Okay, long post, but I think you should all enjoy this.
So back in the first week of June, I purchased my 2000 Boxster online, off of Ebay. I am in New York, and the dealership is in Dallas, TX. I had the car checked out by AutoCritics, they gave it a 150 point inspection, and I checked the background on the dealership--everything checked out, so I made the bid, and purchased the vehicle.
Enter the drama.
I immediately left for 2 months for a US Air Force language program in north africa. I was expecting delivery of the Porsche on August 1st, the day I got back from this 2 month trip to Tunisia.
Upon returning to the states, I found that the vehicle was nowhere to be seen. I couldn't understand why these people wouldn't have shipped my car, especially since 10 days prior I had emailed and received confirmation that it would be shipped. I tried contacting the dealership through email and phone calls, to no avail. Starting to get worried, I called the local Dallas authorities, and began to piece things together.
After 5 days of research, making phone calls, and losing sleep over the fact that my precious new boxster was lost in the workings, I found out that the dealership had gone out of business, and that all of the cars were reposessed.
GREEEEEEAT.
Time to start calling the towing company that took away all of the cars from this dealership. When I called them, and asked about the Porsche, the lady on the phone at the towing place sounded surprised to hear me ask about it. She thought it was a joke, because they towed every single car EXCEPT for the Porsche, since the owner was driving it that day.
So to me, stuck in NY with no car, I pictured this **************************** driving my car, and spending my $25,000. Oh, and meanwhile my bank is calling me up wondering where the title to this vehicle was, so they could perfect the loan. The plot doth thicken, my friends.
After contacting the FBI to see if they could help me find these people, and after talking to insurance companies and the like, I get a phone call around the 8th of August.
"Is Kevin there?"
-yea
"This is CDI transport...sir, we've got a truck about 2 hours from Syracuse...and there's a Porsche on the back with your name on it."
-No ****************!
So lo and behold, the Porsche gets delivered to me, with body damage and a rough running engine, leading me to believe it was joy-ridden while I was doing military service in Africa. That's another issue all together, though.
But then enters another problem...there was no title with the vehicle. Back to square one. I called DMV of Texas to find out who the car was registered to, and called this new contact. Turns out he had sold the car to a dealership that had sold the car to an auction that had sold the car to the dealership that I had bought it from.
You can imagine the new train of phone calls!
I finally called the auction place, and they gave me the number of their insurance company. They in turn turned me on to a floor-planning company in Massachusetts. (A floor-planning company gives money to a dealership to buy their inventory of cars).
And it was there that I found the title for the vehicle. And it was also there that I entered into my new profession of legal work.
They didn't want to give me the title, because the dealership in Dallas never paid THEM for the car. It took me talking to 5 lawyers for advice (luckily they were all family friends, or else it would have cost a fortune) until I researched ON MY OWN to find that Article 9, section 312 paragraph 7 of the Uniform Commercial Code gave me all legal rights to the title. And they laid claim to a $200,000 lawsuit against this dealership (I guess they borrowed a lot of money...), meaning that the title was caught up in what could potentially be years of legal paperwork and court dates. I asserted that their problems with the dealership had NOTHING to do with me, and that I was a good faith purchaser, and legally entitled to the title of this porsche.
But they didn't want to hear it. It was going to cost me $3,000 to persue this issue in court. And meanwhile the Boxster is unregistered, getting roughly $2,400 worth of work just to the engine to get it running again. And I won't be able to drive it, because I can't register it without the title! Imagine having a Boxster in your garage for months without being able (legally
to drive it!
After 4 days of being in a stalemate, fearing that they would reposess the car that I legally bought, and fearing that it would be months before this issue was resolved, I finally found the attorneys for this floorplanning company, and called them. I figured it was worth a shot, since my own lawyer was going to call me back later in the day to offically start the lawsuit to get my title.
I presented my case to their attorneys, told them where in the legal code I fell, and that my claim superceded their own to the title.
And after 17 days of fighting for this vehicle....they agreed to send the title.
!!!!!!
So today, ladies and gentlemen, is officially the first day that I have owned the boxster that I bought 3 months ago.
I figured I'd tell this story to give those of you bored at work like me something to read, and also to relay the drive that we all have, I'm sure, to fight to the tooth to own and care for our coveted Porsche Boxsters.
Also, this is a warning to do your homework, and I would even suggest being overly-cautious with purchasing things on Ebay.
Thanks for your time!
-Kevin
Before that I looked at the boxsters in texas from the same people you did. Lucky for me the cars were to expensive. So I kept looking around and found one close to me. The guy drove me meet me half way and he sounded nice on the phone. I was so nervous not knowing anything about this car. It does have a few problems like the ac does not work it blows hot air and it is rusting by the vents on the side of the car. At least it will be a easy fix since I do all my own work on the car. I know now I will go look at a car first. Thanks for the story and I am glad you are driving your car
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