jimhsu

Here is the latest:

Just finished with the "Am I hearing you right call" about $5000 before PPI: yes this dealer does want a $5000 deposit, refundable if PPI reveals anything "major," before the car can leave the lot. They have had mechanics come to them to do a PPI. Even after I told them repeatedly that I am in Seattle and not using this PPI as an alibi to do a joyride.

Problems here: that precludes the mechanic doing a road test, and it would be a mechanic in foreign territory trying to do his usual PPI out of familiar surroundings and all his usual tools.

So, I will put that car out of my thoughts for now. Unless Jerry at EPE would feel like coming out to this location to do a PPI and feels that is not a problem with being able to do what he typically does. Thanks Fredo for checking into it.

As many here said, there are quite a few other Porsches with known histories that are available. Personally, I just don't know if I feel secure enough about going forward with this arrangement.

Thanks to all. Mark, Scott, Kevin J., Ignacio....we'll be in touch.

Turbodan

YOU ARE A VERY SMART PERSON. I AM ALMOST SURE THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS CAR OR DEALER OR SELLER. DO NOT CHANGE YOUR POSITION, and when they call you to agree to your terms in Sept tell them to go jump in a lake!

iborroel

jimhsu: My car is still available if you ever want to meet up and go for a spin. Heck we're in the same city so it should be fairly easy to meet up. I don't require $5000 for a "joyride". I believe I sent you my number once before but it's all up to you.

jimhsu

Ignacio,

thanks for your offer that I am sure I will take up. Ironically, my days in these two weeks are so busy it's almost easier to be looking into cars out of state?! But for sure we should check out Waldo (formerly Steve's, right?).

iborroel

Yes Waldo is the one and the same that Steve once owned. Don't take too long to meet me for a ride! Depending on how an interview goes I may have a job opportunity that'll have me moving to the northeast.

jimhsu

Not that I must have this car, but being wrongly denied does not sit well.

What does this dealer have to lose by letting someone PPI their car, the way rest of the country handles inspection requests? What are they trying to hide?

I can just see it now: I cave in, write up a sales agreement and give them $5000, PPI comes back with problems, they say "Oh it's OK it's not a big deal and we can fix this," I say this is a deal breaker and give me back my $5000, and they say "You reneged on this deal on something fixable, we're keeping your money...."

Or they'll use their $5000 holding to force me to accept a bad deal, like a problem that requires $3000 to fix but they only want to give me a $500 price break.

I left two messages, one with the reputed owner of the Aston Martin Lotus dealership, and for Pete's sake, it's a consignment car, maybe check with the owner to find out if he agrees with having a potential deal sabotaged? Or maybe the owner knows this car has something to hide, too?

TT Surgeon

Deal sounds fishy, they know something gonna pop up on that ppi. The car has been lowered/modded, that alone makes me think twice about a car(?abuse). That coupled with the 5k ppi BS smells.

iborroel

I would say to walk away but it's your decision. There are too many red flags and in my opinion not worth the headaches. The car being clear across the US will just complicate things further. If you really want to pursue this car I wish you the best of luck.

Turbodan

Run, do not walk away. erase any contact info for this car you may have and forget about it. Every single time I have heard a story about a 993tt that sounds not right it turns out that it is not right. don't waste your time.

jimhsu

Just as I had thought: The owner left a message ("Let me make this brief...." is how he started the 3+ minute message) with a story about how their way of handling this puts them and their consignment customers at no risk, so they are sticking to it. And why don't I just have someone come down to inspect it at their facility....(they'd like to put PPI mechanics out of their home turf, obviously.)

Just for completion I spoke to Jerry at EPE, and he too immediately thought this was a bogus way of handling a PPI, that such a superfluous PPI would be worth nothing (I appreciated his honesty, since he could have said "sure" and made a few hundred bucks easily) and it speaks of a dealer that is at best all into risk aversion or worse is trying to stiff arm all of their "serious" potential buyers (i.e. those that insist on a PPI) into a deal.

They are obviously only looking for buyers who have never heard of getting an inspection or who have enough money to not care about all the risks of getting a big time money pit.

The best part was in the reply message he kept insinuating that

"If you are serious about the car....and are willing to put a deposit."

I am serious, but not impulsive and stupid. There is a big difference, but probably not to them, since money is all the same whether it comes from a stupid buyer or a serious buyer.

So, I am declaring 10-4 (over and out?) on this car, except I would check in periodically to see how long this car sits on their lot....then maybe give them a ring to let them know I've found a car elsewhere and let them know how a PPI is done.

Thanks for all of you who chimed in on this topic. It's been educational.

Frank 993 C4S

Good call - there is too much money at risk here to operate without an independent safety net.

lthatch

Utterly ridiculous.
This reminds me of buying my first guitar at a pawnshop in Detroit. The guy started repeating "Are you ready?" over and over, opened the guitar case for about 2 seconds, slammed it closed, and wanted the money!

jimhsu

That's ridiculous but kind of funny. It seems like it should be a scene in "Wayne's World....part four, Detroit road trip." Did you ask if he has an amp that goes to eleven?

lthatch

Honestly, there is something preadolescent in me that is awakened by cars and guitars...it is a source of great passion and pleasure, but it has also driven me to make some hasty bad decisions...still! I need to learn to rely on "the group' more.

daddyscar

That's the tough part of going online to research a car. It's easy to make hasty decisions when you think you've found a car. I've been keeping my eyes out on local 993tt's here in the bay area. I'm expecting to pay $60-65k tops for one and carefully research it. So when one showed up on craiglist w/ 56k miles for $49k at Stevens Creek BMW, I had all these irrational thoughts. I didn't want to ask about it on here because I thought someone else would pick it up. Luckily it wasn't a color I was too crazy about (burgundy-ish) so I quickly came to my senses. Listing is still up though. Could be a good deal fo someone.