Boxster inspection - Toronto area?

[GTA_G20]

No offence as it's not my purchase but when price isn't the issue there's no reason for a seller to refuse a sale..... Unless....

[356Guy]

No offense but you don't know anything.

[NewArt]

I flew to San Francisco from Montreal for my first Boxster. Many reasons: price, availability, excuse for a road trip
And in my case as well, the seller didn't want to sell to me. He had read all the Craigslist warnings about selling locally and in person with your high school principal as reference, etc.

[356Guy]

Yeah I've seen people suspicious of bank wire transactions before. I guess you have to be careful these days. Also, I don't think the seller was expecting to sell the car quick as he wasn't prepared to pull it out of storage for test drives until April plus he may have been hoping his friend was going to step up and buy it (there is a story there). I offered a price very close to asking. No worries. The hunt is very enjoyable too.

[Neal]

Guess all of you guys have a friend/sibling etc .. willing to ride along with you to be able to pick up the Boxster and also bring the other car back.

What's crazy is driving so far with just some "faith" of the Porsche being in the condition as "described" by the seller via words/pic's and getting there finding out you're not interested no more due to whatever issues after looking at it in person.

That would really be upsetting.

From the looks of it here it seems like most of you guys would stay away from dealer's.
Can you shine some light my way as to why that is compared to a private sale?
Again I am not supporting dealer nor private sale but I want to know as much as possible so when I go out hunting I make the right choices.

[Giller]

Originally Posted by Neal

Guess all of you guys have a friend/sibling etc .. willing to ride along with you to be able to pick up the Boxster and also bring the other car back.

What's crazy is driving so far with just some "faith" of the Porsche being in the condition as "described" by the seller via words/pic's and getting there finding out you're not interested no more due to whatever issues after looking at it in person.

That would really be upsetting.

From the looks of it here it seems like most of you guys would stay away from dealer's.
Can you shine some light my way as to why that is compared to a private sale?
Again I am not supporting dealer nor private sale but I want to know as much as possible so when I go out hunting I make the right choices.

Given the choice between buying from a dealer or buying privately, everything else being equal, I personally would always choose the dealer. Most dealers (not all) have a reputation to maintain and bad press is not something they seek. If you have an issue, they will normally do their best to help you out.
But in the end, it all comes down to the car and the PPI and sometimes, blind luck.

[bwdz]

I am the opposite and never buy a used car from a dealer, the reason is that they didn't own it and know nothing about it and are charging a premium (large or small) over what I could easily buy it for somewhere else. The dealer has no more idea of what the car's actual history is than anyone else who can run a Carfax or similar. They either take the car on trade in or purchase it at an auction where someone was dumping it with potential issues and then get it ready for sale which sometimes includes a pretty thorough check over of the car. The bad part about a car that the dealer repaired is they add the retail cost of the repair to their purchase price and then mark it up on top of that causing the high prices you normally see. I like to fix my own cars so I always go for the deal and negotiate based on problems that I find that I can fix for pennies on the dollar for the discount I get off the price. Just ask me how I bought a 97 with 64 k on it and spend less than 2 hours fixing it for less than $1500.