as per my case.

[Boxster_racer]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

Yes, I actually purchased the 2 yr warranty and assist from my local OPC Feb this year. Will follow the advice, thanks !

[Boxster_racer]

JayK12 said:

Pain staking and I agree with this, Id not sell mine privately unless I knew the buyer. Either PX or SOR. The hassle is not worth it. I had 2 incidents after having bought and sold 20 cars in 6 years of driving.

1. Integra Type R - Guy wants to come at 10pm, its dark so meet him at a local petrol station. He brings 2 cars full of people. Looks at it, says its too slow, moans alot. I say im going home and then he says he will buy it but wants to come to my house. So off we go with his group of friends and he pays £150 deposit, never seen him again.

2. EVO 9 - I was contracting for HP but they banned contractor for parking in their secure car park, I was on a night shift. Someone transferred me £100 as he said he wanted the car before seeing it. Took him out in it, he and his mate looked around it. I left it at the hotel i was staying at, and came back in the morning and the car was gone. I think they switched the spare keys as they just walked up to it and took it.

Since then I only sold one of my cars privately, and that was to a friend.

Thanks for sharing this distressing incident. I could cope with BS, but risk of having the car stolen, goes to far ! I hope you recovered the money at least from insurance.

[Boxster_racer]

woollyjoe said:

only worth selling private if it's a cheap car like a 996 because OPC's won't touch them anyway.

Or if you have a special car, but even then you will find trade want to buy it.

But price always has to be cheaper relative.

Thank you. I don’t know exact price next year, but how much you would define as cheap? Im looking at mid 30k range. Don’t want to make a profit, just avoid a huge loss.

[Boxster_racer]

Adam B said:

Zero for me, as if I finance a car I would do it via a finance company / mortgage top up

I much prefer to buy and sell privately, and if I was after a Boxster and your car was a good one and had an OPC warranty and the price was right I would be keen

2 weeks ago i sold my 997.1 turbo (black/black, low miles, good spec and manual) so may be a guide of sorts.
A reputable specialist said it was a £60k retail car, they offered 52 to buy outright or £5k (incl VAT) to SOR (so I would have got 54 probably once they had been chipped down 1). Sold privately for 57, but knocked 1k off as it was a friend (unrequested).

Edited by Adam B on Monday 6th August 13:47

This is the kind of outcome that as a community we should achieve. You made a little bit more, and your buyer paid a little bit less: win-win.