strandolph

Collective 997 wisdom,

As I get closer to buying a car, I'm wondering how people have treated the logistics of the out of state purchase. In what order have you done these things? Any random advice about the process that I might not have already picked up reading various threads over the past few months?

1. Obtain Carfax, CPO report, and the original build list from the PPN database.

2. Secure the car in some way so that it can't be sold out from under me while negotiating. Deposit, contingent contract, etc?

3. Have a PPI performed.

4. Fly in for the day to see and drive the car in person.

5. Negotiate a price.

6. Complete the purchase and arrange for tags and title in my state (MD).

7. Contract for shipping.

8. Supervise shipping.

There's a 2009 targa with 13K miles CPO'd until 6/2015 advertised in Florida for $69K that I'm interested in. I don't have much to compare the price to. It's less than KBB estimate, but I have no idea how accurate that is. If I made the purchase, I could just drive it home rather than have it shipped. But, I'd put 1000 rather boring I-95 miles on the car. Thoughts?

kcheves

I'm in a similar position, and have been looking at out of state cars.

Your list is good, but I would negotiate the price upfront, pending your inspection of the car and equitable adjustment if anything is found in the PPI. Once you fly to wherever the car is, your leverage is gone.

I hope I get to make the drive home, rather than use a transport service. Even if the road is boring, it's likely to be a fun drive.

Good luck finding your car.

Kit

JayRace

If it's a car you want I would negotiate price up front. If it's a dealer give them a deposit via credit card on a signed form stating the deposit is refundable if the car is not satisfactory on arrival or the PPI uncovers issues. Next pay for a PPI and make sure you get a DME report and paint thickness test on each panel.
If the PPI is good then go pickup the car :-)

PasPar2

Definitely negotiate up front, it might be a non starter. Ask for a face time walk around as well

Frugger

Another thing to think about is getting an official certificate of title from the state you're purchasing in to be able to register the car in the state you reside in (if you're financing any of it). I purchased my car in Ohio and reside on Virginia. Ohio keeps the title and issues a Memorandum of Title which in Ohio can be used to obtain registration and plates - Virginia can't do anything with this and needs an original Certificate of Title. I had to call the bank, who then had to order the certificate from Ohio and mail it to me. The entire process took several weeks and in the meantime my temp ohio tags expired so I couldn't drive the car.

Ynot

Here is what I did. I live in Colorado and brought mine in San Diego.

1. Check car fax and post it on the forum. You'll be surprised. I had a few people tell me it's so and so's car and he is a great guy. Sold it b/c he wanted a different car, etc.

2. Negotiate price, agreed on price and placed a deposit so the dealer can't sell it to someone else.

3. Had it written that deposit is 100% refundable, depending on PPI and final inspection by me.

4. Had dealer drive it to another Porsche dealer to get PPI/DME, called and talked to the mechanic who did it and asked for his opinion. "Would you buy this if you were in my position?"

5. Flew out to test drive and inspect it. Took a lot of pictures inside and out, up and down. I wanted to make sure it looks the same when I receive it later.

6. Arranged shipping with the dealer, he had plenty of recommendations.

7. Shipped back to Colorado. Inspect car on arrival.

8. Live happy every after.

hjles

If you are talking about the Targa listed at Porsche Melbourne, it has already sold.

tbrom

That's right it is waiting to ship out - I went to see it about a week ago. It's gone!

Alan C.

Why is it loading on a Russian container ship? ;-)

strandolph

Yup. I guess they didn't get around to taking it off their site. If you happen to know anything about the sale and could PM me the sale price, I'd appreciate it as a data point for pricing.

hjles

I don't know the final sale price.

When I called to make an offer the car was listed at 69k, they said they would do 67k, but it didn't seem like they would budge below that number. I didn't get a chance to find out, it sold pretty quickly after I called.

Nuvolari

Dealers keeping sold cars on their website marked as available can be very frustrating. In the last two weeks I have found 3 such cars with the Targa at Melbourne being one of them. It would be nice to see a 'sale pending' tag to save the disappointment of calling the dealer. That said every dealer was more than happy to push the merits of their other available inventory but by that time my interest was gone.

Domer911

If the CARFAX is free, get one but rely on nothing contained within it. Otherwise it's a waste of your money.