ohdavey6286

I have started looking at 996 turbos and I have a quick question. I found one I like, but the dealership is over $5k away from NADA value. Is there typically wiggle room with this? Do they usually trade hands close to NADA?

thanks,
​​​​​​​David

Macster

My limited experience -- buying one used 2003 996 Turbo from a dealer -- is yes. The asking price was $61,999 and I bought the car for $57.7K. (This back in 2009 with the car having just 10K miles and a 2 year CPO warranty.)

Price is not a fact only an opinion.

My recommendation is to use the various web sites to find the whole sale/trade in value of the car.

Then start the negotiation close to the car's trade in value/whole sale value. The odds are very high that is all the dealer has in the car. Dealers don't over pay for cars as a general rule.

The salesman will reject your low offer outright but that's all he can do. He can't say "yes" even if he wanted to. And he is going to say "no" because your low offer probably has his commission way down.

You need to be sure your offer gets submitted to the salesmanager/general manager (often the same person). Only he (or she) knows what the dealer has in the car and only he/she can say yes.

When the salesman offers to take my offer to the sales manager/GM I go with him and we end up -- this has happened every time I have bought a car now for years -- talking with the sales manager/GM.

If you have to raise your offer and you probably will do so only after some delay. In one case I said I'd have to make a phone call first and went outside and called my sister to chat. I made sure I was out of earshot of any dealer staff.

After 5 minutes or so I went back in and upped my offer by $500. No sale. After some delay -- I forget what I did the 2nd time -- I upped the offer by just $250. You have to show the dealer you are not going to bump your offer by say $500 every time or the dealer will keep you there raising your offer by $500 until he gets the price he wants.

There are a number of ways to buy a car but one way is to be clear you are going to buy a car today and while you like the Turbo if you can't make a deal on it you have a list of cars you are interested in. They don't have to all be Turbos they don't even have to be Porsches. They can be other brands of cars, comparable cars: BMW, Mercedes, etc., and in the same price range as the Turbo, although lower in price.

You must impress upon the dealer that if you don't buy car while you are at this dealer when you walk away the dealer is seeing a sale go to another seller. You won't be back tomorrow offering more money.

That is a hard thing for a car dealer SM/GM to watch.

ANJ-911

I bought mine a few years ago now, but at that time $5K over NADA on a nice example wasn't unreasonable. I think I paid about $5K over NADA clean retail when I bought my car from a private party. I'd assume the same is true right now.

That doesn't mean that you shouldn't use the NADA value to try and negotiate the price with the dealership though.

ohdavey6286

Thanks guys! I thought it was high, but I was curious on pricing for my 78SC and they are all over the map compared to NADA. I think they probably pay close to trade in or bought it from an auction, so I think there is a little wiggle room. I am just getting started on the hunt so I will just have to see.

911mhawk

NADA is low, unless you buy really well, IMO.
All depends on condition/records

Road King

Exactly...what are they 'asking' and what are the details on the car?

ohdavey6286

2002 grey/black 6spd almost 50k miles asking 42k. Not sure if they have maintenance records as it doesn't specify.

Rustler

Without more detail, and therefore assuming the best (car is clean, runs great, has up to date maintenance, no foolish mods), that seems like a pretty good price to me. I just had a look at NADA and KBB and their pricing (mid $30k) seems very low to me, I still browse listings occasionally and it seems to me most dealers are asking for $42 to 47k for good 6spd coupes with mid range miles, but that's not scientific.

Hosewater2

My advice would be to research the individual car as much as possible with particular focus on maintenance records and status of the consumables (tires, brakes, clutch). Then decide what you think is fair, give them an offer on the low side of fair, and politely walk away. They will call and the price will move.

It may be helpful to post a link to the car here so others can comment as well.

Atrox

Price is always negotiable. Run a car fax and see the buyer history. Chances are it was an auction car and dealer is looking to make 5k to 10k off purchase.

For the milage 42k seems very reasonable, but i bet he'd take 40k if you stick to your guns. Dealer will get a lot of looky loos who will see Porsche and nothing else. Interest is always high but money talks bs walks. Dealer will likely sit on car (depending on how long it's sat there) due to interest.

Get an outside Ppi and use results to back up negotiation. At the end of the day however asking price if it's a solid car is a steal and you shouldn't walk if dealer sticks to his guns.

your 20k shy of 60k maintenance schedule so you should have a worry free low cost 20k miles. Scoop it up if you've been in the market awhile or be ok with walking away. These cars at first sight have everyone in love, so it's easy to put the blinders on.


Still quite a few solid cars out there so don't make location of car the deciding factor. Plus winter is upon us and prices historically drop a little.

ohdavey6286

Awesome! Thanks for all of the input guys. Like I said I am just starting to hunt and it may take a while as I am really picky. I have another car of mine that is going away and I will replace it with a 996tt.

Atrox

Took me a year and several potential cars to find mine. ive been fortunate as two years of ownership this has been the cheapest car to operate I've ever had.

give us a link to the car so we can give a general opinion.

btw throw out kbb and nada prices, they don't relate to market value.

techweenie

I'm asking more for an '02 with <49K miles, so I'd think that a dealer at that price would be making a market adjustment for condition. I could be wrong.

Dealers generally ask for more than private parties because of the perception they'll be around - and show some responsibility - after the sale. But dealers usually expect to sell at 93-95% of asking price.

Road King

As the owner of a 49K mile 2002 Seal Grey 6-speed Coupe I can tell you that if the car is well documented and well sorted (confirmed by an indy PPI) it's worth the $42K. I couldn't replace mine for that...and mine was well documented and somewhat sorted. I paid mid $40s 2 years ago (43K miles) and I think the market is still mid 40s for good mid mileage cars.

FRUNKenstein

+1. Take your time and get to know the market.