aspriggsdds

I found a few CPO 911's I'm interested in but none of them are at my local Porsche dealer. I've been in talks with a salesman for over a month and he said it's common to buy a car through a local dealer and have it shipped there. This guy has been very helpful & patient with me, and I'd like to buy a car from him if possible.

Anyone have any experience with this? Am I expected to cover shipping costs? Is it more difficult to negotiate the price of the car since it's not local? I'll be going in tomorrow or Tuesday to talk numbers and want an idea of what to expect. If this isn't a good idea, I'll start dealing directly with the dealerships that have the cars I like instead of using this salesman as a middleman.

mmaturo

I did this with my R8GT. Bought it through my sales guy in Chicago but it was at an Audi dealership in Houston. I had bought 5 cars with the same guy and wanted him to get the commission off of the obviously big sale, but he did do the work of hunting down every possible GT in the country and get a good assessment of the cars when I was looking and did beat the other guys down in price and presented each to me. They did however have a mark up on the car I did choose for their trouble to get the car to Chicago etc, and do a full check over of it once it did arrive. He got it down on price to where the end cost to me was essentially the same as if I had dealt directly but not sure that would normally be the case. Long story short I did it but in your case it may be more cost effective to go direct. The dealers working with each other can be more honest on the inventory and how long it may be sitting so rather than something going to auction there is the possibility of him getting the car for a small number over what the other dealer has in it and then get it to you for a fair number still but who knows. I got an X5 for a bargain years ago by watching a particular one that I knew was just sitting on the lot and sure enough a month after I first looked at it suddenly the dealer was ready to really move it at an excellent price before the end of the month and otherwise it was headed to auction a week later.

pitt911

I think you should deal directly with the dealer that has the car you want. Why? couple of issues
1. you are adding a middle man , this means you are adding cost to the transaction which could be few hundreds, which i doubt, to few thousands. The GM wants to make money on a sale which is reasonable.
2. your local dealer has to inspect the car , because of liability concerns, which will add few hundred dollars to the cost. If you buy from them and something happens, they have to answer to you rather than the original dealer.
3. your local dealer has to buy the car from that other dealer for them to sell you the car. Say they get the car and you changed your mind for whatever reason. Or the other dealer used car manager misrepresented the car to them, they have to fix the problem and that will cost them money
these could be worse case scenarios , but can happen
good luck

aspriggsdds

I think you guys might be right. My sales guy has been trying to reach the other dealership for a few days and hasn't had much luck working with them. I hate that he's spent all this time with me for nothing, but sometimes it just doesn't work out.

fjpdds

I have done that, saw the car at Champion in Florida on vacation.. Local dealer did a swap.

Homeles

Bought my last CPO through a dealer in CT. Did the sale over the phone. Car delivered as stated. No problems.

TrappistMonk

I bought my car out of state and had it shipped. It did not even occur to me to go through my local dealer. Why add the middleman (and his margin)?

aspriggsdds

One plus about going through my local dealer is that I'd get to inspect the car in person before I sign any papers. The one I'm most interested in is over 8 hours away so I'd have to buy it unseen and have it shipped to me. It's a CPO and the dealership it's at has great reviews so I probably shouldn't worry so much.

Homeles

r u a member of PCA? Have a local check it out. If not, get on reenlist.org and have someone there check it out.

I really wouldn't worry, if it's CPO'd, the dealer has to state any imperfections.

mmaturo

Just post here even and ask if someone will go take a look at it. I have also done that several times over the years for folks for cars that I certainly know about to at least assess condition aesthetically if nothing else, but drive the car as well. I certainly know way too much about Audi RS6s for instance after owning one for 5 years so certainly I was able to steer a gentleman away from one with a transmission starting to go bad. Anyway I have bought two cars sight unseen that I did send someone from a forum that could look it over for what I was concerned about for condition of the paint, any obvious damage repairs, and wear on the interior. Worked well. The car is already at a Porsche dealer so mechanically it should be fine.

thomnellie

Bought a Boxster S this way. I found a car I wanted at another dealer a couple of hundred miles or so away, did my homework to identify a reasonable price range, negotiated an acceptable price with my local dealer who brought it in from the other dealer with no additional charges tacked on. No muss, no fuss.

stevebmd

i have purchased my last three cars out of state. my 2008 was a cpo 997 that i found in florida, negotiated long distance by email, and had shipping included as the final part of the deal...My 2012.5 was a new car i found 200 miles away and did the deal by email. My 2016 C4 was in CT and did the deal through my local dealer. I negotiated price directly with the local, got a screaming deal (double digit percent savings) and delivered on their dime. that was unusual

if you want to catch fish, throw a wide net...

vjd3

I did this recently with a Ferrari ... found the (preowned) one I wanted at another Ferrari dealer and asked my local dealer to see if they would get it for me. I paid a nominal fee to the dealer for their service; I assume they were able to work out a more favorable number to buy the car from the Michigan dealer than I was able to negotiate for, because I bought it for the same price I would have paid in Michigan and they shipped it for free.

So, certainly, ask your dealer, just don't expect them to do it for free. Worst they can say is "no thanks."

Now, some dealerships (or dealership chains) get along better than others, so you may run into some red tape there.

On local transactions most dealers used to be happy making a "nickel" -- $500 -- on a simple cash transaction, but it's been years since I was doing that sort of thing.

Porsche 25th

I have purchased cars from distant dealers multiple times and had them shipped to me via private carrier. There is no need to involve a local dealer and the added cost they will impose. Caveat: all cars had an original factory or CPO warranty.

Maxhouse97

A dealer near me offered to do exactly this. We didn't get into the details, but he said for a nominal fee they would broker the deal. They would even buy from private seller and CPO it for you. Said he would do this so you would service the car at his dealership and build customer loyalty.

Question is what happens if they broker the deal, buy the car, and then find they have to repair something big to CPO it? Who is the risk on? I would assume they would do their own due diligence before buying the car, but not sure.