Apologize in advance if this has been discussed previously, but... I'm looking to upgrade from current my '13 C2S to a clean, low mile 991TTS coupe. Would consider a Turbo but would have to be a smoking deal. Prefer a .2 but if the right deal on the right car comes along on a .1 will also consider it. I have been been quietly shopping for a couple of months now and have come across several very interesting cars but keep seeing many that have had 3,4 or 5+ previous owners. Most kept the cars for only a few months. What gives?

 

I don’t know the answer to your question, but it sounds like they could be cars that were bought and sold at auction.

Have you tried the PCA classifieds? I think you’ll find more cars there that are being sold by enthusiasts than you might find at other sources.

 

I am the 2nd owner... bought CPO from 1st owner who had it for 3 years. I drive it less than he did, which I'm not proud of. But I know what you mean... I'm scouting 992.1 TTS cars and generally skip any cars with 3 or more owners.

 

Hmmm... maybe we should talk?

 

I ran into this a lot when I was looking for my 991.1 TTS. I wasn't to concerned with many owners because it was pretty obvious which cars were abused compared to ones that just lived short lives with people. Also a lot of the time the owners on carfax are just dealers changing hands with them. Mine was one of those, it had 6 owners with 57K miles but only 3 of them were actual owners and the car was a very well taken car of example with a unique combination of options so I jumped on it. For me this car is a driver but I will probably only keep it for a year, it was a car I always dreamed of owning but at some point I will want to go back to a more practical daily that I don't feel guilty taking a road trip in.

 

Could if be that some were registered under a company's name, then the owner of the company bought from his company, and so forth?

 

Let’s not forget that some 991.1 cars are now 10+ years old. Lots of things can happen in 10 years. Turbo and Turbo S car were produced in small numbers relative to most other 911s of the era, so there simply aren’t as many choices as you might find in a C2, C4S, etc.

 

Many buyers in the (now, thanks inflation) >$225k segment have automotive ADHD. That subsegment keeps cars a month or twelve and then moves on.

Then there’s the not-quite-as-spendy ADHD segment that does the same thing but likes others to take the initial depreciation.

’bout time for a poll on this forum to see how many original buyers are still here. A bunch of posters ‘13 to ‘15+ who bought a new .1, then a .2 and then moved on to 992 and are on that forum now.

Third owner seems to be the keeper on average.

 

I always choose condition (in my own personal subjective judgement of course) over mileage or number of owners...

But as others have pointed out, it is not uncommon at the Turbo S price point for many buyers to only keep a car for a year or so and want to try another new toy. Additionally, the carfax ownership count is often inflated and inaccurate, counting additional owners when often it's a completed lease, or a re-reg in a new location, or selling through a dealer and the dealer showing up in the ownership count, etc.

I wouldn't sweat the ownership count. As also pointed out, cars that have not been well taken care of usually are fairly easy to spot. Sometimes high mile cars with many owners, but also plenty of lower mileage, low ownership cars don't get the love and care they deserve.

 

Maybe it comes down to economics:
- lost job
- car not practical for growing family
- car allowance gone
- company they owned where car written off - out of business
- car was repair prone
- really couldn’t afford car and tried to recoup money
- leased with intention to sell after term
- on to another car to try as a fickle comsumer
- multiple car owner periodically selling off cars

lot of economic factors with $200k cars that probably most stretch for to satisfy themselves for one way or another….

 

When I was looking, I found a lot of young kids with significant funds who got bored quickly after they had done all the mods they could think of. These cars cycled through owners about every six months. Many never got serviced. Interviewing the owners (you buy the seller before the car) most didn't know what they had. Just my experience. YMMV.

FWIW ... Please take no offense. We who frequent these forums aren't the ones I'm referring to above. And I'll admit that I'm biased. 50 years ago, I rubbed shoulders with the above as they brought their brand new Lincolns in and asked to have them raised to 9 feet and modded to be the street version of today's monster trucks. Six months later, they'd be swapping to their next project. The customer is always right!!! In this case, the customers were pushing boundaries and opening up new possibilities.

 

Lol man you nailed it!
I too was a little concerned about the number of owners when I bought my TTS and asked the salesman (with over 20 yrs at the same porsche dealership) and his view was exactly the same. There is a group of people who like the experience of configuring, selecting and picking up their brand new car but the fun for them is not really in the car itself, ownership or driving so they sell it and move on quickly. Often doing the same thing.

Seemed odd to me at first but then I thought back and I was the 3rd owner on my ~3 yr old 996 decades ago... the first guy owned it less than one year, the second owned it about 2... then I kept it for 20.

Also to the point that some of the 'listed owners' on carfax are dealer transfers, my TTS was very hard to figure out what was going on since there were 3 moves between different branches of the same dealership with only a hundred miles or so accrued between the transfers.
Seemed sketchy at first but the paper trail is not always easy to interpret.

Ultimately I decided to go with it as it met the vast majority of my criteria and so far so good.

 

It doesn't seem unusual to me at all that a 10-year old car would have had 3-4 owners at that point. As other have said, it's almost SOP for folks with the resources to purchase sports cars in the TTS price bracket to get the urge for something different every 3 years or so.

I'm the 4th owner of my 2014 TTS, with each keeping the car for a little over 3 years, and averaging about 4K miles a year. Each serviced the car per Porsche specs, the car was unmodified when I purchased it, and it was a CPO.

It was bullet-proof during their ownership period, and it's still bulletproof in mine.

 

OP - what 's your max purchase price?

 

I ran into the same dynamic when I was looking last year. Some were the same owner moving states and registering but a lot of cars from 2015-2019 had any where from 3-5 owners and sub 30k miles. In the end I found one that was one owner but 60+k miles. Decided I’d rather a car with one owner that truly enjoyed it and knew it over a car that could have a varied maintenance history through its various owners. No regrets!