buying the unseen

[pavulon]

I live in the rural far north and about 3 hours from any Porsche dealer or independent or metro areas in general. This is an issue when looking for anything P-car related as well as things other than garden variety items. For this and a few other reasons, I'm not able to drop everything and drive/fly 12 hours to look at something that has caught my attention. I've bought items (including two vehicles) I've not been able to view in person and have been disappointed (or lied to) roughly 60-70% of those times.

Are others experiencing similar results?

[Befree]

Overselling and under delivering is my experience with looking\buying cars from afar. I drove 1200 miles round trip to check on a SC that looked good on pictures and description from the seller, oh boy!
Took me 5 minutes to figure out it was a wreck and the seller was all proud how great the car was... what a waste.

[rvctyjim]

I am in the same position being in the midwest(lack of P-cars).So chances are I will have to buy from a far as well.But,I will not buy from sight unseen.

My plan is to find a prospect car,ask questions from the seller(what is most important for me,ie deal breakers),get the VIN(run a carfax),If they don't work on it themselves or know much about the car,call the shop where the car serviced and talk to them about the car.By this time I have either a good feeling or bad feeling about the car.Next I try and find a shop close by the seller that specializes in these cars.Then I do a search/ask others on this board who they reccomend for PPI in that general area(not the shop the seller uses).Call the shop and try and set up a ppi.Just looking to get a neutral 3rd party opinion on what the car is.This is as far as I have gone so far...

Two cars,first once i was setting up a PPI,car went up on ebay a couple of hours later w/BIN..so car could be sold any second..passed on the car...Second car,not much was ever done on vehical and seller was on the premium price wise side of asking $(but I really liked the car),so I tried to set up a full blown PPI,to see if the car was worth a premium or not..car went into shop,got a quick testdrive and was told vehical is in perfect condition(by the seller,no call from the shop,or a full PPI),And seller also mentioned several interested buyers contacting him now..So I reluctantly passed,Maybe it was a nice car worth a premium,then again nothing but minor matience was ever done since new and chances are clutch/vlalve guides/head studs/A/c work was right around the corner with a vehical with just over 100k milage... So the search goes on.

If a car that I had a good feeling about made it through a PPI,without any dealbreakers,even if It needed more work than I or the seller thought it would,I would try and negociate to compensate for part of what the car needed now or very shortly and then If we could come up with a number we could both live with,I would then proceede to put a deposite on vehical,fly/drive inspect vehical and then purchase vehical...If the worst had happened,lied to by everyone,well I might be out 500-1k...not 20k,thats how I look at it....but if things work out,I would only be out the PPI and travel expenses...Which I planed on spending anyway..

Good luck on finding your car!