Anyone else having problems selling a Boxster S privately?

[atillin]

I'm mystified!! One of the proven lowest depreciating cars is suddendly only attracting rock bottom/silly offers. Privately, an average mileage (10k per year) 00MY 'S' with lots of extras is struggling to make £20-21k (even with full OPC history and very well cared for). What's going on? For example, I've had my pristine 2000 (W) Guards Red S up for sale since end Feb and despite lots of interest, no sensible offers or deal closure. I've dropped the price (£3k so far) to make the car competitive with Autotrader.co.uk and still nothing.

Anyone got any ideas or want to share similar stories?

Cheers for now,

Adrian Tillin

 

[daro911]

ORIGINAL: atillin


I'm mystified!! One of the proven lowest depreciating cars is suddendly only attracting rock bottom/silly offers.
Anyone got any ideas or want to share similar stories?

Cheers for now,

Adrian Tillin

My stories were always the proven lowest depreciation ones but I always new the bubble had to burst and when it did the fallout would be felt on all Boxsters early or very late examples. No help to you I realise but what you refer to as rock bottom / silly offers is more likely the new used trading levels for Boxsters, which I am sure you will find are still more attractive than equivalent SLK's or Z3/Z4's.

The only way to judge a cars value is by what they actually sell for and not by the more often than not misleading prices people advertise for.

My only idea would be try the "Wanted" ads and you may actually find the genuine buyer out there who will pay you the best market price. I have sold my last 2 examples this way and on both occasions I got private money bids from trade buyers with the right customers waiting in the wings. Good luck with the sale

 

[Helen Goff]

seems to be an awful lot of Boxsters on the market at the moment, which means serious buyers have a lot to choose from..this drags the prices down.

 

[Guest]

The Boxster S I traded in back in November 04 is still for sale at the dealer I think the issue is with pre-facelift cars and that expectation are a little high for the price that people want to achieve. Add in the new model (987) has come out and also the 997 which has pushed the 996 used values close or at Boxster S money even if the 996 is a little older. Tough choice for a first Porsche owner a 30k Boxster s or 911. Even if the Boxster is a better drivers car.[]

 

[daro911]

ORIGINAL: uppy

Even if the Boxster is a better drivers car.[]

Even if!! I think you meant definitely is

 

[Guest]

Even if the Boxster is a better drivers car

Sorry what I mean't to say The Boxster IS a better drivers car.[]

 

[Yoda]

Guards Red probably doesn't help when there is a lot of choice out there. Flood of 996/Boxsters is very evident - A friend has recently bought a really nice 996 for £25k - spec, mileage etc very good. Good time to buy obviously, not so good for sellers.

 

[kitchens]

Yes ..see my add http://www.arthurlea.com/550/ no bites in the forum and nothing from autotrader web add ,the only call was from a nice man at a OPC wanting to steal the car from me then add £4k as he had a buyer ,sorry they made enough money on it the first time .Prices are low as the retail market is depressed and I am not just talking cars ,and the new models do not help. see members for sale section under Boxster 550


Brian

 

[Rob Edwards]

Yes, I'm afraid the legendary residuals of the Boxster are weaker than they once were - my 2001 S made £21k (ex-vat) at trade in (with a very high spec) for a 987S at my local OPC. As others have rightly (IMHO) pointed out, this is the consequence of greater supply and a new model.
Perhaps one small crumb of comfort is that nothing gets close to smiles per mile, and I'm sure that the loss would be even greater on an equivalent BMW/Merc.
Good luck![]

 

[Booman]

hi adrian, i have been trying to sell my 2000 'S' for over two months, and found myself in a comparable position to yourself. my car is of a very similar spec to yours, fpsh and all the right bits etc, with 37k on the clock. i have advertised the car on this forum, top marques and as a last resort, e-bay!!!! needless to say, none of these arenas got me a sale, just the one tyre kicker, very very frustrating.

i concur with other contributors to this thread, in that supply far, far, outstrips demand for these cars, even during the period when they 'always sell'.....summer. in the last issue of top marques i noted eight sides of boxsters for sale, 10 of these were private 2000 's' cars, and the cheapest was 18.5k. i checked the auto trader site yesterday and there were 200 boxsters for sale, and the cheapest early 2.5 was in the region of 13.5 if memory serves!!!!

good time to buy, not so good if you are selling. i was offered 17.5k for mine from an independent, and he wasnt that keen to take the car off my hands, because they are just not moving.

but, the goodish news is that i have sold the car, not via any form of advertising, but thru good old word of mouth. a guy, heard a pal of mine attempting to sell my boxster to his brother, he asked for my number, viewed the car last week, loved it to bits, and is collecting it on wednesday. i accepted 20750k for it, i feel its worth a bit more, but in the present climate i snatched his hand off.

hope you sell the car soon adrian, but, as much as it hurts, be prepared to move from the figure you have the car advertised at, if you want to move it on, good luck.

regards g

'97 C'S'

 

[THX911]

Keep in mind the colour of the car too. When someone is buying any Porsche it is not just another car, every bit matters (well, almost)...

It took me a year and a bit to get my Boxster S as I wanted Basalt Black and Black interior facelift, no compromise. The person (a specialist private dealer in performance cars) who was keeping an eye came back with pretty much a Lapis blue and a silver every month, the whole of last year. I ended up getting the perfect match privately, so the poor guy didn't get much of a business out of me. He also told me he can try and get a pretty good bargain with a Lapis blue as there were plenty on sale around summer last year...

As everyone has stated: the best Porsche is the one in your driveway but it is not necessarily the case that it will be the best for everyone else...

 

[Hannu]

Purchased mine from a OPC last Feb, had the choice of TWO, mine speed yellow the others blue.
returned today to have it serviced and the blue one's still their.

 

[LK_991GTS]

Just a thought: it may be a good idea to invest in an extended warranty. If you could say it had a year's warranty to run it may make your car stand out from many of the others and give peace of mind to a purchaser. So many people prefer to pay (quite a lot) more from a dealer and it's obviously (mainly?) because of the "peace of mind" of a warranty.

 

[oliver]

ORIGINAL: Lawrence

Just a thought: it may be a good idea to invest in an extended warranty. If you could say it had a year's warranty to run it may make your car stand out from many of the others and give peace of mind to a purchaser. So many people prefer to pay (quite a lot) more from a dealer and it's obviously (mainly?) because of the "peace of mind" of a warranty.

Absolutely. To sell a high value vehicle privately, a good warranty is a very valuable asset.

 

[Rodney Naghar]

[8|] That's gonna cost Adrian over £725+VAT for the warranty after he has the 111 point inspection done which is another £150 odd (total so far over £1k) and all the major faults have to be corrected (wherever)....is Adrian going to make that back, or will it, as I suspect, just make it a quicker/easier sale?

 

[Guest]

Blimey! Makes the £16.5k I was offered as a p/x in Feb for my 98 2.5 Boxster with 40k on the clock against a 2nd hand BMW 530 or A4 conv 3.0 quattro sport seem good. Decided to keep the Poxster in the end.

 

[daro911]

ORIGINAL: jonathansbuk

Decided to keep the Poxster in the end.

Good call []

 

[Guest]

[]
Both the BMW and Audi needed silly speeds for them to feel alive like the Boxster, plus as an early Boxster has less creature comforts, is noisy, and is fun at 30mph, and back to back on the same roads the BMW was easier to drive quickly but meant I would lose my license! i.e. Boxster a real handful at 60, BMW was wafting along at 70 *cough*

Plus there seem to be quite a few quality issues with the new 5 series and the Audi can be silly money too. So decided to keep the money and enjoy the Boxster whilst I can!

 

[Rodney Naghar]

back to back on the same roads the BMW was easier to drive quickly

a 530? I had the pleasure(?) of being driven in 2 of my friends BMW's recently. 1 a 325CI Sport the other a 525. Both drive like heavy floaty tanks, and both lost rear end traction on bends where my Boxster sails through at higher speeds. In fact the moment we switched off the traction control on the 525 and went round the 1st bend at 30mph the car totally lost control and we spun 90 degrees and just missed a lampost! Not very inspiring.

Also recently had a friend drive me in his new 350 SLK. I really don't get it. It doesn't have the feel of a sports car at all. High seat position, long high bonnet, floaty round bends,boring engine sound...it's just not in the same league as a Boxster (986 or 987), just an executive play thing.[:'(]

 

[thboxster]

ORIGINAL: pje8de

Just been offered £22500 PX for my 2002 pre face lift 'S' (20K miles) , trying to decided if this is a reasonable deal ??

That would be comparible with my recent p/ex of a pre-fl 02 2.7 which happened 4 weeks ago.

I p/ex'd mine simply because there seemed to be, as you are perhaps finding, a certain lack of general interest from the public. I had plenty of interest from trading firms who would help me sell it. For a fee of course.