When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Only use 93 octane you will be happy how she runs.
Great job, tremendous patience and the ability to walk away admirable.
There is a difference between babying the car and treating it like the $60k investment it is. DO NOT USE PAPER TOWELS ON YOUR CAR. Buy some decent soap at Chemical Guys, not expensive, and invest in some moderately priced micro fiber towels. Neither will break the bank but with a black car it will make all the difference. Drive it like you stole it but treat it like it's yours.
After all this analysis, bidding, and negotiation, I'm very happy to say the journey has come to an end (and not soon enough, this took so much time!). I now have a new black 2018 Cayman with 20" Carrera S wheels sitting downstairs and I've already put 250 miles on it in a couple days. Here's what the bidding process looked like in case it helps anyone else:
CPO 2017 Cayman S in black with 1,602 miles: Asking $72,995. Offered $64,500 given that the car shows an accident on AutoCheck (Dealer said Carfax is clean and paint meter shows no accident on any of the panels, so they claimed the car had no accidents and it must be a mistake by Autocheck.). Dealer responded "Thank you for your offer but that is below our cost on the car and does not make sense. We can make more at auction from dealers who base their buying off the same reports." A few days later they said the best they can do is $68,995.
CPO 2017 Cayman S in black with 357 miles: Asking $73,998. Offered $60,762. Dealer did not counter with a lower price, and said $73,998 was their "best price."
Certified "Factory Demo" 2018 Cayman S in black with 3,310 miles: Asking $77,695. Offered $67,134. This car was never titled as it was used as a "factory demo" for "Porsche events." I asked what exactly that meant, as I told the dealer I know these cars are sometimes used for track events which of course isn't an ideal used car to buy. The salesman claimed he had no further knowledge than it was used for "Porsche events." I read somewhere that since this car was never titled, if it was involved in an accident, it wouldn't show up on a CarFax as a car needs to be titled for accidents to be reported. I told the salesman this, and he of course disagreed, but my low offer was because it included a 10% discount for my assuming the car was in an accident since I have to assume worst case for my bid. Salesman said off the bat his manager wouldn't accept the offer. I then offered $74,594 for a lease of the car since if it had actually been in an accident, I wouldn't have to worry about losing money on the resale. Salesman's manager said he could not move more than a few hundred on their asking price.
CPO 2017 Cayman in silver with 6,555 miles: Asking $59,700. Offered $52,170. Dealer rejected saying that was below his cost. Dealer countered at $59,000.
CPO 2017 Cayman in silver with 6,040 miles: Asking $69,981. Offered $60,998. Salesman said the manager rejected. Salesman said the most he saw the manager moving was $500 and that no one, no one ever gets $10k off. A few days later the salesman said the car sold, at which price, I don't know.
CPO 2017 Cayman in silver with 12,719 miles: Asking $53,481. Offered $45,004. Dealer rejected saying wholesale price was 10 to 12% higher than my offer not including $3k for the CPO. He did not counter.
New 2018 Cayman in black with 0 miles. Asking/MSRP $71,370. Offered $64,000. Manager countered with $65,170 citing floor plan costs, etc. I told him since he countered above my bid, I was going to reach out to other dealers and to get back to me with his best price in a few hours. He got back to me in a few hours accepting my original $64k offer, but by that time I already accepted the offer below.
New 2018 Cayman in black with 0 miles. Asking/MSRP $68,080. I offered $61,000 citing that the 2019s are already on a boat on the way over so a bit more than the standard discount off MSRP was justified. Salesman told me he'd run it by his manager, and they accepted my offer within an hour. This came out to 10.4% off MSRP for a new Cayman, which from what I gather is a good deal! Plus $695 in dealer fees. In looking for financing for this purchase, I was quoted a 2.74% rate from AAA Auto Loans. I then saw that Lighstream offers to beat any quote by 10 bps, so I ended up getting a 2.64% for 48 months loan from Lightstream. Dealer financing was 3.99%. The Porsche business manager was impressed by my rate : )
Any thoughts? Thanks again everyone for all your help in this very involved process! A few questions below please.
1) I'm don't want to spend the time to baby this car, but in order to keep it reasonably clean, is going to the self car wash and pressure spraying with water, then soap, and drying with gas station paper towels adequate? Will doing this every two weeks be good enough?
2) I am planning on doing a road trip across the country starting in December. All my stops will be in the south except for Denver. Obviously I don't want to get winter tires just to spend one week in Denver, so assuming my schedule is flexible, could I just make sure to drive in and out of Colorado and Denver when there is no snow on the roads and be fine? I guess if it snows while I'm there, I can just wait a few days for the roads to be plowed and rid of snow before leaving?
3) Is anyone using 87 or 89 octane? From a search of the forums, seems like most use 91 or 93.
4) The dealer was offering a prepaid service for 3 years for I believe $1440. Could this be a good deal? I read on the forum somewhere that the first service/oil change at 1yr or 10k miles is included free for all Porsches 2018 or later? So in the above plan, I would be paying $1440 for the 2nd and 3rd service essentially?
Thanks!
Congrats!
are you trolling with the part of drying with paper towel and using 87 or 89 gas? I have never seen anyone using paper towel to dry their car or use 87 octane gas in premium German cars.
1) I'm don't want to spend the time to baby this car, but in order to keep it reasonably clean, is going to the self car wash and pressure spraying with water, then soap, and drying with gas station paper towels adequate? Will doing this every two weeks be good enough?
3) Is anyone using 87 or 89 octane? From a search of the forums, seems like most use 91 or 93.
Can't tell if serious or trolling... paper towels should never be used on the paint surface. On #1 get the car ceramic coated (will make daily clean up much easier) and invest $20 in some ONR + decent microfiber towels. Watch a video on how to do a rinseless car wash, takes 30mins max and can be done in your driveway or on the street.
On #3 the car requires premium fuel, says so in the manual so stick with 91+... you'll find it is even better on 93+.
Pre-paid maintenance basically just locks in current rates. Some like it so they can roll it into their financing. Not really a deal. I often wash my car at a do it yourself place like you described, but just let it air dry if I don't have microfiber towels with me.
"Porsche salesman says Jaguars depreciate much worse than Porsches. This is true of most cars, not just Jaguars. He gave you incomplete information. They still have electronics problems,All cars do. Read some of the threads on this Porsche forum, plenty of issues going on here as well. so people lease them, Most cars are leased today, not just Jaguars. Again incomplete information. then don't buy them out at the end cause they don't want to stay in Jaguar after their bad experience, If this was the case then Jaguar would have went out of business 30 year ago. Again wrong information.. so dealers then have to discount them further to sell them used. Good luck with that "discount". Let us know if you get the deal of the century. They are making a nice profit on every single one. This is also why you can get much better leases on Jaguars than Porsches"..It's not a "better lease", rather it's a different price point on a very different car. Just because a lease is cheaper that does not mean it's better. I can get a Honda lease cheaper than a Porsche, does that mean I got a better lease? Of course not.
This was my 2007 Jaguar XK, it went over 110,000 miles and never had a single issue. Not even one. Even with the high miles, I still sold it for 20K. When the F-Type depreciates a bit more, that will be my next car. If you want a jag...go for it. No disappointment,.
Ha, wasn't trolling. My father always dried his car after a wash with paper towels, so that's just what I'm used to. But message received, will buy a microfiber towel and use only 91 or above gas. Squeegeeing after the rinse and before the microfiber towel is fine I assume?
Also, I got some of my facts wrong above. I confirmed with Porsche that the first maintenance is included for model year 2018 and above, so I'm getting that free already. The $1440 price the dealer quoted was for the 3rd maintenance only, not including the 2nd. So it no longer looks like a great deal. Like saeydoc said, it basically just locks in current rates.
Take your squeegee, douse it with gasoline and set it on fire.
If you want to invest in a blower to pre dry then micro fiber, fine but no squeegee. Don't even say the word squeegee.
Now I do think you are playing with us.
Congrats! I hope I never have to sell you a car - not that I ever will since I don't sell cars - but man you sure nailed this process.
It's actually really interesting to me how the dealers seemed mostly unwilling to budge on their used inventory vs. selling/discounting the new inventory. Trying to sort that.
I recommend paint protection film - especially for a black car.
Enjoy!
Digits, you were right! After 700 miles in just a few days, a good few of which were through national parks, beach parking lots, and a couple miles of which were through a dirt road with up to silver dollar size pebbles (I did go slow at least!) on the way to a historical plantation museum which I just couldn't turn back from, the car got really dirty inside and out. I did take everyone's advice and I bought microfiber wheel mitts, car mitts, and drying towels. I also bought Meguiar's Gold car soap, wheel and tire cleaner, and interior cleaner. This is the first time I've actually bothered to clean a car myself, and I must say it's fun and satisfying! (My day job is behind a desk dealing with numbers, so I like to get my hands dirty around the house now and then so I can feel like a man again : ) )
There was a chunk of dried bird poop on the hood, which after googling, I realized I should keep a bottle of Meguiar's detailer in the car to clean off on the spot as it was quite difficult to remove a day or two old, and dried on. And I learned the poop contains acid that eats away at paint. So lesson learned: wipe off bird poop as soon as I notice it! There were also a good 20 to 30 pinhead size white specks mostly on the hood and front bumper area. At first I thought this was bird poop but has anyone ever experienced something like that from bird poop? Seems unlikely that bird poop would spread out all over the front of the car in such tiny specks. My new theory is that I parked a couple times next to construction sites, and maybe one of the times wet white paint particles drifted through the air and stuck to the car? Anyway, I got those off with a bunch of detailer spray and wiping. I didn't realize what a pain a black car would be to keep clean!
Anyway, unfortunately, from about 300 miles on the highway averaging 80 miles an hour, looks like I have a pinhead size rock chip smack in the center of the hood. I can feel the raised area around the chip where the paint was pushed back by whatever the projectile was. And the metal beneath gleams depending upon the angle you view it at. Thankfully just pinhead size so it's not super obvious. From googling, the easiest and nonfussy way to repair is to buy a touchup paint kit? Anyone use DupliColor Porsche black paint?
Also, any tips for getting sunscreen out from the interior side door synthetic (I assume) leather? From the multiple trips to the beach, lots of sunscreen from my arm and elbow rubbed off on the side door. I went over it a few times with Meguiar's interior detailer, but I still see some faded white hue in the synthetic black leather. Maybe I'll just have to keep going over it with fresh towels?
I'd also seek out recommendations for a shop in your area that can apply PPF, even if only on the front facing surfaces (since wrapping the whole car is significantly more expensive). PPF makes the car much, much easier to keep clean, and helps protect you (mostly) from the inevitable road projectiles...
10-23-2018, 07:42 AM
