Buyer Beware - Boxster S in Ft. Worth
 

New Member to 986forum, but wanted to share results of a Pre-Purchase Inspection of a 2003 Boxster S for sale in Ft. Worth by Streetside Classics. It has a clean Carfax and Streetside represents it as a nice car with only a few rock chips. Thank goodness I used Mayo Performance to perform my PPI and found the entire left side had been repainted. Many thanks to Mike and Tom at Mayo, I couldn't more highly recommend this shop.

Wow I've been swapping emails with them about that car. Thanks for the heads up. Did Mayo indicate why the one side had been repainted? It could be from an unreported accident or simply someone vandalized the car - disgruntled lover possibly..................

If the seller would be upfront about the work and reflect it in the price it might be a decent deal. The discount should be significant.

Mayo said it could have been as simple as someone keying the car or something worse. Send me your email address and I will forward the PPI if you like.

Its always been interesting to me that non original paint on a car scares people away. Maybe I am biased because I use to manage a body shop. It just seems that if there is no structural damage to the car, and you couldn't even tell that the car had been repainted, and you needed a shop to tell you, it means it was probably done pretty well. Anyone in the shop industry can tell if a car has been repainted or not no matter how good the job is. Just because professionals can tell that it has been repainted doesn't mean that the work is poor. Especially if its just a case of a car being keyed, that is nothing to write home about. With all that said I fully agree that the car should be discounted for the non original paint. If you are looking to buy the car and keep it for many years then a proper respray should never scare anyone away. Just my .02. You don't want to let a great car go if just because it was repainted. If you cant tell that it was resprayed then it means most others wont be able to and you may lose out on a very mechanically sound car.

Edit: Just to state the obvious; if the respray is bad then you certainly don't want the car.

Totally agree with PorscheBound. I know I had a big rock chip on my 987 before I sold it. The dent was fixable but the paint couldn't be compounded enough without removing the clear coat. To have it fixed properly it had to be blended and then the whole hood clear coated. I went to what is the best guy here in Charlotte and because he was a friend of a friend I got a great deal. It actually helped sell the car! It was like new and it wasn't one of these crappy jobs where the clear coat ended at the edges. They removed the whole hood and did it right.

Happy owner, happy seller, happy buyer. I still keep in touch with the guy two years later and the paint is perfect.

I have no issue with a well executed re-spray to repair cosmetic damage but the seller should have disclosed that info. Why? Because later when it shows up on a PPI, the buyer thinks that the seller is trying to hide something; and worse, the buyer then wonders what else might not have been disclosed.

But isn't that the point of the PPI? To figure out everything that is wrong with the car? A proper PPI answers those questions of what else is the seller hiding.

... or sometimes issues he/she didn't even know about to be completely fair.
But I agree that if the seller knew that the car or one side was repainted, it should have been disclosed. No one likes to have a bad taste left in the mouth... mostly :rolleyes:

Dealers repaint areas damaged during shipping on new cars, has anyone ever had a dealer disclose this?

Two sides to everything .

I get the OP's point. The paintwork was not disclosed so it cannot be used as a bargaining point.

The other side is, this is an almost 12 year old car. Paintwork is not uncommon and does not necessarily indicate anything scary.

Thanks for everyone's comments. This is my first Porsche after waiting a long time and the Boxster was not what I was looking for. If I knew there had been a re-paint I never would have had a PPI done. Mayo rated the car "below average". I really enjoy your feedback and obvious experience.

One of the comments on the page for that car was "Never been hit and always a southern car" so if a whole side has been repainted and not disclosed and discovered on a ppi that would be probably be a deal breaker for me.

To a the OP, there are a lot of boxsters out there, keep looking and you will find the right one for you. Good luck!

My Boxster was my first as well. 3 months of looking, 8 looked at in person and probably 50+ on the internet. The hunt is fun. Enjoy.

Cars are repainted about 10 times more often than people believe. Fender benders galore.