How many folks buy new?
 

When it comes to Porsche, how many of you are buying new cars of the show room floor verses buying used?

Was it by choice or did cost keep you away from new?

I have owned several over the years and honestly, while having a good job, I could not justify spending 70K or more on a sports car only to see its value drop.

I find the small cost in restoring a car to "like new" gives me both satisfaction in working with my hands and learning the ins and outs of it at a fraction of the cost.

Your thoughts?

I agree absolutely. I bought my first Porsche, a 2001 Boxster last spring. I would not consider new. Being a used car I can afford to fix things slowly. New does not really have advantages except a Porsche warranty. If it is secondhand, minor parking rash does not me bother as much. :cool:

Choice keeps me away -- I suppose I could afford to buy new, I just can personally justify it to myself when "gently used" is good enough for me.

I have never bought a new car. Just doesn't make financial sense to me; I always buy at least 3 years old, let it take a good depreciation ding, and pay cash. Although my Boxster is the oldest car I have ever bought!

Also never had a lemon this way -- PPI is your friend, I've had a few that would have gone bad (including a Boxster I didn't pull the trigger on).

PPI? Certification? As my three decades in the business friend says "don't mean nuttin". Reason? Any certification is only as honest and correct as the performing dealer. In other words it's like thinking all the myriad of clean car faux nonsense have all never had a single touch up...riiiiiight. At the moment the used market is short of stock and over priced, toss the tax on and its way over 70 for a used almost new car but for a few exceptions.

Unless you own your own business I can not see a single compelling argument that would justify skipping a CPO luxury car. It has to be one of the more irrational things a person can do with their money next to signing on the dotted line for a credit card. You simply will not enter into a worse agreement where the other party is the winner by a long way.

I thought this view would be less compelling the more money I made but the opposite has been true. Even if I were a multi-millionaire, buying an extotic like a $250K Ferrari requires that my net worth exceed five million. The top 0.01%. Think about how many who aren't worth anywhere near that are driving around in cars costing not much less than the Ferrari.

p.s.
Sorry to call a Porsche a luxury car but when a 991 Carrera S sells for more than house in some parts I'm not sure that's entirely a sports car anymore.

Me neither. Best deal I made on a car was an Opel Manta I bought for $350 when I was in college. Put well over 75000 miles on it. Car would go over 100 mph easily and was fairly fun to drive.

I like cool cars, but I hate paying money for them. They are always wasting assets. Let someone else take the depreciation, I'll take the fun.

In the past I've always purchased my vehicles new. However, while contemplating the purchase of a new boxster back in 2004, I came across a pristine '02 with only 6k miles . The original window sticker was $62K, I bought it for $35k . It was a no brainer !

I have bought several new cars and have kicked myself for every time, they lose half their value within a year or 2

With this being a 986 forum, the data is going to be skewed.

I've done both.

I purchased my 2006 987S new. Custom order. Waited 7 long months for it to arrive.

Purchased my 1997 993TT used in 2009.

Both Porsches cost right about the same money.......only 13 years apart. Now the Boxster is worth less than half of the purchase price, and the Turbo has gone up in value since I purchased it, and received +20,000 smiles/miles in return.

I good with this.

Bought my '02 S in 2006 for half the sticker and only 7900 gentle miles. Now showing 21,000, it's been very kind to me...only money I've put in are voluntary mods and maintenance.

Good timing. They were practically giving away used Porsches that year.
Once in a life time credit crisis was a good time to have cash.

I buy new cars ... for my wife because that's what she likes, new.

Used for me though, last new car that I bought for myself was 1984.

New cars for my wife too. I only ever drive used, including Porsche. I have even bought two jeep wranglers and a pick up truck with reconstructed titles. I wouldn't buy a Porsche or other higher end car with a reconstructed title but with the wranglers, I drove each of them for more than a year and sold them for more than I paid. And yes, the buyers knew about the reconstructed titles.

I've bought 2 new Porsches and dozens of used ones. I refuse to buy another new Porsche until a 100,000 mile 10 year drivetrain warranty is available.

I always remember this quote when talking about new car smell...

"The glue and resin smell in new cars is formaldehyde, the same thing they use to preserve dead bodies. It’s in new houses and new furniture. It’s called off-gassing. You can inhale formaldehyde from new clothes. After you inhale enough, expect stomach cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea."

I bet that she gets the wooden hangers, and you get the wire ones ! :)

+1 Same for me.

:D:D:D

Wifey gets new, but always leases to pay as we drive (did I hear writeoff? :rolleyes:).

I have purchased a few cars new (including Box), but I do it with custom ordering. I think it should be on everyone's bucket list...like I said in the past, if customizing your cars give you the giddy feeling; imagine ordering every little detail the way your heart desires before the thing is born--->Priceless!

Oh...it is also a misconception that ordering a car will not allow any discounts. Sometimes, some dealers will offer even more discounts if they know they already have too much inventory, and you come along to take delivery of a vehicle before they "ready" it for the lot.

Oops...I put a smiley on Johnny's other quote by mistake. It should be for the "hangers" comment.:D:D:D

Agreed. $65k sticker, I paid $25k, 22k miles, CPO. Like-new Porsche for Toyota money? No brainier. Looking forward to finding a nice low mileage Cayman S someday.

By the way, the poll is missing an option: Used - I got an amazing car and SAVED more money than most people spend on their NEW cars.

I delight in informing the occasional supercilious "must be nice to have a Porsche" tool that I probably paid less for my car than he paid for his new shtbox.

I bought used. Most importantly, because I can't afford a new one right now. Secondly, even if I could afford it, I may have only bought a newer used one. I use mine as a daily driver and don't want to have to worry about dings/nicks from leaving it parked outside and/or in public parking lots.

I think later in life, when I settle down, and have a nice enough garage to park it in at night, I may buy a brand new one. But I'll still use it as a daily driver, so maybe not.

In 2008 I bought a used 2003 seal grey Boxster S for $26K, about 1/2 of what it sold for new. It had 14k miles on it and it was flawless. It was like a brand new car. Why pay over $50k when you can get a great car at 1/2 price. I have bought several new cars and trucks but I prefer to buy used and let someone else take that big depreciation hit in the first few years. It's bad enough that they keep losing value even when you buy them slightly used.

Very far from the truth for the 993 and 993 Turbo market. I started my search in 2007 and finally found my car in 2009. There are less than 500 examples of my car in the USA and during this search period, I was loosing out to a lot of European and Asian buyers.

But you are correct about having cash. It was king, and allowed you to pounce when a great car did hit the market.

I can afford new but, Haven't purchase a new car for more than 20 years. Something about the 10-25% the value drop as soon as ink is on the title drive me nuts.

Top Gear had a segment on buying used vs new. First, they tried out a brand new 7000 Pound ($15,000 US ?) econobox Toyota, that didn't even have carpets and drove like a dog! Then, they went out and tested used luxury cars that were selling for the same price. One was a Boxster, which they loved, subaru WRX, a Jaguar, even a Bentley turbo.

They eventually bought a BMW 850 series and a top end Mercedes (can't remember the model but it cost 90k+ Pounds new.) Bothelooked flawless in and out and drive like champs. They are going to do a long term test of the cars.

So yes, its a no brainer, buy used.

Dude, we've drive a Porsche, even the dog has wooden hangers! :)

New everything - but Porsches. There's too much depreciation on luxury cars to buy new.

Every time I read another post about "driving it the way the Dr. intended" or bragging about how fast they ran on the track, I thank goodness I bought my car new. And half the used cars don't even have proper service records. No way would I buy a used one.

1) My 08 Cayman wasn't a $70K car to begin with, it was $55K to start. I think $55K was too high an asking price for this car, let alone $70K;

2) I bought it new from the snow-covered dealer's lot at the bottom of the car market while the dealer was grossly overstocked and desperate to sell cars. The desperation discount was well into 5 figures and thus the price I paid "new" was less than what I see similar 08 Caymans selling for as used cars today;

3) If you buy the car you want and keep it for 10 years, you don't worry about the drop in value because you bought it new; meanwhile, YOU know your car has had all the proper maintenance and has never been abused;

4) Meanwhile, if something does go wrong, you have the manufacturer to back you up at least for a while. I still have another year that I don't have to worry about my IMS breaking and costing me half or 3/4 the value of the car, and after that I may invest in an extended warranty;

5) Last but not least, due to technology creep, my base Cayman has equivalent power to a Cayman S of just a few years earlier. To try to increase the power of an older Cayman S up to my level, that Cayman S owner would need to invest several thousand in mods that might or might not be successful and might blow up the engine in the process.

I would buy new now that I have the taste. Sincethis was my first Porsche I went low price fun car. I should be able to sell mine for what I have in it this spring. Depending on several factors over next couple of years I will be looking in the snow around Jan. early Feb. for a new Boxster then put mine up for sale in spring.

I would only pay cash since the interest would jack the cost of the car up even more.

The rarer 993's held up well but according to Excellence the more run of the mill 993's were still near - 12% to -15% hit from the top of the credit bubble in 2007 to the bust in 2009. Albeit not as bad as the 996's some of which fell from the $50-60K range by nearly $20-$25k in just those two years. I was surprised to see, contrary to popular belief, that well maintaned 2.7 and 3.2 986's were only in the -18% to - 20% range for that time.

Someone taught me not to put serious money into depreciating assets. Which may be why I have assets.

I could have afforded to buy new both times I bought Boxsters and I had in fact bought a 914 new in '70 for $3600 but I learned the lesson selling it 2 years later for around $2200. I elected not to buy the Boxsters new and had 95% of the fun for well less than half the price...or maybe it was more fun because I wasn't afraid to work on it and didn't feel I had to visit the dealership for every little thing.

And even in a 10 year old car I was still getting complements.

I've been watching this thread and haven't been sure how to respond to it as I've done both (I didn't vote because none of the choices fit me). Many have made good points about buying used vs new. If you would've asked me 4 1/2 yrs ago if I'd buy a $60K car, I'd have said you were crazy. But I saw Punkin and her 005 serial number and had to have her. It took me almost 2 mo to assure myself I should go for it, but I did. Will I buy another new Porsche? Maybe. I saw an orange Cayman R that got me thinking...

I bought my Cayman used off of ebay. Got it for a good price. Like JohnS said, it's hard to know how it was treated by the prev owner. I'm somewhat less concerned because she had 2 yrs left on her CPO when I bought her. But there are question marks.

The best way I can sum it up: Punkin is my baby, Carmen is my girlfriend.

All high end autos take a huge price drop after being purchased. That's what you pay to own a new auto.:ah:

Me, I like a good pre-owned. Broke in and no luxury tax to be paid.

I would never buy new it just seems to be a waste of money and for what? I love working on cars as a hobby which has given me the opportunity to own cars that would normally be way out of my price range. I am 36 now and have owned 28 cars all German, Italian, and a little sprinkle of Land Rovers. Of those 28, 7 were P-cars. I have been lucky and always made money on every car I ever got rid of. Tearing into a car and rebuilding them is my stress relief so I do not factor in that as time just therapy.