Hard to sell a Boxster these days

[EPIQTodd]

Hard to sell most anything nowadays - the economy (despite what the Republicans state, and I'm one of them, just a realistic one) is in the dumper, and inflation is a big scare. Consumers know inflation, and therefore spending is down, particularly on big items.

[Marc Gelefsky]

Finally sold the 90 Carrera 2 I had for sale, got less than I thought it was worth.
Oh well.. soft market on 964's I guess.

[CA_Boxster]

I also recommend craigslist.

I bought mine used a couple years ago and I can tell you it's no problem at all shopping the whole country looking for a low mileage, excellent condition Boxster. A LOT of people bought them as 3rd cars and eventually just got tired of them or decided to turn them over and buy a new toy after a few years. Mine was 3 years old, 20k miles and dealer-inspected. This wasn't my only option, either. If I raised my price range by about $2k I would have had all the options I needed to be able to pick a good one.

As a result, I think it could be tough to sell them, especially in CA where there's no shortage of used supply for the people who aren't willing to buy one and have it shipped.

[franz229]

My personal experience selling a Boxster (tiptronic) in Oakland and bay area is not
Very good. It is very difficult to sell in this area. I had mine for sale for 6 months.
I advertised in craigslist and cars.com. Cars.com was the worse. I got a lot
o solicitation from other website offering to sell my cars if I advertise with then
for a fee. I asked the were they got my number, and it was from cars.com.
Most of the people that came at check the car, can’t afford or them
Looking for thrill and drive a Porsche. I soon they ask how much the change of oil or the Maintenance I new is a waste of time. I they never call back or show up.
Some buyer will offer a price below the trading price of the car.
So… I just tired of this game and I went to local dealership and trade in 986 for
A new 2006 987..

[xavier405]

Following some advice here, I got an appraisal at CarMAX. I thought you'd all be interested in what I found:

On KBB, my 02 Box with tip is estimated at roughly
retail $32,000
private party $29000
tradein $26000

At CarMAX, I search their database for similar cars and they are selling from $29,900 to $33,000.

The salesperson explained a couple of items to me:
- they only mark up cars $1500-2000 of their cost, no matter how cheap they get em (pass the savings on to you!)
- they have very stringent quality requirements
- when they receive Porsches, they average $3500 in reconditioning costs even if they arrived in very good condition. They recondition them no matter what, some items required by law (brakes), and some items according to their own policy.

CarMAX appraised my car at $21000. :ah:

So given what they said, you might expect that they would resell my car for maybe $26,500. This is way under what they are selling similar Boxsters for, so from that I would really expect that they would sell this for at least $29k and would be marking it up at least $5000.

So, it was a pretty disappointing visit to CarMAX. EXCEPT that the story has a silver lining!!! You see, when I parked my car out front I put the "For Sale" sign on it (figuring that all the other people are there to buy a car, right?). And as I was leaving the store, someone stopped me and is interested in buying the car! So next week we have a test drive, and we'll see how that goes.

In conclusion - CarMAX doesn't offer good trade in values, but its a heck of a place to hang a "for sale" sign.

Cheers!
- Xavier

Great story! And, great idea to have the sign in your window.

Like Dustin Hoffman said in "Rainman".....K-Mart sucks....so does CarMax!

[mach schnell]

that is an awesome story! smart thinking on your part - i hope the conclusion to that story is a happy sale for you and a happy new boxster owner!