Bloose993TT

Manheim's recent results if anyone is interested. Dealer to Dealer only.

General Condition (determined by auction house)

Green = Excellent
White = Avg
Yellow = Poor

2001


2002


2003


2004


2005 Turbo S
Nothing

CincyScott

Anything for MT cabs?

Bloose993TT

2004 Cabs is all I can find.

TheDeckMan

Great info

CincyScott

Thanks!

Atrox

Imagine picking up one at $25,000. Then flip it @ 40k. I can't see this trend sticking around for long. The cab prices are all over the map.

jumper5836

yah ^ Dealers are probably marking them up 10k easy.

Seems autos always cheaper, even though they cost more then the manual.

Road King

It's interesting to note that many of the auction cars have low and moderate miles which are similar to many of ours.

Bloose993TT

Who knows how well maintained they were though. Most probably don't come with any maintenance records. The auction house also decides the condition rating so there is definitely some risk when buying these type of vehicles.

Blswan

Yeah I wouldn't have high expectations on the quality. However, a driver in ok body condition would still sell for high 30s or even low 40s private party. If you could pick one up at auction for 30k it could be an easy flip as long as you were willing to take a chance.

Road King

agreed...I've heard that dealers pitch all records that come with the cars....

Condition is pretty much cosmetic, correct?

splitime

Oddly enough my car came through an auction house/dealer to the previous owner. I actually managed to get a pretty good set of records for the car. Was a nice bonus that I had actually not even asked about as I figured they weren't there.

nathan1

I have had a dealers license for over 10 years and before that I imagined dealers had access to this virtual treasure trove of cars for well below market price. Sadly it's not the case. In all these years I can count on one hand how many Porsche's I have bought through the auction. I always watch but 99% of them seem to be there for good reason... Buyer beware!

Blswan

Yeah I agree to watch out. If you picked one up super cheap it would be worth a chance but any engine or trans work would put you back worse then a good clean private party with records. These are not Camrys

FRUNKenstein

+1 I have had a dealer's license since 2001 and had access to the dealers' auctions before that through family & friends. In all of those years, I have bought exactly 1 Porsche, which was, I think, a silver '99 Boxster base model bought for an employee of mine that I took to the auction that day. I've never had the stones to purchase a Porsche for myself at the auction. So, either I'm too paranoid or there is actually too much risk involved to justify the dollars saved.

Keep in mind that the typical margin on a car sold at retail is 20% - that's what the dealer needs to make to stay in business. That percentage goes down as the price of the vehicle goes up. So, if you are going to buy a car on a dealer's lot for $40,000, you'd probably be able to buy that car at the auction for about $34,000. Then, you've got to pay the auction buyer's fee, so figure another $400 there. Damn near every time I buy a car at the auction, there is something that needs to be fixed on it. I budget $500 for repairs, and that's assuming I can do the work myself (so, $500 for parts). Most of the time when I take a buddy to the auction, he will give me $500 or buy a nice gift card so I can take my wife out to dinner. I don't ask for it, but they know the dealer's license isn't free to get and maintain, plus you usually end up floating the purchase price of the car for anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks. So whoever takes you to the auction would appreciate a little something, so figure $300 to $500 for that. So, if you find the right car at the right price and all goes well, you might end up saving $4,000 on a $40,000 car. But, your opportunity to thoroughly inspect the car is limited to say the least. There are inspection services available through the auction if the car you are bidding on comes with a "ride and drive" warranty, but you're paying an auction house mechanic about $100 to do the inspection. It ain't a real PPI. And don't forget, that $500 repair allowance could easily get blown out of the water with even one even somewhat significant repair. Plus you'll almost certainly have no maintenance history whatsoever, so plan on doing a bunch of fluid and consumables changes to set a maintenance baseline. And, you rarely get a 2nd key at the auction - I don't know why but auction cars just seem to come with one key.

Now, compare that to buying from an individual owner. Right off the bat, that $40,000 purchase price for the same car at a dealer can be lowered to $38,000 (or maybe less) from an individual. You'll likely get a full service history, at least for the time period the seller owned the car. You'll probably get two keys. There's a good chance you'll get some spare parts or the OEM parts if the car was modded. You'll have the chance to do a full PPI. If that PPI turns up something, most times a seller will pay to fix it or at least adjust the price accordingly. You get a chance to learn about how the car was treated by looking at the habits of the seller - is he a PCA member with multiple other well maintained Porsches or is he a kid who could afford to buy the car but not maintain it?

Bottom line, even though I have auction access, I have purchased all 5 of my Porsches from individual sellers. I think that is clearly the best way to go.