Experiences Purchasing Your Boxster On-Line?

[Perfectlap]

I've sold 7 or 8 cars on ebay but never thought I would buy one there, especially not a Porsche.
The car was listed by an local ebay seller, an Acura dealer. The previous owner barely touched it so I thought it was worth driving down to look at.
The car didn't sell by literaly like $150! That close to letting it slip away
The salesman and I had no idea what we were doing, we couldn't even figure out how to see the engine. I took a risk without a certified inpsection but the car was showroom new, obviously a Sunday driver that only saw 2,500 miles a year but more importantly New Jersey imposes a 6 month power train warranty on used car dealers. That took a major bite out of the fear factor. A very good law from a business point.


I called the next day even though I was busy as heck and made an offer thru email. They emailed a counter offer and we went back and forth until they caved.
I came that weekend and they relisted it and I closed the deal in the showroom on their laptop and gave the smiling salesmen a check.
The high bidder who didn't meet the reserve must have been sleeping or found something else or got cold feet. My salesman was a young new hire who was put in charge of starting ebay sales so he was eager to sell and even agreed to keep the Boxster in their spare showroom for two weeks until I sold my Miata which I also sold thru ebay for twice the private seller book value after pulling the auction to sell to someone who was adamant about buying it. He flew up from Florida to Jersey gave me cash jumped in and drove right back to florida. Sad to see the Black land shak with BBS wheels go but I wasn't sad because I was getting something better! The new owner even drove me to pick up the BoxsterS.

I paid $30K for my 2000 S late last year. It was the silver and red which I'd been wanting ever since I first became Porsche fan. (I'm an interior car neat freak no black for me thanks) And havent seen many low mileage S models in this color since. I could have gone with a Boxster that was a few years newer but with only 10,000 miles I thought: why? It looks like all the other 986's. Which freed me up to add over $5K in mods

[RandallNeighbour]

My experience with my ebay purchase of my 97 boxster is widely known on this board, so I won't go into it as I don't feel the need to shame myself one more time.

The seller lied to me in the listing and on the phone. He knew nothing about the car and was just buying them at auction and flipping them as fast as he possibly could. Avoid any ebay power sellers near Miami... that's my recommendation.

I'd never do it again. But, let me temper this with the fact that I would buy one from Richard (BruceLee) or from a Porsche dealership selling the car on ebay providing they would warrant the car's description and condition. Know your seller or the company that the seller represents (like a dealer selling one of his own branded cars).

[Brucelee]

Thank you Randall.

I had a buyer come down from Oregon to buy one of my Boxsters. We arranged to have the car pre-inspected here by the local Porsche dealer. Then he arrived, checked out the car, paid me, and drove home.

I liked the way that worked for both the buyer and me.

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

My experience with my ebay purchase of my 97 boxster is widely known on this board, so I won't go into it as I don't feel the need to shame myself one more time.

The seller lied to me in the listing and on the phone. He knew nothing about the car and was just buying them at auction and flipping them as fast as he possibly could. Avoid any ebay power sellers near Miami... that's my recommendation.

I'd never do it again. But, let me temper this with the fact that I would buy one from Richard (BruceLee) or from a Porsche dealership selling the car on ebay providing they would warrant the car's description and condition. Know your seller or the company that the seller represents (like a dealer selling one of his own branded cars).

[Kevlar986]

I shopped on-line this last Feb., not ebay, but actual dealer inventory and found a great color combination. I called the dealer, spoke to them several times, had them email pictures etc... I made an offer that was accepted even got financing at 5% for 4 years. I did not have it inspected, but bought from a Porsche dealer, and received the additional 2 year CPO. I had the car shipped to me, in a covered carrier. No problems what so ever, it was exactly as described and had all services performed at that dealer. I talked to the previous owner, who traded in for 2005 987. I guess I could have been really screwed in hindsight, but to my enjoyment, drove the hell out of that car this summer with not a single problem. I've even had it on the lift with not a drop from the dreaded rms. Although I will get new tires this year, but feel all in all very good experience and got a much better price than anyone local would have given me.

Kevlar986
2001 seal grey/blk/blk

[CA_Boxster]

I found mine on ebay but it was at a dealer in Houston that specializes in late model, low mileage cars. I called them and worked it out directly. I was able to have a friend visually inspect it locally, had a company go do a pre-purchase inspection (found them listed on ebay motors) and was going to have the local Porsche dealership inspect it, but it turned out that the car had initially come off their own lot where it was certified pre-owned. I got a fair price for exactly the car I wanted with 21k miles (this was June 2004). It was a 2000 car that went into service VERY late so it still had 6 months of warranty, so I felt safe enough. It turned out that I did have some potentially expensive transmission cable wear that was covered under warranty. That's something that no inspection would catch and I could have been stuck with the bill had there not been warranty coverage left. I wouldn't be surprised if that dealer would have helped with the repair since they do a lot of remote business and wouldn't want the quality hit, but that still would have been a bad experience.

All said, I would do it again. I would invest some $$ in a serious inspection at a Porsche dealership (a few hundred bucks up front on a car like this isn't a big deal). I don't think I would buy this way from an individual, though. I live in CA and there are too many cars out here that I could see personally. Wouldn't be worth the risk to go remote.

[mjw930]

I've bought my last 2 Porsche's through on-line ads, one from ebay and the other through a yahoo search.

Ebay has turned into the top listing agent for used cars but most cars that end up being sold due to an ebay posting are not sold through the auction process. When my '03S popped up on ebay I called the dealer (an MB dealer in PA who took it on trade) and negotiated a price. Within 10 minutes I had arraigned financing through one of their banks and the car was gone from ebay! I flew up, they picked me up at the airport and we drove the car home (back to FL) that day (well we took 2 days to get home).

I've listed and sold 2 motorcycles through ebay and both were negotiated the same way. They didn't sell through the auction, the buyer called me and we negotiated a fair price. Once I had their deposit I closed the auction.

Think of ebay as just another avenue like auto trader and forget about the bidding process, it's a waste of time on big ticket items like this.

[Brucelee]

"Think of ebay as just another avenue like auto trader and forget about the bidding process, it's a waste of time on big ticket items like this."

That is exactly correct!

[BengalsFan]

After reading the previous posts on the experiences and advice of other board members, I am somewhat ashamed to admit that when I bid on and purchased my Boxster "S" through eBay (see 1st post of this thread) that I did so without having it inspected first. I pretty much depended on the honesty and integrety of the seller (a small car reseller in Portland), and the fact that it only had 19K miles on it. Pretty naive and trusting on my part. However, I knew that I was not going to turn the money over to him until I picked up the vehicle at his lot and test drove it first. He could not be more accommodating though out this process. So I got lucky. Based on the experiences and good advice of the previous posts, I would probably not take such a risk again.

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences and advice.

[Jeph]

Originally Posted by Brucelee

"Think of ebay as just another avenue like auto trader and forget about the bidding process, it's a waste of time on big ticket items like this."

That is exactly correct!

What about auctions with no reserve? I'm a fan of watching, and occationally participating, in those.