Would you buy a used 911 from an OPC without seeing it?
Discussion
You'd be mad to. Always see the car first unless they can confirm your deposit is refundable if it doesn't match your expectations or live up to the hype. If the dealer is confident it meets your requirements then why would they need a deposit off you? It would surely sell itself when you turn up to view it. Or is it some rookie who needs/is desperate to meet their sales quota? Who knows, I aint well off enough or qualified enough to really buy from an OPC or give out advice, just IMHO.
crumbs said:
If an OPC offered you a used 911 with a very high spec on paper but wanted you to commit to it with a deposit before he purchased it from another OPC, would you commit?
This sounds similiar to a situaion I found myself in a few weeks ago. My local OPC is trying to find me a used 997 in a particular spec. Porsche GB had a suitable car and offered it to all OPC's to bid on it in a closed aution (this happens all the time). I did a deal and agreed a price on the car with my dealer. They said that if they won the bid they wanted to take an instant deposit to commit me to the car. This was fine as I insisted that it would be refundable if all was not ok. They assured me that the car would be tip top and fully prepped by PGB.
The good news was that the price we agreed was under what the same car would have been on their forcourt. This is because they had an instant sale and could afford to take (slightly) less profit out of the car.
The bad news is that they did not win the bidding and the car is now sitting with another dealer at £5k more than I agreed with my OPC.
Jonathan
Jonathan, this is exactly how he has described the situation. Porsche GB has the car and his dealership has to buy it off them. He says he would normally sell the car for around £57K but is offering it to me for £54K. The thing is that I fear the car has been thrashed on a track as it was spec'd with bucket seats and ceramic brakes. He has assured me it has never been used on a track but how would he know?
To make up his £5K profit he is offering me £2K less for my P/X vehicle than the Parkers and Glass's Guide value. I roiginally did a paid-for valuation on Parkers and took this with me to get a valuation from him. He came in at £2K less saying that Porsche uses Glass's Guide. I then went back onto the Internet to Glass's Guide and paid for a subsequent more detailed valuation. I showed him this yesterday and he said that Porshce use a different version of Glass's Guide so that's why he is offering me £2K less!
Of course, he'll also make profit on the finance that his Finance Manager is going to sell me!
To make up his £5K profit he is offering me £2K less for my P/X vehicle than the Parkers and Glass's Guide value. I roiginally did a paid-for valuation on Parkers and took this with me to get a valuation from him. He came in at £2K less saying that Porsche uses Glass's Guide. I then went back onto the Internet to Glass's Guide and paid for a subsequent more detailed valuation. I showed him this yesterday and he said that Porshce use a different version of Glass's Guide so that's why he is offering me £2K less!
Of course, he'll also make profit on the finance that his Finance Manager is going to sell me!
Is it a nearly new 997? If so it has probably been used as a demo car and also at Mira for customer driving days. As long as it is well prepped by PGB, this should not not be a problem. There have been a lot of cars like this for sale recently. Most of them have PCCB's and other sporty spec with around 10k miles.
Can't coment on your PX.
Can't coment on your PX.
difficult one, this. presumably not only you have not seen the car but the guy youre on the phone to hasnt either. that would make you nervous (no, not you, Nervous). On the other hand "looking" at a car is unlikely to tell you if its internals, PCCB etc have been abused on track or elsewhere. And on the other hadn, as some have posted already, does it really matter as long as the warranty is airtight? and on the other hand, we learn from recent posts that Porsche may not cover PCCBs etc...
The honest answer to your question is that I personally wouldnt buy any car without seeing and driving it first. But this is probably self-delusional since Ive no special driving skills and no special insight/xray specs etc.
The honest answer to your question is that I personally wouldnt buy any car without seeing and driving it first. But this is probably self-delusional since Ive no special driving skills and no special insight/xray specs etc.
Raven Flyer said:
These are normally Press cars, or have been used by importer Directors. A lot of importers turn such cars around before 6 months/3000 miles. Good savings to be had.
That reminds me, I was offered a GT3 like this. Very good saving on the price and it had a fantastic spec if you could forgive the lack of buckets (I couldn't). Alledgedly a directors car, but not sure how you can tell.
This is quite interesting.
Does this mean, then, that if I go to my local dealer with a rough spec for a second hand 997, if they find me one it's likely to cost a bit less then if I trawl through the Porsche used car locator every couple of weeks?
Sounds like a good idea.
As regards trade-in value, I'd try to get a recent copy of Glass's guide off Ebay (dealers are always flogging last month's copy), and although the value will be a few weeks out of date, they won't be that far off. Then the dealer won't be able to give you any BS on trade in values ...
Does this mean, then, that if I go to my local dealer with a rough spec for a second hand 997, if they find me one it's likely to cost a bit less then if I trawl through the Porsche used car locator every couple of weeks?
Sounds like a good idea.
As regards trade-in value, I'd try to get a recent copy of Glass's guide off Ebay (dealers are always flogging last month's copy), and although the value will be a few weeks out of date, they won't be that far off. Then the dealer won't be able to give you any BS on trade in values ...
given the prep they do it wouldn't bother me at all to put a refundable deposit down, provided I knew the models and had settled on my model/spec
however he is talking BS and i wouldn't buy a PCCB car without some sort of no quibbles guarantee for a year or so should they suffer the same problems as PCCB1
crumbs said:
The thing is that I fear the car has been thrashed on a track as it was spec'd with bucket seats and ceramic brakes. He has assured me it has never been used on a track but how would he know?
however he is talking BS and i wouldn't buy a PCCB car without some sort of no quibbles guarantee for a year or so should they suffer the same problems as PCCB1
Yes.
I did it twice, on very detailed specifications, and with very recent cars.
I even paid upfront since the cars were in Germany, but the deals were done 'Pending satisfactory inspection', and with full 12 months warranty (International), so the deal would be relatively safe even if some gremlins appeared later. In any case, the cars would have a 100% clean history and be crash free, by contract.
Adam B said:
given the prep they do it wouldn't bother me at all to put a refundable deposit down, provided I knew the models and had settled on my model/spec
crumbs said:
The thing is that I fear the car has been thrashed on a track as it was spec'd with bucket seats and ceramic brakes. He has assured me it has never been used on a track but how would he know?
however he is talking BS and i wouldn't buy a PCCB car without some sort of no quibbles guarantee for a year or so should they suffer the same problems as PCCB1
Well you won't get one of them. Believe me I've tried. It went right back to Porsche GB who 'could offer no such guarantee'.
There is no way that the dealer will guarantee the PCCB brakes (or warranty them). I firmly believe the car was used for racing as it only has 7,000 miles on the clock and is two years old. Why would someone buy a car with a racing spec and drive it like an OAP?
The deposit is also non-refundable unless the car was not 'as described' - which is basically an options list on a bit of paper handed to me!
>> Edited by crumbs on Tuesday 24th January 16:31
The deposit is also non-refundable unless the car was not 'as described' - which is basically an options list on a bit of paper handed to me!
>> Edited by crumbs on Tuesday 24th January 16:31
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