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Buying advice: 997.2 with CPO but has minor Carfax damage
Hi, I'm looking for some general advice/opinion on a car that has low mileage for an 11 year old car, is being sold by a Porsche dealer with a 2 year warranty but had a minor bit of bodywork done in 2016. It is the lowest recorded amount of damage for Carfax with the following description:
I am not overly worried about things like this because stuff happens and minor dings can occur, but am concerned about what others think when it comes to resale value.
Porsche would not offer the car as CPO if there was anything wrong with the car structurally, or so they say. Would others consider getting a PPI done on a car like this, given it has a 2 year warranty?
Also, do different dealers charge different amounts for extending a warranty as they are quoting $3,100 to make it a 3 year CPO.
Yes, get a PPI done, simply for the cosmetics if not for the mechanicals. You can find plenty of stories of people with great CPO experiences and people with less than ideal CPO experiences, like mine. On mine, service wasn't done that they had invoiced for as part of the CPO inspection/maintenance and also advertised the car incorrectly cosmetically. Also, very minor damage could be subjective, so I'd rather have someone look it over to confirm it's as minor as someone says. Regarding pricing on resale, the ideal situation would be to have before/after pics of damage and repair records to show the next owner. For minor damage on Carfax with proof of what happened (before/after pics with repair records), I'd expect maybe a $2-3k hit. For damage like this, I'd probably be looking for a $3-5k discount over a clean Carfax if everything else checked out.
Thank you, that is good to know, I'll certainly get a PPI done if I decide to proceed.
They have provided me only with the $6,000 of work they have done to prep the car and perform the 80,000 mile service (millage is much lower). There is no record of the bodywork done, which was the first question I asked.
They did do:
3 new tires
TPMS
Sparks
Drive belt
Brake fluid
But I see no record of the PDK service which really should be done on an 11 year old car, regardless of millage.
My car had minor front damage from a previous owner on the CarFax.
PPI shop stated the fenders were original so it looks like a bumper situation.
Honestly it’s hard to find any cars with no body work at some point.
As long as the car checks out, the suspension is in alignment and you’re not paying garage queen pristine concours money, go for it.
I'd also agree that as time goes on, these cars are more likely to have paintwork. Hopefully it becomes more acceptable on 997's as time goes on. Trying to preserve cars only leads to stress every time you want to drive it.
3 new tires? That seems odd from a p dealership. Sparks and not coils on an 11 yr old car? They should be able to pull up service records to determine if Pdk clutch service has been done. Pdk Gear service is at 12 years iirc.
You know you spend too much time looking at cars when you can identify a car from a blip on the carfax, lol. If you feel the price you're buying it for factors in the minor accident, I'd do it. My beater Carrera I recently got from a local Benz dealer showed minor rear end damage. It's been locally owned and serviced under the two previous owners at the same local Porsche dealer which was important to me. The two previous CPO Carrera's I had showed a clean carfax, but they both clearly had work done on the door on one, and bumper on the other.
How long do you think you'll keep this car? I'm fine going without a warranty on a manual 997. When I got a used 2015 Macan Turbo, I didn't want to think that my next drive would be a big PDK repair bill so I got a 3yr/36k Fidelity warranty for about $5500. $3100 doesn't sound too bad for another year on a 2011 PDK Porsche. Hopefully you can negotiate some of that into the deal.
Its warrantied for 2 years, you know it passes all the spec limits now. But you dont know how much longer it will be before they tell you, your brakes are shot, your fluids need changing, you need plugs, belts hoses. And so on. You should get a unbiased inspection and tell them you want to know how long before you will need maintenance parts. And you should get a body shop to look at the damaged area, because mechanics arent body and damage experts
Mine had minor damage on the drivers side rear fender that was fixed and cosmetically all was done to spec. While there was nothing wrong with paint/body work, I later discovered that the expansion tank was not reinstalled correctly and that I was also missing the hinge hardware for the rear seat back panel that folds down on the fender side. In retrospect the body shop probably removed them to get work done and did not reinstall correctly.
Not a big deal, car has no alignment/frame issues but these things can happen and would likely be caught w/ a PPI. Good luck!
Last edited by 8KaboveMSL; 12-19-2022 at 10:56 AM.
My experience was very similar. 2009 C2 cab, minor damage to the rear. Car was listed by Porsche dealer without CPO but they were willing to sell me the CPO so I bought it. Had an independent PPI done that showed no sign of the damage and was clean otherwise. Price was right, car checked most of my boxes, so I took it. Car has been very reliable over 3 years.
I made sure to get an oil analysis done after year 1 of ownership to make sure there wasn't an obvious sign of bore scoring (my initial foray into the 996 market scrared me!). My CPO expired in early 2022 and I ended up with only a horn being replaced under warranty, but the peace of mind knowing that I had the 2 year coverage was what I needed to get over the purchasing hump. In retrospect, I should have had a second "PPI" done about 6 months before my CPO expired. I may have uncovered a few items that could have fallen under the CPO work.. The items aren't all that significant, but if I had caught them 6 months eariler (assuming they existed) and had them repaired under CPO, it probably would have gotten me closer to coming out even on the cost of the CPO.
On the tires, my guess is the prior owner had to replace 1 tire and a matching tire wasn't available, so took what they could. CPO requires all 4 tires be the same brand, so they probably needed to swap out the three older tires.
I recommend that you have the boby PPI done by a certified porsche body shop. They look at a car much differently than a service technician would look at it.
Its warrantied for 2 years, you know it passes all the spec limits now. But you dont know how much longer it will be before they tell you, your brakes are shot, your fluids need changing, you need plugs, belts hoses. And so on. You should get a unbiased inspection and tell them you want to know how long before you will need maintenance parts. And you should get a body shop to look at the damaged area, because mechanics arent body and damage experts
Speaking of brakes, that’s one of the funny things about CPO. At 50% pad life, they need replacing according to CPO. Of course, they stated that my car had 55% pad life remaining. 50-55% is pretty hard to measure, I’d say, but of course they’re going to go with the higher number. That not only saves them on pad costs, but I believe Porsche also recommends rotors are replaced at the same time. In the case of my rotors, they were heavily grooved and at minimum thickness based on the wear indicators on the rotors.
Like other have stated... CPO is not as solid as you'd think with the Porsche dealers. I mean 13 years or newer, under 124k miles to qualify... that is quite the range for supposedly being only the "top" of the represented market.
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12-18-2022, 04:31 PM
Buying advice: 997.2 with CPO but has minor Carfax damage
