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I’m considering buying this GTS from CarMax with 32k miles . It has white wheels that I can’t seem to find anywhere and was wondering if it was just painted ? Have the car being delivered to a CarMax near me so haven’t driven it yet .. 1 owner and records are clean . Any tips appreciated as always.. tyty
I've never bought a car from Carmax, but I sold one to Carmax. The car was perfectly fine, sound mechanically and cosmetically. But, it needed 2 tires (bubbles) - Carmax put 2 new tires, but they did not match the other 2. It was a dual exhaust tip car; the muffler was askew and so one exhaust tip stuck out 3-5" more then the other - Carmax didn't notice or didn't care. One seat was a replacement seat (done by me to replace a broken seat) - the replacement seat had been leather patched/repaired. The repair was something you'd see in person, but not discernible in the photos. It was a black car with a fair number of scratches/chips - none could be seen in the photos.
The average consumer likely wouldn't notice or car about any of those things (e.g., my wife). But a car-person would (e.g, me).
If I was to sum it up, I'd say that B/C grade cars easily present as A grade cars on the Carmax site. So I would not buy without seeing first.
If you see it first, then it's on you to decide if it satisfies whatever conditions you want satisfied, using whatever resources you have available and Carmax will permit, e.g., PPI, or bring a mechanic; paint meter; etc,
Yeah I can’t find that style of white wheel anywhere so I’m guessing it wasn’t a Porsche option and it was powder coated.. The car should be here in a week and I’ll have a better idea.. I do get 1500 miles and can return the vehicle for any reason so that’s a little comforting. I did not like the white wheels at first look but now they are growing on me and I think it’s a good look.. took time for the Panamera to grow on me always thought it looked **** now I guessed I’ve matured because I love the look now. lol
I bought my first Panamera from them. A few tips: Carmax does little reconditioning to their cars and if you dont buy you wont get the shipping cost back, unless one of the questions you ask when you order dont work out. I always asked about smoke smell, tire condition and interior condition. This could get you out of paying shipping if the car shows up with one of these things wrong. Also, if you read their advertising, they are very careful to NOT say no accidents, just no frame damage. They use Autocheck not Carfax, so pay for a Carfax on it. Lastly, Maxcare is one of the best extended warranty products out there, Doug Demuro even did a video on it. I would advise getting it, but it wont be cheap on an older Pcar. When I got mine, they pretty much told me unless it was something simple, they would send it to the dealer anyway.
I found my base 971 pretty uninspiring to drive so I was on the fence with it. Not sure if this is still the case but during covid the return policy was 30 days and 1500 miles. The deal breaker for me was I saw something in the paint on the bumper at night when some gas station lights hit is a certain way. A scuff of sorts. The Autocheck provided by Carmax was clean so I pulled the Carfax and it was indeed in a minor front accident, but I guess the bumper was never refinished. I ordered a new car and they let me drive the 971 until it came in lol... so I more or less drove the Panamera for free for 20 something days. Returning it was easier than returning socks at Walmart. All I did was sign a paper and boom they refunded and rolled my down payment into the next car. Out of curiosity I asked my salesguy what his manager said to him and his response was "I dont know whats worse, the fact that he didnt think a Porsche was fast enough, or that we let him drive it for so long." Oh well..
I dont think that wheel finish is OEM, so take a closer look at them. Hopefully they are professionally powder coated and not rattle canned or plastidipped. Well acutally plastidip would be ideal for me since I'm not a fan and I could easily remove it. Either way best of luck!
If the price is right, buy it, get the Maxcare and a good PPI. If they PPI isn't great, just return it. Also run the VIN thru a decoder to verify the options and build sheet. I've found that Carmax gets the options wrong on Pcars sometimes because there are so many of them and not all are readily apparent from just a quick look if you are not an enthusiast.
I would bet they are OEM after seeing another one exact same that was posted in the thread above .. we shall see… as far as the price goes i feel its over priced and your not getting any great deals but you do get a monster company with a return policy which is nice.. I think the car should be 48-50ish if clean .
I would bet they are OEM after seeing another one exact same that was posted in the thread above .. we shall see… as far as the price goes i feel its over priced and your not getting any great deals but you do get a monster company with a return policy which is nice.. I think the car should be 48-50ish if clean .
Those are non-OEM wheel finish... If you look at the window sticker, the car came with '911 Turbo II wheels' and those on the car are 'Panamera Sport Wheels'. Also, I remember reading articles some time ago by the guy and the upgrades (wheels, grill, etc) he did... Porsche did/does have an 'exclusive' line of options, but are always listed on the window sticker.