Wasn't sure how much I wanted to divulge about selling my Spyder, but decided to go all the way. So here goes a long winded adventure.
Let me start by saying the car mkt is crashing. It's not all the way in freefall but it's close. It's been dropping for months. I had the Spyder done in late Feb and hoped to have it sold by Mar or Apr. The Spyder mkt is more niche than I anticpated and pricing is highly dependent on which trans, which seats, and what color it is. Mine was the least desirable on all three - PDK, sofa (sport) seats, and black. I knew that going in and never had it priced like a manual, carbon buckets, blue car, but it was nearly impossible to get bites. I kept lowering my price and still no offers. Apr turned into May, turned into June.
Pcarmarket always calls me when I have a Porsche for sale and I've always turned them down. I don't think they're as good as BAT, but they have a nicer bunch of commentors than the peanut gallery at BAT. Pcar called in June about listing my Spyder. There was a similar Spyder that just sold on BAT for $56K that was owned by the famous reseller that works with PCA for YT content. I thought why not give Pcar a chance? My biggest hangup with them was if your car didn't sell, you had to keep it in deal tank for 3 wks, meaning you couldn't advertise it anywhere else during that time. They said all I was required was to keep it in deal tank for 2 days so they could work with bidders on any deals. Sounded good, so I signed up.
Some OK bids during the wk of the auction, but the action always happens in the last hr. When happy hr finally came, there was some action but bids only got to $47K. My reserve (and what I had in it) was $54. 2 days later a bid for $48 appeared, but I didn't accept it. Put ads back up in PCA classifieds and FB Marketplace b/c those were the places where I'd gotten the most nibbles, as well as leaving it in deal tank. About two wks later I got a call from Pcar saying someone had offered $50 and they thought there might still be some more avail. Not wanting to be greedy, I said I'd go $51 and they agreed. Quite a tight haircut on the transaction, but sometimes you gotta face the music. Why wait for another $1K that's not going to come? Plus I was running out of $$$, having just wiped out my last batch of savings to pay 2nd half of property taxes on my house.
Several phone calls with the buyer, who's a guy from L.A. buying it for his GF (he's 66). They would be driving a rental out from LA and would be arriving on a Thu. They got a little later start so they didn't arrive until a little after 5pm on Thu. He was paying w/ cash and I needed the bank to count and verify his stash. Bank lobby was closed by the time they arrived so they stayed overnight and we got the transaction done Fri morning w/ no issues. They headed out for a fun drive home.
Get Punkin out of storage an hr after they leave. She's been in storage since Dec and it was good to have her back. Then things turn to ****************. Around 5:30pm my time, the phone rings and it's the buyer. That's never good (and it wasn't). He said the dash showed a msg about the trans temp was too hot. Several phone calls back and forth followed. In between, I was googling the msg. Many threads popped up, all saying it was the temp sensor and if you waited 10 min it would go away (for the time being). But the buyer said there was fluid under the car. That wasn't good. Also, his girlfriend was screaming that I had to come out and get the car and give them their money back. If I didn't, she'd sue me. And she was convinced my local Posrche dealership had messed up the PDK fluid change and that's why there was a problem. Needless to say, this was extremely stressful on a heart attack survivor.
I had the cell # of our local service mgr and call it since the dealer was closed. He said a sensor problem had happened before but they hadn't had a lot of luck fixing them as the new sensor has to be programed to the PDK with their PIWIS and it could take many multiple attempts. That's why they didn't generally take on those jobs. He also thought it was odd there'd be fluid leaking so he wanted to know if it was leaking by the drain plug or if they'd run over something that punctured the pan. Called the buyer back and he said the fluid was by the pedals / firewall. What? Was there a break in a cooling line? When I asked him to look again, he said the fluid was gone. Oh, it was water from the AC. And GF was still screaming mad.
They were 50 mi east of Denver. They were at an exit that had a hotel. We decided to have them tow it to the hotel, stay overnight, and we could figure something out. I started looking at Porsche dealers in Denver and there was one in downtown that had their service dept open on Sat. Called them back and they would tow it to them in the morning, which they do. The dealer didn't have a master mechanic working on Sat so they couldn't figure out what's wrong until Mon morning.
So we start making plans. I was going to fly them home but they wanted to rent a car so they could still stop by and see her sister. I rent them a car ($1100) and they head out of Denver. Now we wait until Mon. In the meantime, I'm looking at other options if Denver doesn't work out. There's a shop in ATL that is renowned for working on PDKs. But if I have to ship the Spyder to ATL, I'm going to have to refund the buyer's money, spend a bunch of $$$ I don't have, and then try to resell the Spyder when it's done. Or spend $20K on a replacement PDK from Porsche. None of these were good options.
Late Mon I get a video from the dealer. They can replace the sensor and it will be $2500 to do so. I call them and say they're authorized to do so. They say the part will arrive Thu and they should be able to have it fixed by Fri or Mon. Cool. Call the buyer to let them know and said I'd fly to Denver when it was fixed, drive it to LA, and fly home. He said he was OK if I wanted to ship it to LA and he sent a link to a carrier that he uses (he restores old 911s and evidently used this company when he ships). Their est for shipping in a covered trailor was $1200 and they could pick up the Spyder on Wed. Perfect, as that would give the dealer some extra time if needed.
Thu arrives and no word if the part arrived. No word on Fri so late in the day I call the serv mgr. She called back but didn't know anything - not if the part arrived or if it was installed. She called back on Sat and said the car would be done on Mon. Tue morning I get a call saying it was done and everything was fine. I pay $2700 and am happy to do so. Carrier contacts me and says the driver won't arrive until Thu. OK, whatever, I'm just glad the car's ready. The whole time I've been keeping the buyer informed. Thu arrives but don't hear about any driver arriving. I call the carrier Fri morning and they don't know. Around 5pm the serv mgr calls and says they just loaded the car and it's on it's way to LA. Will take 3 days. Not home yet but getting close and now out of my hands.
Late afternoon Mon the Spyder arrives in LA. They go for a drive over to the ocean and catch the sunset. GF is happy.
I'm happy too, but another $5K lighter. And contrary to popular belief, PDKs ARE NOT indestructible.
2001 Boxster S
Linear Mode
