PITA Seller

[AFJuvat]

Seller is in Jupiter FL, selling a Boxster S. Listed in Auto Trader.

If you are interested in seeing the car, it is listed in Auto Trader

Customer is interested in purchasing the car. Asks and pays me to drive down with him to check the car out. I pack up my inspection light, some trim removal tools (to check for coolant leaks) and a Porsche System Tester - 2 (Factory Porsche system tester - scans all systems of the car)

We drive 100 miles to the sellers house. Seller is not home. Seller's wife is home, does not have keys to car. I do a preliminary check, car looks good. A little paint cracking on the rear bumper, a few paint chips, nothing major.

We go to lunch to await seller to return. 1 hour later, we arrive back at house. Seller puls car out of garage, refuses to allow purchaser or myself to drive it, refuses to allow me to use Porsche factory tool to scan the car.

Seller states he has nothing to hide, but will only allow his mechanic to check the car.

Negotiations obviously break down at that point, tell seller that he should have stated something to that effect before we drive all the way down there.

Just a hint - get everything spelled out before you go look at a car.

AFJuvat

[J-RAD]

I recently had similar problems (although I didn't get quite as far as you did in the process) with a used car dealership in FL (keep in mind that I'm in MN). They listed a 2000 Boxster S. I asked for additional photos of the car and got the run around ("they have 4 pictures - how many more do I need?", no one was there that could take a picture, blah, blah, blah). I also asked that the car be taken to a local shop for PPI, at my expense of course. They said no. "They don't allow their cars off the lot" and of course assured me the car was checked by their mechanic, is in excellent condition and has a clean Carfax ( ) - not to mention they "sell all kinds of high end cars". At one point he even said PPIs just cost them money because they nit-pick all kinds of minor things (this should've been enough to stop the conversation right there), after 'discussing' the issue for about 20 minutes longer than I should've (the guy was a jackass). I told him no thanks, I would never consider buying the car without a PPI - especially sight unseen. Of course he called back the next day saying he had pictures (interestingly enough they were all taken after a rain shower...the car was wet) and if I wanted to pay for the tow they'd allow it to go to one of two shops...of course neither was a Porsche dealer nor a shop of my choice (neither shop was listed on the local region's PCA tech list either). I finally told him to take a flying leap. That was a couple months ago...the car is still listed for sale on their website and AutoTrader.

My question is , why the hell advertise a car on the internet if your not willing to do what it takes to sell the car? Especially in the case of a dealer. By the way, the dealership was Autobahn Motors in DelRay Beach for those in FL - avoid them like the plague.

I finally purchased my car from a dealership a little outside of St. Louis. They brought the car 40 miles - at no additional cost to me (as expected) - to a Porsche dealership for the PPI. I flew down and drove it home. So far I'm very happy.