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Hey all - long time lurker but am about to get serious about a P-car purchase and wanted to reach out to the experts on here!
I've been loosely keeping an eye on the market for an addition to my garage; had a shortlist of a few cars, however after recently riding in a 997.1 GT3 I was hooked. Doing a bit of research, the .1 GT3 prices have reached higher than I'd like to spend (at least without sacrificing a couple of cars I want to hang on to right now). Last week I took a test drive in another car on my shortlist - a 981 GT4 with some bolt ons (headers, tune) and - while it was no mezger - the experience was still phenomenal and imo not $50k worse than a .1 GT3!
So down the 981 GT4 rabbit hole I went! I got a good idea of prices but then the thought occurred to me to also check in on the Spyder. I've learnt about all the differences between the two cars and feel I would be just as happy in a Spyder as a GT4, while also benefiting from them being typically a little cheaper to buy. I'm on the east coast (DC/MD/VA area) and talked myself into cooling my search until the winter months and picking up a deal in the cooler market, until I spotted this:
I've done as much digging as I can but I can't figure out why this hasn't been snapped up yet!? CPO car (twice!), clean carfax, really nice condition, LWBS, 12k miles and appears to be under market price at <$92k. What am I missing here? Is the spec not that inspiring? MRSP was around $101k on the Spyder registry and personally I like the spec enough to part with my money! It's showing as listed for around a month, and the price has dropped a few times - to the point where looking at comparable cars for sale (or recent sales on BAT, C&B etc) this looks like a bit of a deal..!
Would love to hear thoughts, especially if anyone has had eyes on this car in person or is perhaps local! I'm around 800 miles away so have to make the deal remotely, though the fact it's from a Porsche dealer, CPO and has solid history is giving me a lot of comfort.
Nice car. The only thing I can think of is that people want a brighter colored Spyder. I have an Agate 2015 GTS Boxster, and my only negative feeling is that it's a bit under the radar on color. Sometimes that can be a good thing too. Now having said that, I get way more compliments than I would expect on the car, even taking 1st in a recent PCA concurs, but it doesn't excite me the same as my Shark Blue Cayman.
Seems like a good deal. Report back if you buy it!
I took delivery of a 981 Spyder in late 2015, and over 8 years, put 32k miles on it, selling it recently for $89k. Mine was GT Silver with the classic Spyder interior and sofa seats.
Funny story, I wasn’t able to get a GT4 allocation, so the Spyder was a second option. After having driven a 981 GT4 I realized that my Spyder was so much better as a street car.
I would still own the car today had my wife and I not embarked on an expensive custom home building project, combined with getting a bug for the air cooled o11 experience. It was an absolutely stupendous, outrageous over the top fun car.
I live in Orlando, and if you’d like me to help you investigate or get a PPI, shoot me a PM. One of my best friends just left that dealership to start his own Porsche specific independent repair shop. So I can probably get inside scoop on that car plus his shop can do a PPI for you.
Texted my buddy. He said he knows the car well. That dealer doesn’t allow PPI, however it’s going to be a reliable car plus it’s certified. He said ask for Corey, and use his name as a reference, Andreas.
Thank you all for the rapid replies and thank you in particular Mark!
I've been working remotely with a sales person there already - not sure if I can ask to change to Corey though I may see if I can speak to him for more information. The current salesperson previously sold this car once or twice and knows it well - he described the previous owners, their purchase and trade-ins.
I have the last two CPO reports (from last week and 2 years ago) and they seem pretty consistent, so I didn't request an additional PPI. I'll request a DME for posterity but other than that I feel pretty comfortable I think - so thank you for that invaluable extra insight!
The only hiccup could be negotiation logistics of a long distance purchase (they want me to come in person). Will post an update with what happens!
Thanks again all - can't beat forums and car communities!
I agree with all the feedback already offered. The color is subdued for a sport car, but thats just my opinion. I like the color and in fact had it on a previous 911.
Looks like a previous owner had the seat inserts redone in pepita, which look great. Speaking of seats, are you ok with the sport seats? Everyone seems to want them, but I can tell you from experience they’re not for everyone. Maybe find someone near you that has them and check them out.
Finally, in this day and age why in the world won’t the dealer work with you remotely? That’s ridiculous - you should push back on this.
not sure if they raised the price but the link says just over $96k now not sub $92k? As someone who recently purchased a spyder in February I can offer a bit of my experience. First, prices did not come down in the winter in my experience. The Spyder is a niche car and takes the right buyer, maybe there was more of a willingness to "deal" in the winter but asking prices stayed pretty consistent. Secondarily, I found my perfect spec car in Pittsburgh CPO'd at a porsche dealer there, I called up ready to place my deposit and take the car. However, to my surprise they wouldn't take my money and said they would only sell to a local buyer and even paying asking price they would not sell me the car.
It's a weird environment in the car world right now and dealers feel they have too much power! I will say that while there aren't a lot of Spyders on the market at any one time, there is a constant flow of low mileage listings that pop up. So if this deal doesn't work out or isn't exactly what you want, wait for the right one. Post on forums like this you are looking and ready to buy a Spyder and you'll get people who reach out to you with cars that aren't even on market yet.
CPO'd cars are nice and offer a level of comfort for sure, I waited for the color I wanted and found it in a private sale in Florida (i live in ct) made the deal remote and am very happy I got the color I really wanted.
not sure if they raised the price but the link says just over $96k now not sub $92k? As someone who recently purchased a spyder in February I can offer a bit of my experience. First, prices did not come down in the winter in my experience. The Spyder is a niche car and takes the right buyer, maybe there was more of a willingness to "deal" in the winter but asking prices stayed pretty consistent. Secondarily, I found my perfect spec car in Pittsburgh CPO'd at a porsche dealer there, I called up ready to place my deposit and take the car. However, to my surprise they wouldn't take my money and said they would only sell to a local buyer and even paying asking price they would not sell me the car.
It's a weird environment in the car world right now and dealers feel they have too much power! I will say that while there aren't a lot of Spyders on the market at any one time, there is a constant flow of low mileage listings that pop up. So if this deal doesn't work out or isn't exactly what you want, wait for the right one. Post on forums like this you are looking and ready to buy a Spyder and you'll get people who reach out to you with cars that aren't even on market yet.
CPO'd cars are nice and offer a level of comfort for sure, I waited for the color I wanted and found it in a private sale in Florida (i live in ct) made the deal remote and am very happy I got the color I really wanted.
Texted my buddy. He said he knows the car well. That dealer doesn’t allow PPI, however it’s going to be a reliable car plus it’s certified. He said ask for Corey, and use his name as a reference, Andreas.
That dealer isn't particularly friendly. They did say you could bring someone in to PPI it for me.
FYI, CPO doesn't cover shocks or any other wear item. Also make sure the door panels haven't delaminated.
So I wanted to refrain from commenting until I was a little further along the process - long post warning!!
Originally Posted by DaveGee
I agree with all the feedback already offered. The color is subdued for a sport car, but thats just my opinion. I like the color and in fact had it on a previous 911.
Looks like a previous owner had the seat inserts redone in pepita, which look great. Speaking of seats, are you ok with the sport seats? Everyone seems to want them, but I can tell you from experience they’re not for everyone. Maybe find someone near you that has them and check them out.
Finally, in this day and age why in the world won’t the dealer work with you remotely? That’s ridiculous - you should push back on this.
Good luck with your decision.
DaveGee
Agree with all the above! I did notice the pepita inserts (which are very pricey!) - they were noted as the only "modification" on the first CPO documents, and then omitted from the most recent. The color combo is certainly subdued - in particular the interior I think could have been optioned in a more exciting way given the body and wheel color. Even bright silver wheels (my personal favourite) would make it pop a little more. As the for the seats - I have indeed tried them! I was surprised they were as comfortable for me as they ended up being, so they're definitely one of my sought after options.
RE doing the deal remotely..more on that below..
Originally Posted by dav9515
not sure if they raised the price but the link says just over $96k now not sub $92k? As someone who recently purchased a spyder in February I can offer a bit of my experience. First, prices did not come down in the winter in my experience. The Spyder is a niche car and takes the right buyer, maybe there was more of a willingness to "deal" in the winter but asking prices stayed pretty consistent. Secondarily, I found my perfect spec car in Pittsburgh CPO'd at a porsche dealer there, I called up ready to place my deposit and take the car. However, to my surprise they wouldn't take my money and said they would only sell to a local buyer and even paying asking price they would not sell me the car.
It's a weird environment in the car world right now and dealers feel they have too much power! I will say that while there aren't a lot of Spyders on the market at any one time, there is a constant flow of low mileage listings that pop up. So if this deal doesn't work out or isn't exactly what you want, wait for the right one. Post on forums like this you are looking and ready to buy a Spyder and you'll get people who reach out to you with cars that aren't even on market yet.
CPO'd cars are nice and offer a level of comfort for sure, I waited for the color I wanted and found it in a private sale in Florida (i live in ct) made the deal remote and am very happy I got the color I really wanted.
Some excellent points there! So firstly, the price - you are 100% correct, it was listed < $92k, $91,750 to be precise, and now it's $96,271. When I asked why - I was informed their "system uses dynamic pricing and automatically checks and adjusts pricing to be within a certain percentile of the market average". Apparantly.
Regardless, I have the deal sheet below:
Originally Posted by davecramer
That dealer isn't particularly friendly. They did say you could bring someone in to PPI it for me.
FYI, CPO doesn't cover shocks or any other wear item. Also make sure the door panels haven't delaminated.
Good luck
Dave - your comment about the dealer being not particularly friendly hit the bullseye. So after I got the deal sheet above - the salesman said they would honor the $91,750 price if I was able to do the deal the same day. Keep in mind this was received on Friday Aug 30th at 1:15pm, middle of my workday. I had to upload my insurance and license, and fill out a credit app - all of which I managed to submit before 5:30pm while in and out of work meetings at the office. And keep in mind they were closed over the long weekend and also would not honor the price past the end of August, or be able to hold the car for me to get down there which they insisted was required.
All very odd. The salesman did say he could take off all the added on crap to make it a flat $91,750 - so that was something. But good lord - the whole process felt like I was doing them the biggest favor! Snails pace communication - I know a little about how it works and I'm sure the only reason I was getting drips of follow ups from the salesman was because it's a measured metric. I get it - I even said "I know you'd prefer to sell this locally" as the salesman had previously sold this car a couple times and had benefitted from the repeat business.
Anyhoo - after submitted everything Friday evening - absolute radio silence. Nothing. And to be honest - I stopped following up myself! I don't know how they expect me to drop everything and fly from DC to Orlando at the drop of a hat to sign paperwork. And to top it off - their photos of the car are terrible, and I asked more than once for better / HD pictures (yknow, from like an average smart phone) and I got a grainy video.
This is my first P-car purchase and will be the most expensive car in my fleet - I'd like the moment to feel a little more exciting than this tbh! So as it stands - I'm leaving it, I haven't heard a peep from them since Friday and I don't intend to follow up, even though I did a credit app and got minorly dinged for it. No bother - I move on!
As to where I go next - Dave I think your idea is absolutely spot on. I will make some posts here and start pushing out feelers. I did the exact same when I bought my Alfa 4C a few years back and had the absolute best experience buying from a private enthusiast seller. The Spyder/GT4 will make a really complimentary stablemate I think
While all this was happening (or not happening), I found another Spyder listed locally which I went to test drive (and had a MUCH better experience). Unfortunately the spec was "meh" and there is a damage report on the carfax, and there was a higher than expected amount of wear in the interior - the price is at least 5k too high in my opinion. I think the pricing is quite interesting - I expect the 781 twins to hold their value very well (and likely increase in the long term) and because I'm a finance nerd I love to do some research. While it's certainly not comprehensive, one quick example is looking at recent BAT sales (and excluding certain outliers):
The above graph is for the GT4 which has way more data points than the super rare Spyder. You can see the Covid bubble, and prices juuust beginning to cool a little. Like I said I dont think they'll fall a lot, but this time of year, with rate cuts on the horizon and going into winter, toys do tend to not do as well. I just have a feeling that holding on just a few more months but being 100% ready to strike, I could get a good deal. Especially if I put out feelers and wait for the right spec like Dave said. I'm still 50/50 between a Spyder and GT4, love them both, and I think I'll buy whatever the best combo of price/spec that comes up for me!
Speaking of - I did drive this GT4 a couple weeks ago. Fell in love with the car (even though the color and wheel color are my least favorite), the modifications took it to another level. UNREAL. Its on consignment at the dealer - funnily enough the owner bought it on BAT last October for 105k so ALL the history and detail is there for everyone. They're clearly trying to recoup auction / shipping / consignment fees! IMO I think that car is at least 15k overpriced - if not 20. I'll keep an eye on it; they want me to make an offer to present to the owner and I might revisit it now that the Orlando deal is dead.
Hopefully my next big update will be an exciting one
PS Dave - dammit, a blue Spyder with silver wheels is probably my dream spec right there - congrats to you sir!! You don't happen to be selling soon do you...
Spyder in Orlando FL
