dale2017

Hi Everyone,

I just joined the family with my first Porsche, but before I share pics of my gorgeous new 2011 911 GTS (manual cabriolet!), I want to give buyers a heads up on this other GTS that I researched.

White 2011 911 GTS from Europlus Motosports in New Jersey
VIN: WP0AB2A93BS721105

I had an extremely weird interaction with this dealership. So did another rennlist member (search the VIN, it has been mentioned on this forum once). I live in NJ so I went and saw the car in person. I also spend $500+ on a 1+2 hours (I will explain why I wrote 1+2 instead of 3) on PPI that revealed that the right side quarter panel has been painted (potential side damage), some electrical problems (watch and nav), as well as some signs on the cylinder heads from the 3 and 4 range overrevs. They have no paperwork for any maintenance (40k hasn't been done) and also the car hasn't been trough Porsche's mandatory recalls which probably means it wasn't serviced at a dealership at all.

Long story short, this dealership tries very hard not to get the car to a Porsche dealer for PPI. Porsche of Ray Catena is 15 mins down the road. They first said that PPI was done there and sent me a sheet of paper which was clearly made-up (the telling sign was the tire thread, also my actual PPI found that the accessory drive belt is cracked). Next, I asked to do my own PPI and made an appointment with Ray Catena for next week's Wed morning. The dealer agreed but later called to tell me that they don't work Tuesday and Wed (it was Passover week) and they will drive the car there and drop it off for my PPI on Monday. Next, I got a call that Arthur (which I believe is one of the managers there) on Tuesday to ask me about what to do with the car. I explained again that I have an appointment for Wed morning and he said "ok ok, I'm at the dealership". He later texted me "call to pay them" which I thought meant that Ray Catena wanted to be paid before the PPI but it was after business hours when I got out of work.

I showed up on Wed morning at Ray Catena only to be told that the PPI was done the day before and the car is ready to be picked up. I told the dealer a few times that I want to be there for the PPI. After some back and forth with Ray Catena, they honored my Wed appointment (which they thought moved to Tuesday) and they brought the car in for 2 hours of extra inspection which revealed some of the things that I already mentioned. Ray Catena guys were fantastic. The manager even came to me to apologize and clarify that the previous day the gentlemen that dropped off the car seemed nervous. The mechanic told me that between the overrevs and the paint job I should walk away unless I'm getting the car at a big discount.

I called the dealership to negotiate the price from their $62k asking at the time. There is a Yelp review of someone claiming that they agreed on $59.5k all in. I asked the dealership for pictures before the paint job (which was clearly recent due to the sticky substance left by ducktape near the door) and I told Arthur (who I got transferred to after waiting for good 40 minutes on the phone) that if they show me that it was just a scratch I wouldn't care. Instead, he never acknowledged it saying that "he can't check every panel on every car"... it took 10 seconds for the Ray Catena mechanic to see the repaint. Furthermore, he said that he never agreed to $59.5k and that there is no point in continuing the conversation with me because the price is what it is at $62k (to be fair, I was optimistic with my starting offer of $54k but I told them that I want the car and I was actually driving to their dealership while we were on the phone and they knew it). Who would say that to someone that has clearly shown interest? He didn't even try to make a counter offer.

Now I see the car listed on e-bay and I know there are some of you looking at it but unable to spend the time and money that I did so I've attached the base 1 hours PPI + the 2 hour additional that I got (including compression tests) as a pdf. They have the PPI that I paid for because they received a copy but instead, they continue to send this other fake PPI to people (attached as 2 pics).

I hope this saves someone money and/or unpleasant surprises.

Cheers

jayi41

Congrats on the new gts. And wow!! I feel so much better knowing I dodged a bullet with that car. That dealership is terrible. Soo shady with the fake ppis, covering up the damage. Etc...

Either way I'm glad you got the right car in the end.

Enjoy.

Rambler_13

Good on you for on being persistent and avoiding a big headache. Unless I'm misunderstanding, the fact that Ray Catena did a PPI a day earlier and glossed over all the issues until you had them do it again is concerning to me as well and would make me not trust that dealer either.

dale2017

My guess is that they go by the checklist and that a standard PPI would probably go to someone more junior at the shop. The checklist is very long but not informative or indicative of bigger problems so I can't really hold it against them. Also, the electric stuff (nav and watch) was noted on the written part of the PPI (I don't have that in print). The engine stuff they found only after a compression test and camera examination which is obviously not part of a standard PPI.

I guess the correct thing to say is that a standard PPI is bs for expensive cars but the Ray Catena guys really care for their customers.

Also, checking the if the car has been trough the mandatory recalls was their idea (they didn't charge me for it) but again, not part of standard PPI.

Rambler_13

That makes sense, lesson learned on doing the more advanced PPI.