Mumbles

If you really like the car, willing to put a deposit on it, then discuss options with the dealership if that you fly down and the information given was not accurate that they will reimburse the costs of the flight. That should get their attention.

Jaskfri

I found my car online in NY( 650 miles away). I had them take it to a Porsche dealer for a ppi. It checked out perfect so I flew there one way with a check and a license plate. I drove the car for a mile, liked it, bought it, and drove home that day. It was the perfect first date/bonding experience with my first Porsche. I did the same thing with a BMW 2800CS 40 years ago.

Bruce In Philly

I did...... my story....

I purchased my 2009 C2S at end of January 2013 at an unbelievable price of $53K, with 26K miles from a Volvo dealer in MN end of Jan in a snow storm. It had a bad carfax that denoted "hit a wild animal". Given that I drive my cars and keep them a long time (i.e., I bang them up), I didn't care, figured it was just skin damage, and wanted a deal. I contacted the local PCA chapter there, a great guy went over and drove it, said it looked fantastic and then he recommended a local Porsche speed shop for PPI (I sent him a crate of Oranges from Gregorys Groves). THe Volvo dealer delivered and picked up the car from the speed shop for free. They dumped the computer (0 overrevs, minor 1 count), said "if this car was in an accident, we see no evidence of it." Sold. Working well for me and I now have around 106K miles on it.

BTW, I had the national Manheim prices for the previous few months and believe I got the car for wholesale... and another thing... when you see the Manheim reports, all those options you drool over are not even listed.... that is just seller cream..... don;t lie to yourself that options are worth more... not worth anything on the wholesale market.

Some use Porsche dealers for PPIs, I actually feel that a good speed shop with a Durametric or other "deep reading" tool is better qualified as they deal with banged up cars and know how to recognize this.... the shop I used did.

Some other items I discovered: the dealer I purchased from said they use a "listing service" for descriptions and options..... the ad I saw was way wrong denoting it had both transmission types... also the options were all wrong..... I used the pictures the dealer posted to really determine what was in the car.... and I was impressed! Boy did this dealer screw up.... to my benefit.

Side story: I wired in the money from two accounts on a Friday night and sent an email to them letting them know.... On Monday, I called..... the guy said something like "We are working with Peggy in receivables and we can't find your transfers at all!".... oh boy.... I said "well what do you want to do?"... He said " I told Bob you sounded like your were on the up-and-up... so we put it on the truck.. it is on its way"...... Unbelievable...... and true... gotta love the mid-west.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

cosm3os

I did. PO is a great guy/enthusiast. We actually didn't meet as he was on a fishing trip. His wife handled it. Probably better cause we would have chatted in the driveway for hours. Still keep in touch!

exgtinows4

I bought - 1) 2009 C2S CPO 2) 2011 GTS 3) 4x M5s 3) M3 4) 335i 5) Mini Cooper S

All without seeing the car in person.

I did make sure to do/have - car fax/inspection/rennfax/warranty of some kind always

Silver Stealth

My first time buying a car sight unseen. Car was at a Porsche dealer in CO. Would have been much easier to ship but I decided to make a mini vacation out of it and pick the car up myself. We negotiated them flying me out there to pick it up. Going out there also gave me an escape clause if the car turned out to be misrepresented. Fortunately, it ended up being a great experience and wonderful way to bond with the car over the two day drive back to Atlanta.

If you really like this particular car, I would say go for it. Looks like yours in question is also a Porsche CPO car. You may end up paying a bit of a premium for it, but it's a very comprehensive warranty that also comes with a lot of peace of mind. Mine was also CPO and that heavily influenced my decision.

Finally, I would recommend being patient but also particular in terms of waiting on the right car with the right options for you. My car was configured exactly as I wanted, and I knew they were few and far between so I went for it. Very happy about it...

Good luck in your search!

OKB

PP also very open to offers and agreeable when negotiating because they want to sell every car

TTB5

Bought my 997.1 sight unseen. I'm from Pennsylvania and bought the 911 in California. Had it shipped by Montway. I was pretty pleased with them, but it took them about a week and a half to get the car picked up. Car arrived 2 days after it was shipped.

Louis de Funes

When I found my car I made a deposit and I flew with my friend out to have him check it out.
I was happy with it and drove back home with it.
And 3 years later I am very happy with my pick

German888

Purchased my 06 C2 Carrera from a PCA club member out of Portland. Found his Craigslist add and called within hours of it's posting. 2 other interested parties already trying to book a PPI. I asked to see 4 additional quality photos in addition and we discussed it's maintenance history at length. He produced $6K in receipts from his ownership (new clutch & RMS within the past year and new Pioneer car play head unit being the bulk). We negotiated the price on the very first call and I wired the funds into his account later that day.

Here comes the best part... Seller was interested in a 2006 Audi S6 he found online at our local Porsche dealership located in my hometown. I offered to look at the car as it was a great excuse to drool on the new Porsche Macan GTS my wife and I so desperately want. After giving him the rundown on the Audi which turned out to be pristine. He closed the deal the on the Audi and drove the Carrera to the dealership to pick up his car the following weekend where I met him.

I've purchased 4 cars sight unseen with the Carrera being the first that exceeded the represented condition.

2011-sy-carreras

Bought my PDK - 2011 Carrera C2S in April 2015 online and turned out so far to be a great car all around. It had 12,300 miles on it and came with enough online photos to give a good feel of the car and options. I would not purchase without a proper PPI though. I found it a bit more difficult to find a 911 that fits what I was looking for locally (Westchester County, NY) and at the right price point.

I actually found the car I liked and had 95% of the options I wanted, and added PSE on delivery to N.Y. by a quality local independent that services Porches. The car was in Dallas and I used RAC performance to do my PPI locally. The seller drove the car to RAC on my setting up the appointment via Hans Hoffman at the time. Found him to know these cars very well and responsive.

Overall, RAC was very thorough and recommended I have a collision/paint shop also look at the car. They steered me to a quality shop in Dallas that worked with RAC (Stuarts Paint and Body shop). They were a high quality shop as well and gave me some very good feedback on the body condition of the car and did not charge me as part of the RAC Performance PPI (I recall the PPI being around $300). I mentioned the above in more detail, knowing you're looking online in the Dallas area.

Blaine 997

I bought my 997.1 C2 without seeing it first from an Audi dealer in Florida in November 2016 and had it shipped to PA. I had never bought a car without driving it first, let alone not seeing it in person. I wanted a speed yellow manual car with low options so the chance of finding one within driving range of Pennsylvania was very low.

Actually, I had never driven or even sat in a 997 until my car was shipped to me. I had driven a friends 996 before, and when I found this 2005 997 in the upper range of my budget I had to move quickly.

I had the dealer send me some very hi res photos of every angle of the car inside and outside so I could see the condition better. Then I wired them a deposit to hold the car while they arranged to take it to a Porsche dealership for a PPI. The PPI only had minor things on it so I wired them the rest of the money.

I was very nervous waiting for the car to arrive and had to force myself not to second-guess the purchase. The car was way nicer than I expected. It's very clean and tight with no squeaks or rattles. My dealer addressed all the PPI concerns and they were impressed with the condition of the car for what I paid for it.

kcheves

Lots of good advice here. A couple of things:

- Personally, I like to see a car before I buy it, but there's lots of testimony here that this is not a requirement.

- Posting links to nice cars is usually not a good idea. You WILL get sniped if you don't move quickly.

- This is one case where buying from the dealer is not a bad idea. They are selective about what they take in trade and generally don't sell garbage. Especially CPO cars, which this is.

- Dark Blue Metallic is an awesome color. It was my first choice, but I ended up with Midnight Blue Metallic, which I also love. Blue Porsches are special. There's a thread here or on the "other site" with pictures of cars in most of the blues that Porsche has offered over the last 60 years. Great thread if you can find it.

- The marks on the passenger seat like they are dents left by a child's car seat. If so, they should relax over time, and may respond to leather conditioning or steam.

Let us know how it works out.

Ynot

Kinda, I had the dealer take it to another Porsche dealership to have it PPI'ed, talked to the mechanic who did the inspection. Asked about condition, paint, interior, etc. Once I got the copy of the PPI and the mechanics approval. I placed a deposit so they can't sell it to anyone else, asked dealership to put it in writing, that my deposit is 100% refundable and I can back out of the contract if I didn't like it for any reason. The dealer had no problem doing that. Flew out, inspect it, drove it, and made the full payment, and had it scheduled to be delivered.

I've been around the forum for a long time so I've read plenty of horror stories. Way too many people relying on CPO warranty only to find out that minor respray and accidents still can be CPO'ed. They paid for a non-accident CPO car and can't find a buyer when they decide to sell it later once the accident shows up on carfax. Used Porsche buyers are about as picky as they get, most will not touch a car that's been in an accident, even if it's extremely minor. I can understand not flying out and checking it out yourself but skipping the $250-$400 PPI is just stupid. You are already going to spend $50K, what's another $250 for insurance and that warm and fuzzy feeling. PPI for my 997 was free, the dealer paid for it when I decided to buy it, PPI for my Boxster S was a little over $200.

Fined

made arrangements for the purchase of several cars without seeing them. not a big deal.

I made the arrangements for my GTS this way. I was in Charlotte, the car was in Memphis. I put a deposit down to hold the car (as someone mentioned, if its spec'd well and a good price, it wont last).. arranged a PPI at an independent location (going through Porsche doesn't make sense to me).. then went to Memphis, picked up the car myself and took it to its PPI and only then finalized the deal.