Laura

I understand your concerns and having been in the middle of quite a few of these transactions there can be concern on both sides.
Location can become an issue if you are looking for a very particular car, but the rewards can be great if your willing to make the effort. I have preformed many PPI's where the customer never personally looks at the car until it arrives to his house. Have never had a complaint yet but you have to be very trustworthy of the shop performing the PPI.
Usually a personal check for the deposit is acceptable but you need to get your ducks lined up in timely fashion, week or less. Money and transport.
For final payment I always suggest wire transfer. And this works very well if the car is delivered to a shop you both agree to, seller leaves car, paperwork and keys, when he calls with cash in his account, load that baby up in transport, send items to buyer, done deal. If you spend a little time on the logistics it can be easy, just find fair and trustworthy people to help you along.
When it is an overseas deal I refer to a broker that does these on a regular basis.
Good luck on your deal.

Crazy Canuck

I had PPI done on my GT3 in Chicago.

I live in Canada.

Out of state? Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Don't want to go through the hassle then don't but suffer the consequences of that decision.

Tracky

Thanks for the tip. I'll look into a shop then that can serve as an intermediary. Finding a place to perform a PPI and capable of pulling DME report is near impossible. Just found a place that does, but they charge $450 for it claiming that it's more because they do a compression test. Not sure if that's needed or decent pricing.

Vonschmidt

I have used Pen fed for many car loans and they are fast and great rates. Your proposed senario would not sit well with me as a seller we usually do something like this.

Buyer does whatever due diligance they feel necessary and if interest negotiate final price.
Advise seller that you are using pen fed and then contact them together to let penfed make the arangements for funding. at this point buyer leaves deposit.

Pen fed finalizes the transaction and buyer coordinates shipping.

Enjoy your car.

Really much simpler than you think using Penfed they are experts at long distance transactions for military personnel.

AudiOn19s

+1 on the above. While I don't use PenFed I do all of my car purchases through a local credit union and you can pretty much let them work directly with the seller or whoever holds the title and they will get the transaction done in a manor that protects both parties. It's really rather smooth and easy and should not be worried about. I haven't purchased an in-state car in the last 10 years.

Tracky

Thanks for the information guys. I talked to PenFed and it didn't sound like they would really help out in part of the transaction. I was told that they come in after price negotiation and they ask for some form (similar to bill of sale) and the title to be faxed to them by the seller. Then they start processing the loan. Once that's done they send me a check to endorse and I have to then give it to the seller. They don't do anything else beyond that.


On the PPI front, I've called around and prices have ranged from $160 to $450. The $450 price includes a compression and leak down test along with DME readings. Does that sound about right for pricing? Also does a car in the 20k mile range really need a compression and leak down test?

Crazy Canuck

I think I paid $300 or $400 for my PPI at a Porsche dealer in 2007.

You want the DME over-rev info.

Have them check over the entire car with a paint thickness gauge as well. Thicker paint may indicate undisclosed bodywork.

roberga

I made a deal with a Ferrari dealer. If the car passes, I buy the car and pay for PPI. If it does not pass they pay. The car was crashed and not safe in the opinion of the inspector. The dealer paid.. Make sure you get a "body work" inspection as part of the inspection. THey pull the wheel liners and other plastic to get a look. NEVER trust car fax.

The NSX dude

A PPI is only as good as the dealer or person who does it. I had a PPI done at Mckenna Porsche in Cali and they said the car was perfect. No issues. I live in NJ. I'd avoid them as they obviously didnt know anything. They charged me $350 and never did the complete inspection as requested. I asked for DME readout and they didnt do it. They missed the fact the car wouldnt go over .5 bar and faxed me over some paperwork that could have doubled as toilet paper. I called and they redid the PPI again, this time they filled out the porsche certification paperwork for me, kind of their checklist of an inspection. Seems obvious something was off the moment they pulled if off the truck.

Long story short, here is a Porsche dealership looking at a 9,700 miles car and they missed the fact it had a bad fuel pump and MAF unit. Should have disputed the claim with my CC company.

Also I used Pennfed for the purchase, they are the best. I finance all my cars with them.

Backmarker

If you are doing a ppi on a 996 gt3 I would recommend doing a full leakdown too. I did, even though the car had 12000 miles when I bought it. It had been tracked so I wanted to be sure.

The car passed with great numbers. That gave me a lot of confidence as these motors are extremely expensive to rebuild. Well worth the cost for me.

roberga

Worth the money.. mine was $650 as the dealer Porsche dealer did the mechanical and a local body shop owner came to the dealer to do the body. BWT the GT3 ended up at ParkPlace in Dallas and sold. White 997

gregbj8

I am looking at a 993 from a private seller 100 miles away, his Indy workshop is to busy to do a PPI within a reasonable period of time. The workshop knows of the car and owner and hasn't steered me away. He has offered to do a test drive to alert me to any potential problems and if any are found do a PPI later (which my not be acceptable to the owner) I have some knowledge of what I am seeing in my own test drive. Am I ok without a full blown PPI?

911 Crazy

Find a shop that has not worked on the car so you get a completely objective opinion. What is a test drive going to do? Nada! You need a complete PPI with a compression and leak down tests. Don 't go the cheap route here.

Mikelly

This is VERY important. When I sold both my Porsches, I was upfront with the buyers and told them where work had been done, and where it hadn't. Paul Overstreet had worked on my 996TT, but never saw the Gray GT3 until the day I dropped it off for the PPi.

And as has been mentioned before, the buyer always should pay for the PPi. You don't want the seller involved in those conversations between you and the shop working on YOUR behalf. If the seller is paying, the shop could be working on HIS behalf, and covering up things you might not see for many many months and many many miles down the road/track.

Mike