Experiences Purchasing Your Boxster On-Line?

Great story. One of the longest posts I have ever read! Great photo, thanks for sharing with the forum. You have learned a lot the past 6 months...and had fun doing it! That's what life is made of!

[Brucelee]

Originally Posted by rbennett

cplus, I would never ever buy a Porsche sight unseen, as tempted as I was, you were very lucky indeed

I would always buy from a reputable dealer as Bruce, Porsche Dealer or an enthusiast and always with a PPI.

Hope it holds up well!!!

Thank you!

[MNBoxster]

Hi,

I found my Boxster online in St. Louis, but from a Broker's Site in Mar. '05. Fortunately for me, I have a very knowledgeable friend in the Area (President of Lotus LTD. - National Lotus Club) and he kindly agreed to check out the Car.

On his lunch hour, Mark visited the Car and called me on his cell right from the Brokerage. His first words were: "Jim, the Car's basically PERFECT, there's not a mark on it... if it turns out that you're not interested, I may pick it up for my wife..." Mark then arranged to have the Car PPI'd from the best Independent Porsche Mechanic in the Area, while I made my deal and did my due dilligence.

In my research, I found that the Car had been owned from new by the Sister-in-Law of the Owner of Isinghausen Porsche in Springfield, IL. It had been serviced there exclusively and stored there each winter. Because of a surplus of Used Cars at Isringhausen (limited Market), 25 had been moved to this Brokerage outside St. Louis. They Faxed me all Service Records and CarFax confirmed Mileage - 17k mi., and Certified the Car.

I made my deal with the Broker, wired a deposit, along with money to have all the fluids replaced by the Porsche Mechanic and bought a Plane Ticket to St. Louis.

Arrived in St. Louis at 9am, jumped the Light Rail across the River where the Broker picked me up. I looked the Car over, took a Test Drive, completed the Sale and paperwork, and was on the Road back to Mpls @ 10:45am, where I enjoyed a 9-hour return trip through the rolling Wisc. Countryside - 80 degrees, sun shining, Top Down...

Sounds too good to be true, but these Cars are out there. The amount of enjoyment and assurance of trouble-free driving are directly proportional to the amount of time and effort you put in up front.

Ebay sells a lot of good Cars, I've sold several there myself. But, also a lot of Dogs! Only Due Dilligence on your part can separate the two...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

[bimmerbat]

I have made several purchase transactions through ebay and have mostly been displeased by the experiences.

My first one was a 540iT from Boston. There was a dual purpose to this as my wife was interested in a cross-country road trip vacation back to LA. After several calls with the seller (wholesaler), I was assured the car would be in strong mechanical shape with just a few scratches, and just over the 50K warranty. Given the winning price, I felt it seemed to be a pretty good deal, I completed the funds transaction. When we arrived a week later, an associate of the seller picked us up from the airport to take us to the car and it was definitely not a looker. It looked like it was picked up from the car auction and had sat at a rented lot until then. Nothing had been done to clean any part of the car and from closer inspection, the few scratches looked like the car had been through a sand storm with pitted windshield and headlamps. It was too late to turn back since he already had my cash. I sold it 2 few years later with full disclosure of the exterior on ebay.

My 2nd ebay purchase was my '01 Boxster. I was in the market for a Z4, but decided to stop in and test drive one when I passed by a Dealer. I won't say it was a night and day difference, but the Z4 was definitely not as entertaining to drive as the Boxster. I found a Boxster with the right color and options the next day on ebay from a wholesaler/dealer with a listing that would end in a few days. It only had 31K miles, with 9 months of warranty left. Having some remaining warranty was assurance for me on coverage for possible expensive repairs or if I decide to purchase an extended warranty. Despite not being an S model, it is hard to find the right combination of color and other options so I won the bid and had the car shipped back to me from NJ. I saved about $10K over dealer cars that were less well equipped with similar mileage and model year-even with the hefty cost of the covered transport! The car was fully detailed in and out with just one or two scratches and no door dings.

The only problem areas:
The bumper is slightly skewed, probably due to a mishap with a concrete parking stop. The clutch was in bad shape for 30K mileage, so I had a dealer replace it (at my cost). The 18" turbo wheels had been touched up by the seller (the transporter told me the guys were still touching up the wheels when he got there)
so they look great from 5 feet away.

The latest purchase of another 540iT was not as smooth either, but that is another long story. The bottom line is that you may be able to find a unique car with all the right options from a broader marketplace than trying to source one regionally only.