Long Distance Purchases

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I've bought and sold a few times sight unseen. In my experience, you get what you pay for.

I bought my 986 pretty cheap from a used car dealer looking to unload it to an out-of-towner who wouldn't bother him later, in hindsight. I had to do a lot of work with her, but after 20k of ownership I think she was a pretty good car for her age. 986 Interior do not age well, and it can be hard to see in pics. I wound up replacing a lot of the interior before reselling. I think I spent about $1k on her past what I recovered when reselling after 2 years. I have no regrets though, but if you're not a DIYer it can get really expensive to take car of the deferred maintenance and replacement of damaged / crapped out parts.

Otherwise, the 991S I bought on my father's behalf was immaculate, but we did pay pretty much dead-on for the mileage (600 miles in early 2013). I've sold three P-cars to out-of-state buyers, and have done everything I could to make sure that they knew the condition of the cars and feel like they were all satisfied.

I think the most important thing is to make sure that the seller REALLY knows what he's got, and to get the inspection done.