used car market

gestalt1 · 06-04-2009, 11:21 AM

hi all, i'm curious about what everyone thinks is going on with the time it takes to sell a used car. it seems we are focused on the value of our cars and the deals we can get now but i'm wondering how much time it takes to move your used porsche? Even if the car is priced right, are there buyers for your typical sc or carrera?

I'm thinking of replacing my toyota tacoma with a nice sc as a daily driver due to the better prices on good cars. Because i know exactly what i'm getting into with a 911 i'm thinking this would be better than getting a 2-3 year old bmw 3 series. the bmw will requiremore expensive maintenece and have greater depreciation, the SC will require maintenence but the depreciation and insurance would be far less. the problem is that i might be stuck with the nice SC forever not because i can't price it right when i want to sell it, but because there are more nice/desireable porsches than buyers. what have you guys experienced?

gmiz · 06-04-2009, 02:13 PM

There is another post here that deals with the issue from the other side. I have been looking (along with many others) for a late 80's 911 for some time now. The choices are either good, well maintained cars, priced substantially over the market, or moderately priced cars that needs thousands in repairs. Sure I can buy a run down 911 for $12k, or an average one for $21K. What most of us are looking for is the one in between; the $16 K car that is not a garage queen, has been taken care of, but is not in need of $10k worth of work, even though it may have 120,000 miles and have a few toehr minor issues.

I think there are many who will pay to market for a good car. if you look at the stuff in the classifieds, you will see car that get re-listed every 30 days for months and will not sell because they are priced too high. Like any market, price it right and it will sell.

My 2 cents anyway.

bwall · 06-05-2009, 08:34 PM

Another way of phrasing the same question is "How 'deep' is the Porsche 911 market?".

To compare it to the stock market: GE and Microsoft are heavily traded and anything priced 'right' will sell in seconds. Compare this to a thinly traded stock on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (yep, it does exist!) where even if a share is priced 'right' it may take a week to find a buyer because who really wants to own shares in Kenyan Breweries?

I think that the 911 market is very deep and broad across all models as well. If it is priced right it will sell relatively quickly. The 914, 944, 356, 924, 928 markets are well traded too, but nothing compared to the 911 market.

Price it low and someone will buy it on the phone sight unseen. Price it higher and a picky buyer will inspect it himself and tell you everything that is wrong with it. Different price points bring different expectations.