Buying "temporary" car while waiting on new build?
 

Hey, new to buying cars in general and looking to get my dream car. I'm on a wait list for the cayman gts 4.0, but I'm probably looking at late 2022 at the earliest from the way allocations seem to be going.

My question is whether or not the base/s models hold their value well enough to buy a cheaper used "temporary" cayman while I wait for my 4.0. I don't mind having to hold onto it for a bit while trying to sell to get max value from the resale, I'm just curious if I'd be shooting myself in the foot hard here and if I should just be patient. After my test drives in the GT4 and the cayman GTS 2.5L though, my fiat 500 sure feels even more boring than usual to drive... :roflmao:

Curious what everyone's thoughts are and what you would do in this position. Thanks!

I bought a 2016 Cayman while waiting for my GTS 4.0. I managed to get out of it for nearly what I paid for it. I consider myself lucky.

Apart from depreciation, you run two risks.

What if you have an accident? I did. If you’re going to keep the car for 4 years an accident doesn’t really matter as the diminished value is just part of the years of depreciation. But if you’re selling the car in six months, a ding on a carfax is a big issue. Fortunately, the used car market is insanely strong so I dodged a bullet. But that brings me to my second point…

We are clearly in a used car and Porsche bubble. Used car prices have been going up 30% a year for nearly two years. That can’t continue. You run the risk of holding a car you need to sell when the bubble bursts.

Assume that the value of the temporary car will go down 20%. If that’d be no big deal then, by all means, buy the car. Otherwise, proceed with caution.

I didn't think I would be able to get a 718 Spyder allocation so I found a clean 981 CPO Spyder a little below MSRP which was well equipped. One month after buying it, my SA calls me and says that I have an allocation. Damn! I'm five months till delivery and I got to experience in real life the various options which helped me finalize my build and know what I wanted to pay for and what I could pass on.

I should be able to get most of my money back as I'll need to unload the 981 Spyder in the summer when convertible prices are highest. Hopefully the market stays strong but you never know.

I didn’t think about the accident angle on this one so that’s good to keep in mind. When you sold it, was it a private sale or did you sell to a dealership or something else? What would my best bet be for trying to get the most value back?

I’m less worried about the bubble going away in the short term, with Covid ramping back up and the chip shortage in full effect I think we’re stuck in this light allocation situation for at least another year. My only real concern is that I’d pull the trigger on this and then never be able to make the money back on the base/S since they’re the less desirable models.

You might consider a used Miata. The ones from the 90’s seem to be holding or appreciating in value. I thought about doing that and started to look but found an allocation quickly.

So here's the story. I paid $69,950 for a 2016 Cayman GTS with 15,000 miles. I had them throw on a fresh set of Michelin PS4s and rolled that into the price. So the purchase price was around $71,700. After $20,000 of body work, I sold it to a Cadillac dealer, that is next door to and under common ownership with a Porsche dealer, for $66,000. They listed it for $79,000+ and probably sold it for around $75,000 after about a month.

Keep your current car and shop around for a quicker allocation.

A friend of mine bought a CPO GTS back in April while waiting for his GT4 allocation . He wrecked it in June (on the track ) bought a new ND Miata as a DD ,then got his GT4 in October , seemed to work out for him , guess it depends on how much disposable income you have.

I'm waiting for a build spot for a GT4 also...I bought a 2018 to drive while waiting...research points to now loosing much when it comes time to buy the GT4. 9-12 months is the window I'm looking at.

I can't see you getting your money back on anything unless you find a car being sold by someone asleep. I bought a miata to play around with and sold it when I went V200 and made money on it, but I bought the miata at the beginning of covid when you couldn't give a car away and sold it end of may last year when things started going nuts. I did the same with my truck (bought beginning of covid, sold it a couple weeks before I took delivery on the GT4) and made good money on that from timing too.

I bought at another truck to replace it a couple months ago and I'm pretty confident I can get out of it for what I paid for it, or maybe even made 1-2g... but I'm certain I could not do that with a sports car right now unless I bought right now and sold it in a few months when spring rolls around and everyone wants a sports car. By june most everyone who wants a sports car already bought it IMO so I would expect odds are you'll lose a bit selling privately, or lose a decent amount trading it in.

However with that said, with the way taxes work where I am trading a vehicle in reduces the amount taxed by the value of the trade in so even with losing money on trade sometimes you actually come out ahead thx to the money saved in taxes.

Similar situation for me. Bought a 981 GT4 since it seemed like it would take forever to get an allocation on a 718 GT4. One week after I get it, Bam! I get an email about tracking my dream. On the bright side I get to enjoy the previous for a little while, but unfortunately for way too short. My new one will be arriving next month. 😭

I'm pretty sure buying a car pushes you up in the priority list for allocations. So those still waiting, might not be a bad idea to get an in-between car from same dealer.

i actually ended up pulling the trigger on this, and buying a cayman S from my dealer. They bumped me to the top of the allocation list I was on for the gts 4.0 and removed the ADM I’d have had to pay for it, which is going to more than cover any losses I’d take, once you consider the tax benefit of the trade in and whatnot as well.

That worked out well. I ordered a GTS4.0 that was caught in the stop sale and sold my previous Cayman just before the stop sale was announced. Since I didn’t have a car and was facing a 6 month wait for a new engine, I bought a 981 GTS from the same dealer. You would have thought they would bend over backwards to make me happy in that circumstance. They did nothing of the sort. It annoyed me so much I walked on the stop sale car and went to another dealer to reorder.

As one who has sold two used cars and bought two used cars in the last year I’ve had a lesson reinforced. Sell in deep active (efficient) markets. You want as many people as possible seeing what you have to sell to get the best price. Buy in small inefficient markets. I wanted a cheap old Subaru to haul the dogs around in and they are very difficult to find in the usual places. Someone saw one on Nextdoor and it was a bargain.

Congrats!
Nothing greases the wheels like cold hard cash.

I did this exact thing - bought a new 2021 Boxster GTS 4.0 last year out of dealer stock while waiting for an allocation on a 992.
The Boxster didn't have some options that I would want (but it did have ones that I needed), so I justified it knowing that it would be a "placeholder."

I'm not in the US, but buying one new car from the same dealer and building a relationship there I believe played a big part in being offered one of the first round of 992 GTS allocations last year (November build).

Fast forward to today, my 992 is almost here and I sold the Boxster for the same amount I paid for it.
Of course, I fell in love with the Boxster 4.0 so hard that I am now putting in an order for a custom build to sit alongside the 992. :)

Everyone's circumstances are different, but I'm really glad I did it this way.
Good luck to you whatever you decide, OP - I'm sure you will love any 718 you get in to at any time, they are fantastic to drive!