Spidey 993

Ok, I know I will be flamed, but I can take it.

Newbie 993 owner wannabe, looking for a clean, well serviced, mid-miles coupe surfing all the sites. I find a car, owner tells me its spotless, never had a problem, serviced properly, not a scratch on the exterior.

Here is were I write something controversial...

Why is the hell am ""I"" paying for a PPI and not the seller? Aren't you trying to sell me a car and provide me with the facts that your car lives up to your billing?
I drop $350 to validate your word? Why is that?

Let me say that I get 2-3 emails a day on people wanting me to buy their car.
I ask for pics, service history and a short summary of the car. Then I ask, have you had a PPI? Are you willing to have a PPI? If they say yes they are willing, but I am paying for it? I don't get that.

The market is flooded with 993 and every owner tells me how meticulous maintained they kept the car, so why would I choose one over the other other
than color or miles or whatever may split the hair...

One guy in CO wants me to buy his 95 993 Arena Red with 65k miles. I ask if he had a PPI. He responds that he is willing to take his car to a respected Porsche mechanic of my choosing, have the inspection done and he will pay for the inspection on his car. I say "Yes, I want to move forward with the next steps".

I know, I know what you're gonna say, well if you really want my car, you should pay for the test. I say, have you seen the market? Its flooded, soft and slow, use your brain, get the test done, crank up your price $500 and differentiate yourself from every other 993 owner selling his car today. Make it easy on me and on you, and build my trust in your car right up front, now all we have to do is neg price and you have a sold sign.

Bottom line, I'm not buying a car without a pre-paid PPI by seller. If I lose out on the car, no biggie, another lovely 993 right around the corner.


Let the flaming begin.

rsr91128

Would you trust someone saying they had a PPI that could easily be forged on any computer?

I wouldn't but that's just me.

Good luck with the search.

cabrio993

Simple. The name says it all. PPI stands for "Pre-Purchase Inspection" is for the "purchaser" peace of mind and used as a negotiating tool for the "purchaser" to drop the price down from the "seller"if any repairs are needed.

When you purchased your house, didn't you pay for an independent inspector to let you know that the house was sound? or did you got the seller to pay for that?

If you want the seller to pay for it, would be a PSI - "Pre-Seller Inspection", and that would just be biased.

Anyways, I hope you have a comfy chair to wait for a seller with a pre-paid PPI. It's not gonna happen. And if you find one, would you trust such PPI?

Asquared

The question is, would you trust a PPI paid for by the seller? Most people recommend getting a PPI by someone other than the shop doing the service. If the seller got a PPI, where do you think they would get the PPI from?

When you buy a house, do you ask the seller to pay for the house inspection?

I might consider a seller PPI, but I'm not sure I'm willing to write a big check based on a inspection that may not be independent.

GTgears

So let's say that I take the car to my favorite mechanic for a PPI, pass him $100 and ask him to fake all the numbers and details so the car looks good. You buy it and get screwed.

IMO the primary reason that the buyer is responsible for the PPI is because it ensures the impartiality. Most sellers are very reasonable if you are reasonable. I have ALWAYS deducted the cost of the PPI from the selling price of the car IF the buyer purchased the car. If they didn't the PPI was the cost they incurred doing their due dilligence.

I can say anything I want about my car. I can show you all kinds of reciepts from my mechanic. I can get my mechanic to say anything about the car. If you want more than that information, then it becomes your burden to spend a little extra money and make sure the car you are buying is up to snuff.

And if you stick around the board and convince people you aren't a dick you'll be amazed at what the people in this community will do for you. You have no idea how many cars I've gone to see for random people around the country who wanted a set of local eyes to see it in person before they went the next step and paid a mechanic (which I could recommend) to do a proper PPI with things like a leakdown test, etc. etc. I am not exceptional in this respect. There's thousands of Porsche owners who look out for each other like that...

David in LA

Even with a soft market there are many more flakey "buyers" who are just kicking tires rather than on-the-fence sellers. Serious buyers are those that are informed and know that the PPI helps to protect their downside....uninformed buyers don't see the value of a PPI and are clueless that you can easily spend 5-10k making a car right that seems to be a great deal on the surface. You might argue, "well why doesn't the seller just get a single PPI done and show that to all buyers?" The reality is that any smart buyer will want to use his mechanic and not the seller's...you want to make sure that the mechanic's fiduciary duty is to the buyer and not the seller. If I was in the market to buy I would have my own PPI done even if the seller has already done one (unless the shop is a handful of very trusted ones whose names have been mentioned on RL previously) so the seller would have wasted his $300-500 and there is no way I would be willing to pay for this in the way of a higher purchase price.

Good luck with your search....it's your cash, but IMHO not the best idea to accept the seller's PPI and only real desperate sellers will give you what you want....and so ask yourself why is he so desperate.

Spidey 993

I have too many choices of equivalent cars, and if the seller has done a PPI or willing to do a PPI at a respected shop, that would be a differentiator for me. And yes, if I could validate the inspection with the shop, I would trust it. What's the difference anyway, I am out of state buyer in pretty much every situation.

Same thing in the housing sector, people are providing pre-paid inspections to calm any nerves of a potential buyer, remove some obstacles. Then the buyer can determine if he would want to take that inspection or do his own.

skywachr

Would you mind pointing me in the direction of the market "flooded with 993s“? I must have missed a turn somewhere.

Reddy Kilowatt

Do what you want. It's your money.

Spidey 993

Sure, Ebay, cars.com, autotrader, rennlist, truspeedmotors, pelican,victorymotors, holt, and too many independents. There are a lot of cars out there.

skywachr

Would you mind pointing me in the direction of the market "flooded with 993s“? I must have missed a turn somewhere.

rsr91128

Very well said

Spidey 993

Well, then when you put your budget together, say 40k, then you better buffer in a few thousand dollars for all of the PPI frogs your going to have to kiss.

My point (even though I know its a controversial one, I already got a guy from Boulder calling a two-time war veteran a dick because I asked a against the grain question, nice one), how do I differentiate in-between very similar cars when your a 1000 miles away?

Spidey 993

closing the thread, obviously anyone can join the board GTgears and rsr91128 can seem to hold an adult conversation