Are PPIs necessary on CPO'd cars?

Hi all, I'm considering buying a 996 through a porsche dealer. I am having a lot of difficulty finding anyone to do a PPI on the car and I can't inspect the car myself without flying out to see it (and my schedule will not allow that in the near future). The car is a Porsche certified pre-owned vehicle with a 2 year extended warranty still left. It looks in good shape based on the pictures I have seen. My question is how necessary is getting a PPI on this car? Thanks.

First of all....WELCOME TO THE BEST 996 FORUM IN THE UNIVERSE!!!! It never hurts to get a PPI, even on a CPO. I bought a CPO car last May, and based upon time issues, I was not able to get an independant PPI. I took delivery of the car sight unseen, had it shipped here in NY from Florida. No issues, and I'm as happy as can be. The CPO is HUGE piece of mind. I brought the car to my local dealer once it arrived, and they did a courtesy inspection. The only issue was the horn, which was fixed under CPO of course! PPI would be great to check for any unseen body issues. I ended up having a friend look at the car for me, and while they didn't know what to "look for", it passed his visual inspection big time. If you want, you can post a thread asking one of us to go look at the car, or even drive it. Many locals like to help out, and if you really can't get an independant PPI (and dealers don't like to bother with them either...they have better things to do with their time), send one of us out to take a gander. Best of luck. How 'bout some details on the car?? J

Thanks for the welcome and the tip! The car is a white on black interior '02 996 with ~38k miles on the clock. It has the Aero rocker panels and leather seats, but apart from that no other significant options. The car is in Tallahasee, so if any rennlisters are in the area and would be willing to go out and take a look at the car for me, please pm me. It would much appreciated!! Here is a pic.

I didn't get a PPI done, but my car had just had a new engine installed by the Porsche dealer and I spoke with the wrench that put it in. I guess I didn't see the point of getting a PPI done by the same dealer that had just installed an engine. Keeping that in mind: only a Porsche dealer can do a PPI, correct? And only a Porsche dealer can CPO a car, right? If both would be done by the same guy (literally, at my local dealer), it probably doesn't make much sense to pay them to do the PPI.

no.

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Is that a "sunroof-delete" car? It's hard to tell, but that would make it a pretty rare one...

YES

A CPO is a full go-over by Porsche service. 100 point with a sign off and stamp in the book. Why would you spend $ for something that was already done?

Quotes source post: 4907811

My 996TT was a CPO. I took it in for the yearly oil change. The horn needed replacing under CPO and they said the passanger window regulator was worn out and needed replacing for $500 but not covered. I had never tried the horn and dont think I have lowered the passanger window more then 3 or 4 times since I bought the car. They are the same dealer that did the CPO check and check off the windows worked correctly on the form. I dont understand what they mean about the window as I have tried it since and works fine. I think its a crap shoot myself. I have never gotten a PPI on any porsche and have never not gotten what I paid for.

Is it a Porsche CPO? That looks like a BMW dealer and therefore they cannot offer a Porsche CPO. If that's the case then I guess they are offering a generic 2 year extended warranty. In which case, I would personally take it to a P dealer for a PPI

Quotes source post: 4907811

yo greg, i expect more from you - i guess it comes down to your level of tolerance for risk. unless i have a buddy of mine who works in service at that porsche dealer i am going to purchase from who can say this car is MINT, then maybe i would step away from an indy doing the ppi. even then i'd tell my service bud to do a full leakdown/compression check to make sure cuz that's nto something you can just look at visually and say it checks out. nor can you detect any issues on a test drive unless something is seriously amiss. but since the above scenario is not true for me and for many others esp since a lot of us rennlist folks would reach far and wide for that right 911, the best protection is to drop that 3 bills to have a reputable indy shop do a full PPI including the engine leakdown/compression tests. you need representation. porsche service isn't anything special man. 100 point inspections... dude you rlocal midas shop can do that job. full PPI always by a reputable third party porsche shop. i had mine done at modderman's in SF. awesome shop thx to a rennlist referral.

yes. i would do it. 1. many things are NOT covered by CPO. coolain tank, window regulator, etc. why? cause porsche knows they freq. fail. 2. do u mind if the car had accident history? dealer sometimes CPO cars with acc. history. now if the dealer flat out reject your request to do a PPI, then u know the story........

Wow, thanks for the quick response guys! The car is being sold by a Porsche dealer and its a Porsche CPO, not generic extended warranty. The car has a sunroof, so unfortunately does not have the rare sunroof delete. By the looks of your responses, opinions are fairly evenly split as to whether a PPI is necessary on a CPO'd car. I can see things both ways: on the one hand, a third party who is on your side might at least have less incentive to hide the bad points on a car; on the other hand, a CPO is a pretty extensive test backed by a Porsche warranty (although it does not cover all the things that a thorough PPI by an independent would go over). Hmmmm. Decisions, decisions.....

if you don't mind disclosing....how much are they asking?? We can help you with that as well. J

Nice looking car. The car is a MK II but the side skirts look like MK I. Not that is a bad thing, but the "design lines" from the front bumper to the skirts don't match. MK I design is more rounded and MK II is more chiseled.

There are good dealers and there are bad dealers. Some of them stretch the CPO rules and let things through that shouldn't. The real question might be to get a read on the dealership. My car was a CPO and every problem I ever had on the car in the last two years was covered on the warranty without question. I know the dealership did stretch things in my favor at times. Probably the best advice (although not relevant in your case) is to try and find a CPO car from a dealership you know and trust and then have all of the work done there. My opinion is that a CPO car from a reliable dealer probably does not need a PPI. But then can you really trust any dealer?

Always do the PPI, CPO is a warranty, not a full inspection of the car.

Having owned 3 CPO cars, there is very little that is likely to go wrong that would not be covered by the CPO. My understanding is that a CPO car can not have been in any kind of major collision. The CPO process should uncover that and if it got through and you discovered it later, I would think you could make a case for restitution. The PPI will give you piece of mind, but it should theorectically not be necessary with a properly CPO's car. Its main value in a CPO car might be to give you leverage in negotiating cosmetic issues.

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Ben, You know me better everyday. I love living on the edge, I even run with scissors sometimes. I purchesed my car CPO and fortunately no problems in 16 months...will go in for a full PPI a month or so before it goes off CPO.

The CPO doesn’t cover everything and not even everything that is supposed to be inspected and brought up to spec for the certification (brake pad levels, clutch, etc.) You would be exposed on things that should have passed inspection but are not warranteed (as well as structural issues if car was ever hit). I brought my one-day-old CPO'd car to another dealer for a “post purchase PPI" and they turned up a RMS leak and the probable need for a new clutch "soon". Drove from there right back to the selling dealer with the list who basically said "whoops!”. I left my car and they fixed the seal and did the clutch for almost free (split the cost of the clutch parts, labor free). If I understand the process correctly the dealer needs to fix at his cost anything found wrong in the certification process, then Porsche will CPO post dealer funded fixes of anything not up to spec. If correct there is certainly an incentive to miss a few things and avoid the service shop from internally billing the sales shop and eating into their used car sale profit margin, particularly if the dealer thinks the issue won’t pop up a until reasonable period later in the CPO period (too many issues and I would assume Porsche would have an issue with the dealer who said all was fine before they took on warrantee responsibility for the car). So, if too difficult to PPI before purchase, do it the next day, and use the PPI list to get everything “inspected” but not warranteed fixed ASAP before they can say you did it.