Buying: P-dealer or no....
 

It took me a couple of months to find/buy our Boxster-S. I used all the resources: cars.com, autotrader.com, EbayMotors and the P-dealers natiional listing service. I tried to look at major newspapers but the listings are hard to find and must be so expensive that a listing had crap like: "2001 Porcha, ex cond, PS,Cnvt, Blk, 22k, $35,000 ph222.555.2222 aft.9pm"

I contacted a couple of P-dealers but the feeling I got was that I was looking for a table in a 3-star resturant at 9pm in Manhattan. I ended up at a Chevy dealer in CT. They bought cars from Manheim Auction released from Porsche Leasing. The reason I felt comfortable: 1) the car was still under factory warranty for another 8mos. ... 2) the mileage was low at 15k ... 3) they didn't have a clue about the options, so they didn't mark it up further. We looked at it: it was perfect: we drove it home. A week later I had my P-dealer do a Certified Inspection, of course, without the benefit of the actual extended warranty...but we both knew the condition of the car. And other than normal maint.; it's remained the same.

In buying a 997: I did all the above. When I called the P-dealer in Lauderdale I spoke to a Maitre de who only served Kobe beef, one in Naples FL (there are a lot of good Porsches in FL..) didn't bother to return my call. The most productive exotic dealer in S.FL seemed to be FormulaOneSportsCars in Miami. They must buy direct from leasing companies; everything priced very well, and low miles. They moved about five 997s in the month I was talking to them. ...they just never had the right color combo for me.

I (we..ahem) had our heart set on another Seal Gray but most of the interiors we found were Black and Gray ...or great cars: with a frickin' slush box!? After waiting what seemed like too long a time, I re-focused to finding an interior I wanted - then seeing if I could live with the exterior. Cars.com had a Cocoa interior/Silver exterior at a P-dealer in Cleveland. Oh god...not these people again!

What a surprise. It's actually, Porsche of North Olmstead; recently bought out by a crew of young guys from New England. Bernie Moreno is the owner...39...and you'd think he'd be comfortable running a hedge fund. In 90sec. we came to a price that would have me coming on a plane the next Sat. with a bag of $$. The ticket was R/T..just in case.

Chris Sanner, their primary P-salesman (they also have the MB franchise) picked me up and in little over an hour I was on I-80 headed back to Maryland. I can't stress enough how good these guys were to deal with. Not only was the car fully detailed as you'd expect, but they did an annual service and replace key batteries without prompting or extra charge. The Cert. Inspection was done ..and I got the bonus of the extra 2yrs of warranty. With other P-dealers, I would walk away from the extra warranty because it seemed like they tacked on another $5-10k over-market for being permitted to buy from them in the first place. So, as much fun as it seems to be, to 'generalize' in this country anymore, I've a new appreciation for at least one Porsche dealer.

J i m
Salisbury MD

So what year is it? At what price did you get it? What are the options? Mileage? :confused:

seriously, all that reading and the reader is left with no reward :rolleyes: where's the pics?!

....2005 ...997-S ..10k..full Cocoa leather, chronos, heat, memory, Bose, Certified, yatta-yatta... but I'm shy about disscussing money. It was a lot, obviously, but the only way I could justify one was waiting for those first two years of depreciation to take their toll. The next two years will be killers too, but who knows what health brings... My wife had a scare this year.

So, Screw It: I'm not a fool who'll end up living in my car 'cause I can't control my Home Shoping Network addiction but I ain't going for the long-sleep leaving a pile of cash behind neither...

Here's the inside.... Love it.

Jim

http://wetstuff.com/ideas/911_cocoa.jpg

Congrats Jim on your purchase. While I am new to the rare air of Porsche ownership, I have always found it satisfying to pay a little extra for the right car.

I also wanted to pass on my purchase story. I looked for 4 mo for my Boxster. I had to have a Lapis exterior, so that cut down the possible candidates but I was willing to go anywhere to buy. I found one at a P-Dealer in Dallas. We had a deal done in 2 phone calls and that included a negotiated price for my trade-in! I didn't just give away my car. I felt it was a fair deal for both sides. I was out of the dealership in about an hr. I thanked the salesman for not trying to squeeze a few more bucks out of me, because it probably would have killed the deal. He said our time was more important than that. The dealership -- Boardwalk Porsche in Plano.

The factory warranty was expiring when I bought the car in July 05, but it came with the 2yr extended warranty. I'm glad I've got it because it needed a few repairs back in Jan. My dealer in Omaha (Woodhouse) has been excellent to deal with. I heard horror stories about the previous P-Dealer in Omaha. I guess I'm lucky or maybe Porsche is talking the Lexus approach to ownership.

Have fun with the 997.

Terry

[QUOTE=wetstuff]The next two years will be killers too, but who knows what health brings... My wife had a scare this year.

So, Screw It: I'm not a fool who'll end up living in my car 'cause I can't control my Home Shoping Network addiction but I ain't going for the long-sleep leaving a pile of cash behind neither...

Here's the inside.... Love it.

Jim


nice ride, I used similar reasoning when I bought my car, had a friend that died at 30.....figured you can go whenever so enjoy while you are here right?

from the sounds of it you are allready enjoying.....

That interior looks yummy! :p

Terry: Your story is what I was trying to elicit when I posted mine. It was quite a learning curve to arrive 'green' when buying an unconventional car like a Porsche. Not that it's got three wheels, but things like the option list being 'One-from-column-A/one-from-colum-B' when most other car package, or bundle, options into groups. I guess you could say 'S' is a group however..

It seems there are clusters of good - at least well promoted - used cars. S.Florida is one, Dallas another...and certainly SoCal. I've always been impressed with the effort those people in TX make to sell a car. I guess it's a domino-effect: good players make better players...

There was an '05 997-S in Oshkosh WI that I was half interested in..but it had a black interior. The guy paid over $95k ...had 10k ...but you knew he was going to have to take a $25k, or better, hit on it to make it leave Oshkosh. Wisconsin is my old home, and a great place to live, but it's not really P-Country.

Cheers all ...'gotta go feed the hides.

jim