At Law

Would you recommend purchasing a Porsche from a Porsche
dealer and paying a bit of a premium verses from a one-owner,
private party?
Dealer: 05 997 S - Loaded, CPO, 18k Miles ==
Private Party: 06 997 S - A lot fewer options, NON CPO, 22k miles ===

Same color. Very close price.

Your thoughts? Is it worth paying a premium to buy from a dealer?

997, esq

There definitely should be a premium in buying from a dealer, particularly if you get the car CPO'd, with an extended warranty. My guess is that premium should be about 5-8% of the purchase price. In addition to the warranty, if there's a significant or recurrent problem with a car, I would rather deal with a dealer in getting it resolved than a private seller. A dealer has the ability to service the car at cost, and is a repeat player, with (at least in theory) an interest in making you happy etc. Based on what you say above, I would guess the 06 is somewhat overpriced. Dealers typically have significant ability to move down on the prices they have on used cars. So, a dealer asking price will often have a fair amount of flex when you negotiate. (When I was looking cars a couple of years ago -- they were depreciating about $5-7K a year b/n years 2 and 4 or so. Depreciation should factor in comparing an 05 and 06 also, of course -- particularly if you might sell in the nxt few years.)

MUSSBERGER

Dealer

yemenmocha

Since you specified close in price then dealer.

At Law

Yes, the prices are similar. However the dealer has an 05 and the
private party is an 06.

RonCT

Get the best of both worlds. Negotiate with the PP to run the car through the dealership he bought it from. Have that dealer run it through the CPO process and extend warranty for 2 years. Also, you can then make the previous owner responsible for any "issues" that might be revealed, if any. For example, in the CPO inspection they may find that the brake pads are below specification. They will replace them as part of the process and your deal with the previous owner can be that he's responsible for any "corrections". Either way, make sure you get a print out of the DME and look for over-revs. That will tell you a lot. For example, I looked at a dealer owned CPO car that had over-revs in Range 5, so I wouldn't touch that one. Another was a private party that ended up with Range 6!

BGA23

In most states there is no sales tax on private party transactions, so are you including sales tax and dealer fees in their price? If yes, then the dealer. If not, how much longer does the warranty on the CPO'd '05 run than the '06?

997, esq

FWIW, California charges sales tax on pp car purchase, of course. I don't know about other states, but I would guess CA is not alone.

GSIRM3

Not true in North Carolina. When you go to the DMV office to title the car, they hit you with the sales tax then. They don't care what you paid either. They use a reference similar to KBB and charge the sales tax based on that value.

surfer

IMO best reason to go private party, no sales tax. Of course, if you're doing on a trade-in, depending on the state, you may only pay sales tax on the difference between the dealer CPO car and the value of your trade-in.

Definitely run the DME, my 5 month old C2S had no revs over range 2.

Likemystoppie?

The question should really be A) do you FULLY understand what you're getting for said "premium" off a OEM Dealer? B) What's the cost of a replacement engine? C) Replacement Transmission? C) Both?


Is it worth it to spend the extra $5-7k knowing 100% what you're getting (a product backed by PCNA) or saving that money for a future investment of, say $18-20k for something catastrophic?


The answer is clear. Unless you 100% can say you know what you're getting, with full documentation and warranty- you DON'T know what you're getting.


It aint about the money. It's about knowing 100% as for humanly possible that your car is guaranteed at that rate of return.


*peace of mind*.

Likemystoppie?

As for the sales tax advantage, each state and jurisdiction is different. It's not guarantee.

And so what you save a few grand on sales tax. yay! And then 4X 's that repairing the car. As for the CPO process going through a dealer....well....PCNA is watching very closely.

*if* they find out that a car was CPO'd in that manner they will cancel the CPO warranty all together. In todays market they're not of the tolerance they once were. - They're watching their pennies too folks.

I know we won't do it anymore. It's not worth the potential **** storm, let alone the $$.

BGA23

It may not be about the money for you, but it may be for the OP. We don't know.

And the extra $5-7K protects him for probably 12ish months more than the balance of the '06s factory warranty. It isn't as though the CPO warranty has no end date.

So, IMHO, it comes down to (assuming there is no sales tax on PP deals) whether OP thinks it is worth it to pay $5-7K for about a years extra warranty. Most of us on this board would say yes but we can't answer for the OP. If he would have to pay sales tax, this is a no-brainer then.

tejoe

No sales tax??? You pay it at the dealer's or you pay it when you register it -- all 50 States.

997, esq

This is certainly the way it is in California -- you pay when you register based on purchase price. A contrary rule would seem to place dealers in a different position than other sellers -- doesn't make a lot of sense from a tax policy standpoint.