Where to buy from private sellers?

[Maxodus]

...besides Craigslist, autotrader.com and cars.com, where else can i find a large concentration of private sellers for the Boxster? i notice most people i contact are independent dealers, who are not always reliable.

Maxodus, are you a Porsche Club of America member? Your local section should have a news letter, and they usually have a "For Sale" section.

You can find the link to you local PCA from this web site www.pca.org.

[Brucelee]

Originally Posted by Maxodus

...besides Craigslist, autotrader.com and cars.com, where else can i find a large concentration of private sellers for the Boxster? i notice most people i contact are independent dealers, who are not always reliable.

You should act like ALL sellers are "unreliable" and proceed accordingly.

[Maxodus]

...thanks for the pointer yeah i've been thinking about PCA too, but unsure about the amount of inventories they have there as it requires membership before you can view the classifieds. anyone has experiences in this?

[Maxodus]

Originally Posted by Brucelee

You should act like ALL sellers are "unreliable" and proceed accordingly.

...totally agree!

[racer_d]

Carmax?

Sure there are the various internet sites, local "high end" dealers, consignment shops, auctions, the newspaper, "want ad" press rags in the supermarket. But there isn't one "be all end all" place to search for your car.

You will find both independant dealers and private dealers can be unreliable. The boxster has been around for 10 years. Globally, some 200,000 have been produced. They have gone from "near exotic" $40K cars to become $15k cheap convertibles. Many Boxsters now are bought and sold quickly as the realization of high mantenance costs discourages the owner who can't really afford the car, but got into it "cheaply", to flip it.

Take the time to learn as much about the Boxster to weed out BOTH owner types and the cars they are selling.

PCA nationals website mart section is not that big. You will find maybe a dozen or so boxsters listed there. And, they will be premium $$ because most PCA owners are more meticulous with their cars than the average person. Are there cars "worth the premium"? only you can decide. It costs $42 to join PCA and if you are serious about Porsche ownership and getting the most from your car (driving events) and social events, its a great place to be a part of.

[Ronzi]

According to the number of "hits" on a "Boxster" search in the current PCA cars for sale listing, there are 42 Boxsters for sale, although one of them appears to be further described as a "1975 911S". Anyway, there are a bunch, but not nearly as many as the commercial sales sites.
As racer_d says, PCA members tend to think a lot of their cars, so expect the asking price to be higher than might be the case otherwise. Are the cars better? Maybe.

[7th gear]

Originally Posted by racer_d

...PCA nationals website mart section is not that big. You will find maybe a dozen or so boxsters listed there. And, they will be premium $$ because most PCA owners are more meticulous with their cars than the average person. Are there cars "worth the premium"? only you can decide. It costs $42 to join PCA and if you are serious about Porsche ownership and getting the most from your car (driving events) and social events, its a great place to be a part of.

my $0.02?? listen to brucelee's post.

i enlisted a car broker at one point in my porsche quest. he sent me picts of a pca owner's car. immediately, i put that car hi in my expectations. he called me back in a week and dropped that particular car when he told me he did a carfax on it and the speedometer was different than what was listed.

i actually dropped the broker in the end because while i had him i continued searching on my own. oddly enough we happened upon the same car in our searches. there was a $4.5 k difference of opinion.

bottom line .... read up on your data and make your mind up after the ppi, carfax, test drive ... etc.

[70Sixter]

I have used Autobytel. Not to actually buy, but rather to get an idea what people are asking and from how far away.

Some dealer sites were great, others did not even post asking price. One ************************************ in Florida posted to "e-mail for price." I did and his answer was "Call me at 1-800-UPYOURS. I bought from a dealer with a great, honest website.

PCA is nice in that you can usually get a fellow member to check out a car in his/her area before you pay for a PPI.