6% off MSRP?

[Brucelee]

Thanks for the compliment on our site, it is appreciated!

Let me clear, I tell ALL my buyers that they will ALWAYS do better financially if they sell their car vs a trade. However, what they often tell me is:

They do not want the hassle of the sales process, or:

They want my car now and they cannot or will not handle two cars at once.

So, as I was trying to say, horses for courses.

Really, from my personal perspective, I would rather avoid trades but do it as it is a necessity of the business.

Originally Posted by graybeard

Brucelee

I do hear what you are saying. I plan on listing it in the local papers where the buyer can see and feel it. I would love to see the smile on their face as they as they leave in a great car at a good price. The trade in on the car plus the tax break is not realy that bad, as a last resort just would prefer seeing someone getting a good deal without passing it through additional hands, no offense. I've sold my last two vehicles via private party and both times I've put a little extra in my pocket and felt very comfortble knowing they did well also. You sell car and I'm certain you understand.

I do enjoy this site immensely!

[Perfectlap]

My boxster was purchased on Ebay! The auction ended on A monday I checked it out Saturday morning in person before the auction ended. Here in NJ cars have six month power train warranties, otherwise I wouldn't have gone through Ebay. The auction ended without a reserve being met. I negotiated a price, we relisted and I did the instant purchase. I got a limited period no interest from the bank for purcahsing the car through ebay. The dealership held onto my car in the show room for a couple weeks while I sold my old car (also on Ebay). I had over a dozen emails the first day and an add posted on Miata.net resulted in a phone call within ONE MINUTE of my sending the add. The old car was sold within a week and the new owner even gave me a ride to pick up the Boxster!
A flawless experience.

Although I would never buy sight unseen, ALLOT of people don't agree. The rate at which cars are sold on ebay is surpassing any other form of non-traditional sales. We may think its not prudent but somebody out there is making allot of money.

by the way I referring to the highest KBB private owner price (a car in EXCELLENT condition).

[Brucelee]

The way you purchased is the way to go. But that is not an auction process, correct!

Good job!

[Brucelee]

BTW-I reviwed completed postings for last week on a 1999 Porsche 911 Carrera 4. I will be listing this car on EBAY this week. My listing is for advertising purposes only, I do not expect to actually sell via a bid process.

There were 15 cars listed. ONE sold at somewhere around KBB Wholesale value. The other 14 did not sell, mostly receiving no bids or having a top bid that was thousands under KBB trade value.

As I said at least for Porsche, EBAY has a very low success percentage and yields nowhere near PPT value for the sales it does produce.

[ranbar2]

BTW, on the issue of trade in value, I went to the local dealer to look at a new 987S on Saturday. Just for giggles, I asked what they would give me for a trade in on my 2000S with 35K miles. Now, I did have to get the hood replaced after a pickup truck backed into me and the tow ball put a fist sized dent in it. The body shop apparantly repainted parts of the doors and front fenders to get a smooth color match. Since then I have had the car checked out by an independant shop specializing in porsches (Dave White in Tampa, for any of you in the area) and they said the car was in perfect condition. Now KBB has a 2000S in "Good" condition, which, given the hood replacement, I would categorize mine as (otherwise it would be "Excellent") at $22,300. Even "Fair" came in at $20,200. Citing the repaint, which the tech couldn't even see without his special light, the dealer offered me $18,900. I laughed out loud and told the salesman that that was in insult. Not that I was going to trade anyway, but that was REALLY lowball.

They WERE willing to take nearly 4k off the sticker, though (the KBB difference?). But no free floor mats ($115). And CC was $550.

[Brucelee]

Two quick points!

A Porsche with ANY paintwork is marked down by any dealer, generally in the thousands. Natue of the car I am afraid. Most high line cars suffer this fate.

Question? What Blue Book values are you referring to? Trade, PPT or what?

Keep in mind that dealers will offer you somewhere around auction value, a number that is not available to the public. This is because a dealer can go to the auction and buy a car like yours there for that price.

[ranbar2]

That was trade value on kbb.com for zip code 33604, default values except single cd instead of cassette.

[Brucelee]

Due to the current glut of Boxsters in some areas of the country, actual trade values are trailing KBB data by a wide margin. This can be seem by the asking prices for private sellers, which trail PPT KBB values by a wide margin.

Such is life in the marketplace.

For other cars, this is not the case. Trade values on BMW 3 series for example are strong vis a vie KBB numbers.

Go figure!

[Brucelee]

More:

KBB trade value for a 2001 Porsche 911 Turbo with 35K miles

$74500.

What a dealer will give you right now-

$65-68K.

Ouch.

[ranbar2]

Private sales and used dealer sales are still in the upper $20's for 2000 S's in my area. A year ago you couldn't touch an S for under $30k and most were a few thousand over that. And I thought the depreciation slowed down after a while!!

[Ronzi]

My hat is off to Brucelee and Perfectlap for conducting their discussion like gentlemen. Too often disagreements of this nature degenerate into flaming matches.
A little over a year ago I did some preliminary dickering with a Porsche dealer on a nice 13k mile '99 Boxster that was going for something like $25k, at the time a decent ( I felt) dealer dead-of-winter price.
Just for giggles I discussed trading in my '81 911SC. Obviously there isn't any kind of dependable "book" price for a car that old, but I was just curious about what kind of screwing I would take if I did trade it in. They offered me something on the order of $7,000, and weren't too enthusiastic about that. I later sold the car to a local buyer for about $14k after posting it on Cars.com. The nice thing is that a year later the buyer still loves the car, which is a good thing, especially considering I have to look him in the eye every month at the Porsche club meeting.
I have to say that my opinion of buying a Porsche on eBay is much like Brucelee's ... as a buyer I feel you are playing Russian roulette with thousand dollar bills. Having said that, I must also admit that I came within probably 24hrs of buying a Boxster, sight unseen, off eBay about a month after I sold the SC.

[Brucelee]

Thanks for your kind words. I think this site is unique, in that we really do have folks who conduct themselves appropriately. I try to envision someone sitting across from me having a beer as I write my reponses.

How angry can you get at a guy who enjoys beer?