Don Lee

Hi guys,

I'm sure you came across lots of these on this forum but I need your help in searching for the perfect Porsche. I have been eyeing on purchasing nearly new CPO (or non CPO) Porsche 911 (991.1 or 2 base or S if budget allows) for a while but it seems like availability is pretty restricted as I desire to own the manual version. At this current time, Porsche Bellevue only has one available with decent amount of miles (34k) and that seems to be it. Because of so many restrictions, I feel like I need to expand my search a bit so I need your expertise on the matter.

1. Which sites would you visit to check out cars & consider purchasing? (ie. https://www.quora.com/Where-is-the-b...ed-Porsche-911 - Do you agree with his opinion?)
2. Are Porsche dealers in NA welcome out of state purchases?
3. Would you recommend purchasing CPO when I want something with less than 25k miles on it? I noticed CPO adds quite a bit of markup so I just want to make sure the extra cost is justified.

I would also greatly appreciate it if you have any tips & suggestions as I have never purchased Porsche nor a used car.

Thanks in advance!

starvational

Hi there, I was in the same predicament a year ago when shopping for a CPO 997.2 in the Seattle area. The local inventory was literally nonexistent at decent prices. Anything I found was at least 10k or so above other places. I looked in the Seattle/Tacoma/Bellevue area and Portland, but everything that fit my price/model/options was way overpriced.

To make a long story short, I extended my search nationwide and found a CPO car in Texas and had it shipped from there to here. A lot of Porsche dealers work with out of state buyers; furthermore, the paperwork, money transfer and arranging delivery was relatively painless.

The search was somewhat laborious, but that was part of the fun. I used craigslist to search various metropolitan areas, and also did nationwide searches using CarGurus. However, if you’re looking for a CPO, the Porsche used car locator is your bet. It’s how I found mine in Texas. It also has a nice filter where you can specify some basic options.

I also have a coworker who found a non-CPO 991.1 C2S and just bought an aftermarket Fidelity platinum insurance for it (search this forum for more info..TL;DR there is a guy named Michael who sells these almost at wholesale). So that’s also an option for peace of mind.

Good luck in your search. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Miguel

Don Lee

Hi Miguel,

Thanks for your reply. I will leave my next set of questions here just in case other people might be interested in following up:

1. Did you fly in to check out the car? Did you do any PPI prior to purchasing? (Would you recommend PPI on a CPO?)

2. Was dealer accommodating to out of state buyers? Did you run into any issue negotiating over the phone?

3. If you took out a loan to complete the sale, did they ever give you any hardship buying the vehicle from out of state?

4. How hard was it to get the vehicle shipped to your location? (Did you do it on the enclosed truck) Did you negotiate on this as well? How hard was it for you to get this organized?

Thanks again in advance!

Rick-A-Shay

CPO is always more expensive due to the fact that the car has to meet certain standards dictated by Porsche (tires, brakes, etc.). Thus, the expense is on the dealer to make sure these standards are met in order to create an "extended" warranty covered by Porsche. This may be for you in order to provide peace of mind during your first Porsche experience. The Rennlist Vehicle Marketplace is another route to take. These are usually non-CPO and require an independent "pre-purchase inspection" (PPI) that may uncover issues not normally visible when checking out the car. A good Porsche shop can do this. Cars for sale here are usually posted by forum members that are familiar with the "drill" of selling & buying and tend to be straightforward about any issues the car may have and price the car accordingly. Other on-line venues can be more risky and it's best to stick with Porsche Forums. I have had good luck buying "used" locally but always set aside several thousand dollars for "surprises". Never hurts to personally visit and inspect the car, even if it means travel. Local Rennlisters may be familiar with the car and can provide additional information OR may volunteer to inspect the car for you if they are local.

Short Story: Jump in and join Rennlist as it's a good source for info and camaraderie!

Don Lee

Thanks for your reply. I will leave my next set of questions here just in case other people might be interested in following up:

1. Did you fly in to check out the car? Did you do any PPI prior to purchasing? (Would you recommend PPI on a CPO?)
2. Was dealer accommodating to out of state buyers? Did you run into any issue negotiating over the phone?
3. If you took out a loan to complete the sale, did they ever give you any hardship buying the vehicle from out of state?
4. How hard was it to get the vehicle shipped to your location? (Did you do it on the enclosed truck) Did you negotiate on this as well? How hard was it for you to get this organized?

starvational

Hi Don,

I posted to the 997 forum a while back inquiring about people's out of state buying experiences, you can find that post here (some pretty good info that may be of help there):

https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...xperience.html

My experience:
1) I was buying CPO from a reputable Porsche dealer and I saw tons of pics beforehand, so I was satisfied with the exterior/interior and also had peace of mind with the fact that it was a Porsche certified pre-owned car.

2) I negotiated via text back and forth and then spoke to the salesman and agreed on a final price. There were no issues with negotiation process (typical car buying experience)

3) I did not take a loan but the dealer did provide some options (typical experience)

4) The dealer offered to arrange shipping, but said it was usually cheaper for me to do it, so I searched rennlist for recommendations and called 2-3 shipping companies for a quote. I went with enclosed shipping with PlyCar since they were the cheapest reputable option (uncovered is cheaper but the car is exposed to the elements). To organize this, I had PlyCar pick up the car at the dealer (provided the dealer info and point of contact) and told my salesman @ the dealership when Plycar would be coming so they would prep and release the vehicle. It was pretty straight forward.

Note: this is my CPO out of state buying experience, some things are different when buying out of state from a private seller. You should try posting on the 991 forums since you will get more responses there than these regional forums.

Don Lee

Thanks again! What kind of options were you given for loan? Was it competitive?

ltcjmramos

In case you haven't found it, here is the Porsche 911 Locator http://locator.porsche.com/ipl-customer/ipl/search/search.ipl?cid=1

SoCal RJ

I'm currently looking for my first Porsche, and Autotrader has been my go to site. You can pick quite a few "miles away" options to go out as far as you like. CarGurus and TrueCar can work too. RJ

nolimits

You should take a look at this thread for some CPO perspective that might help. Good luck.


https://rennlist.com/forums/991-turb...-warranty.html

rob-503

Hi Don,

I live in Oregon and recently bought a CPO 911 from a dealer in Pennsylvania.
- I did not fly to check out the the car before purchase. This was based on the CPO warranty, carfax, dealer reputation, looking closely at many photos and good dialog with the sales person.
- Negotiation over the phone was fine and the sales person was very comfortable selling to an out of state buyer. He made all the arrangements.
- Shipping cross country in an enclosed truck is expensive (~$2,000). It was worth it for me since I viewed this as the perfect car but it's something to consider. It was delivered to my front door in less than a week, effortless on my part but expensive.
- I also wanted and purchased the manual transmission. My sense from looking around is that there are not that many manual cars out there but the good news is that there also seems to even fewer buyers looking for a manual car.

Good Luck!

Biochemlab

Hi Don,

I'm working on my first Porsche purchase, but I have always shopped nationally for cars because I've always been picky about options / colors and wanted to buy used to save the depreciation.

I use Cars.com the most, next is Cargurus and Autotrader. I also found that if you go to Craigslist and do a search for the car you want, you can make small changes to the address to search other areas. For example, I'll do a search on Seattle.Craigslist.org and then when I'm done there, I'll just change "Seattle" to "Portland" or "SFBay" or any other place I want to look.

Having not owned a Porsche, I think CPO is worth it because of the extended warranty.

I have always done PPIs on the cars I have bought from far away. Usually, I'd put a deposit down on the car and have the seller take the car to a local dealership. I would schedule everything with the dealership myself. Assuming no major problems, I'd then travel to go pick up the car and enjoy driving it home. This becomes a little more difficult if you're buying a used Porsche from a Porsche dealership...

Good luck!!