doclouie

First thank you to many of you who have helped out in my search. I am in the market for a 997.2 and due to the production quantities of these vehicles (and me not wanting an automatic or a convertible) I will most likely be traveling to purchase the vehicle in another state besides Texas. It seems like all the sites quoting what the car should cost are not accurate for this model at least. That being said how much wiggle room is there for negotiations when dealing with car dealers? Some personal experiences you have dealt with would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Ynot

From my personal experience. 981 Boxster S listed at $72K, MSRP of $97K, offer $62K, agreed on $65K. 997 C4S MSRP of $108K, listed at $65K, offered $57K, agreed on $61K. Every dealer is different, YMMV.

ltcjmramos

The two CPO cars I've bought from dealers were both purchased at $10k below asking, 6GT3 $92 to $82 (MSRP $112), and 7GTS $90 to $80 (MSRP $123). The first one was bought in Jan 2005, the second in August 2014. The GTS was relatively high mileage, 42k.

doclouie

Sounds like you two went to the same dealer, but I know you did not. I wonder if others had the same experience. Were the dealers you went to local dealers or out of state? If I was out of state would that be a flag to them that they should not budge on price? Just some thoughts.

ltcjmramos

Both of mine were in state, CA. One was my local dealer, and all negotiations were face to face. The other was 350 miles away, so, negotiations were email and phone, closed contingent on final personal inspection. Once done, I flew down there, checked it out, drove it home.

doclouie

This is a new thing for me so thank you for the info. So it seems like most would be use to negotiating a fairly firm price and then that would hold or not hold depending on what you see when you look at the car? Who usually pays for the PPI if it is not a CPO?

ltcjmramos

Buyer pays for the PPI. Many (most?) say get PPI even if CPO. I do not subscribe to that. Didn't do it on either of the cars.

Linnm

Always best to buy at the end of the month--dealers are trying to get every sale possible.

Ynot

Both of mine were out of state, I'm in Denver, the 997 was in San Diego and the 981 was from Mentor, OH. Saw both cars on ebay, submit offer once we agreed on the price, I asked them to drive it for a PPI, once PPI results were positive. I submit a $5K refundable deposit and had them say in writing that my deposit is 100% refundable if I didn't like the car when I see it personally. Both dealer had no issue doing that. Once I agreed to buy the 997, the dealer just said, don't worry about the PPI so they'd paid for it. I paid for the 981 PPI, it was less than $200, they took the sales tax out because I was from out of state. It's so easy buying out of state, more choices, I wouldn't limit yourself to just in state purchase. Plus a nice road trip with your new car is always fun.

ltcjmramos

Can't say that I've paid particular attention to that when buying a used car. Don't know why since for at least the last three new cars, I bought on the last day of the month, two of those on Dec 31.

Hula

No harm in offering 5-10% less than asking price. Found my 2011 C4S 6MT coupe last summer from a dealer near Seattle. Listed at $66k (MSRP $114k). Right color and right options so I was hooked regardless. We settled at $63k with new rear tires and I put down a deposit. Flew out from Denver to pick it up. No PPI (yes, I know) but the DME report looked okay and the car history checked out so I wrote the check and spent 5 days driving it back.

Blaine 997

I bought my 997.1 the last week of November 2016 from an Audi dealer in Florida with an add on Autotrader. I checked the listing daily and nearing the end of the month they dropped the price significantly (and into my 996.2 budget). I called them right away and gave them a $5000 refundable deposit. I'm picky when it comes to my cars, and I told the salesman I sold my show car to buy a Porsche. I asked and got a large amount of high resolution pictures of all aspects of the car, including photos of all known flaws (sticky A/C buttons, two paint chips, etc). Once I reviewed those and the car fax, I had a Porsche dealer do a PPI that I paid $300 for. I then went over the PPI with my local Porsche dealer service manager to assess the results to see how major they were and get a budget for addressing them. With that in hand, back to the selling dealer to finalize the deal. They included delivery in an enclosed trailer to PA, a FL temporary registration, and arranging the PA registration to arrive in the mail. All I had to do was get a PA state safety and emission inspection. The car arrived and it was actually nicer than I though it would be.

Previous to this I had never bought a car without putting it through a fine tooth comb in person.

doclouie

This is great information from all of you. Thank you very much. I am going down to Houston to check out a car and may swing by the dealer to see if I really like the width of the all wheel drive that much more than the standard rear wheel drive. That may make for a good thread.