jfk308

If you are considering buying a car from a private seller, and you arrange at your own expense to have a pre-purchase inspection done by a reputable local Porsche shop (as you should do) should the shop only release the PPI results to you, and not give a copy to the owner unless you agree? I ask because in the case where there are multiple parties interested in purchasing the car, but they know you are already getting a PPI, the other potential purchasers don't want to bring their offers forward until you go first. Once you get the PPI results and make an offer, they can simply use the results of the PPI (assuming they are quite good) to bid against you. What should you do in this case?

Mike Murphy

I would buy cars where there is little or no competition of buying. There is plenty to choose from, and you'll get a better car the longer you shop and test drive.

RedShadow

You pay for it - you own it. You can request that the PPI is not shared with other parties and it's also your call whether to give the current owner a copy of the report or even any information.

It's up to the honesty of the shop and how generous you're feeling...

I wouldn't give the owner a copy if you decide not to buy the car. Why should you pay the PPI for everyone else? Besides, would you trust a PPI the owner gave you?

I remember one seller I asked for a PPI went and got it done himself without even asking me first or tellig how much it was going to cost. He was a bit of an idiot and probably meant well but there was no way I was going to accept that.

PorscheMD

You absolutly own that PPi info! The shop should only give that info out with your permission.

Jay Laifman

While I agree you own it and it's your call, don't assume a shop "understands" that. If it's that important to you, make sure you let the shop know and that they agree. And, quite frankly, don't be too surprised if they give out information anyway.

Peter Zimmermann

After doing hundreds of PPIs over many years I can safely say that a PPI report is the sole property of the person who contracts the job (buyer or seller) and pays for the inspection. Only after permission is given can that info be shared with the other party. In the case of multiple buyers the situation can get a little tricky, but I must admit, if the car was any good at all the first buyer in the line usually ended up buying the car. If the first buyer does not buy the car, and another buyer wants test results, the shop must (1) get authorization to release the info from the first report, or (2) repeat the inspection. Because of a familiarity with the car the shop can reduce the price of the inspection, but still must do another leak down test. It only takes one missed shift (maybe by a potential buyer!) to damage something, so, even if the tests are only days apart, the test has to be done. Thinking back, I found that people were pretty evenly divided about the report, some wanted it out on the table and some wanted it buried in a folder.
Pete

Mike Murphy

And isn't it true that when doing a PPI, you may have to tell the shop exactly what you want looked at? Granted, some mechanics might know well enough, but in my experience, you should be very clear about what you want checked. For this reason, someone else's PPI might be very different from the PPI that you choose to have done, even if it's at the same shop.

Peter Zimmermann

What's checked during a PPI should be stated clearly on the report/invoice by the shop. The requirements for the inspection should be made clear before the PPI is performed, and if there is a need to check something, after, that didn't get looked at, a new repair order should be opened in order to maintain a record of that work. If the hiring party has a special concern the shop might even consider giving that item(s) priority, if it doesn't skew the way that they do the job, but that decision should always go to the shop. I can remember two cases where a concern saved the customer the cost of a full-blown PPI. The first, unfortunately, person had already bought the car. It sat strangely, so we put it on the lift. We realized immediately that the car had taken a huge hit in the right front, and had not been repaired under the skin. (The re-repair on that car was approx. $10K). The second car had also been bought, and our customer showed the car to me. I didn't like the way the left quarter panel on the car looked, so I opened the engine lid and saw why. You could see my parking lot between the right frame rail and the engine shroud, that car had taken a monster hit in the rear, and, once again, the repair work had been terrible. The buyer took that car back to the Porsche dealer, they verified what I had found, and gave him the pick of the litter from about five similar cars they had at the time. His pick was flat-bedded to my shop before he took it - that one was almost perfect.
Pete

bmcallister

I had PPIs done on two cars before I bought mine. Both cars were several hundred miles away. The first PPI revealed some mediocre leakdown results and a fuel delivery problem on a nice looking SC. The second provided excellent results (and I bought the car).

In both cases, I was paying for the PPI, so I owned the results. I explained this in advance to the seller and the shop doing the work. I told the seller that they were welcome to the results to compensate for the hassle of taking the car there, etc. The key is that the shop (if they are business-savvy in the least) will not release the results (or the car) until they have been paid for the work. So if you are having the PPI done and paying for it, you own it.

Why not share the results with the seller? If they are great results then you are looking at a car that you were hoping to buy in the first place. If they are not great then it can be a good bargaining tool, or maybe you don't want the car. Either way, the idea is that the seller should know what he/she is selling and you should know what you are buying.

Any knowledgable seller of the car should understand why you want the PPI and will agree to let you have it done (even if they have to drive it there). This type of seller is not likely to underprice the car substantially.

If a seller looks at your PPI results and wants to either raise the price on you or use it to get higher bids on the car, you don't want to do business with them.

The most important point I am trying to make is "why buy a car from someone you don't trust well-enough to share the PPI results with?"

Daniel Dudley

I would assume that you would be under agreement to buy, with a deposit down before doing a PPI.

In that case you would have first refusal. If you decline the car, I would assume that your PPI would be worth about half of your cost to the next potential purchaser or the owner, on the grounds that you share both the information and the cost jointly. I would never have a PPI done by the sellers mechanic, as I have been there and done that enough to know it doesn't work in general. YMMV

Peter Zimmermann

Daniel: Believe it or not, I would guess that 95% of the PPIs that I did for buyers had no deposit in the works, just an expressed desire to buy the car. Also, something that hasn't been mentioned yet, is that the seller almost always brought the car to the shop. It was extremely rare for a seller to turn over the car to a buyer to bring it in. I found that most sellers, although I definitely dealt with some flakes, are motivated enough to move the car that they consent to a PPI without a deposit. Many sellers that did not know me, or my shop, called and grilled us as to what we were going to do to their car. Occasionally one would insist that we couldn't drive the car, but as soon as they saw the assortment of cars, on any given day, in my parking lot that topic never came up again. Some, when they got the bad news from the buyer, became customers! Regarding doing a PPI on an existing customer's car, we always encouraged the buyer to consider getting a second opinion. Of course, the report alway included the length of time that we had cared for the car, and any large jobs (clutch, synchros, head studs, etc.) that we had done on it. After all, you can't really consider a 10-year old car that you've only done one minor service on as your own.
Pete
Pete