Too much for this '01 C4?

Less than 10k miles, CPO, C4, but $48,999? Is it even broken-in at less than 10K? http://huntington.porschedealer.com/...ntoryid=295303 I'm going to take a peek at lunch. tom

WAY too high. They are pricing that ABOVE full retail. That is a 40K car with check in hand. Private party would be jumping for joy to get 40K. Realistically, that is a high 30's car with a couple K added for whatever you think the 10K miles is worth to you.

Hey Dell - Does that imply that most low mile '01 C2's w/ CPO should fetch less than $40k?

So what's a neophyte to do when I get online used car estimates like this: Kelly Blue Book $51.1k for excellent condition $41k to $46k, fair to excellent NADA $47.9k retail $42.6k trade-in (just another data point) Edmunds National Base $40.6k (options and condition not included) $50.5k Outstanding $48k Clean $40k Average (w/o CPO, which this has) Edmunds places an adder of $1700 for the low mileage, and about $3400 for CPO. And I was guessing on the options since I haven't seen it yet. If $49k is too much, what could I realistically offer and not have them laugh me out of the showroom!? Aside from experience, is there another, more accurate way to gauge pricing? tom

You are to ignore the bluebook values and shop based on the market.

That's an utopistic price. Low miles are nice to have but not everything. It's not a collectors car, so the same assessment as for high miles need to be used for low miles; maybe $1K-$2K per 10K miles above/below average. Rest of the deal is a 01 C4 Cab which is priced at about $35K-$38K. I'd even say below 10K miles is not a true asset for a 6 year old car. Was there an annual oil changes performed? You don't know about mechanical issues that pop-up when the car is driven more, the tires are probably garbage as too old and dry, ...

Miles is dependent on the vlaue seen between the buyer and seller. Options the same way. It's not the same as remodeling your kitchen and investing 20K and know that you will get it back plus some when you sell. Entirely different. Andy, I would say that your example would be low 40's in a patient setting and high 30's in an immediate sale setting. As for the 10K miles on a car that is almost 7 years old. I would be VERY wary of that. That is acar that really didn't see much time on the road. Internals need to be exercised, seals need to be seated and lubed, etc, etc, etc. Tom, you COULD realistically offer them 38K and tell them based on what you are seeing in the market that would be a VERY fair price for the car considering that is roughly what the cars are fetching and the ABUNDANCE of them available. If it comes CPO's I pay anything up to about 42. I can alomst be certain they didn't pay more than low to possibly mid 30's for that car on trade.

they aren't called STEALERS for nothing!!

Hello all Newbie here - Just Bought a 2001 c4 with 25k miles myself in NJ just last week Paid 44k which included insurance on the rims. Maybe I got ripped off a litlle but I wanted a Certified used cars. I feel the warranty and roadside asisitance for 2 years was well worth it. Plus they gave me a good trade in on my 2006 Vette

Dominick - why don't you start a new thread and tell us a little more about your car and post a couple of pics. That way we can give you the "official" Welcome to Rennlist. BTW - Welcome to Rennlist!

The quickest way that I use to find the market price is by looking at completed auctions on EBay. It is not a perfect way but if you sift through the noise you can get pretty close.

I can't imagine anyone would sell their top of the line Porsche on ebay!? There are so many better ways to sell a car. So sampling ebay sales probably wouldn't give you a good read, IMHO.

Do tell! I've been looking in all sorts of places, and I've found more good leads with good information on eBay than anywhere else. But I'd love to find another source!

One of the sources I used was Autobaron.com. I haven't been there in a whle but I liked the price vs mileage graph.

I concur. I find that eBay prices tend to hover around wholesale, as those cars tend not to be the upper end of the range in quality. I'm referring to completed auctions only... a lot of dealers use eBay just as an advertising medium. Regardless, I take everything I read here with a grain of salt. That car may only be worth 42K to Dell, but Dell ain't buying the car. The car is worth whatever someone will pay for it. I paid way above "private party" for my car - nearly full retail actually, on my last two 911's. Why? Because they were both exceptionally nice cars, and they were, at that moment in time, what I wanted. That said, I do concur with the comments that the mileage is too low - the car can have many issues from being, let's face it, ignored and neglected. Michael

I like Autotrader, using their revised search and putting in my needs I like Cars.com too. Easy to search for all 00-02 cars (for example) I tried Porsche-classified.com, but the prices are way out there! I haven't found anything - actually don't have the money yet, so I have just been testing the waters.

I bought my car on eBay several years ago. Had a local PPI done (before I flew there), looked at lots of pictures and then flew 2000 miles there and drove it home. I did use the buy it now, the seller told me if I was not happy I could back out and just pay the listing and transaction fees (I did get this in writing from him). So I figured worst case I was out a few hundred bucks if the car was not what it seemed. The car was much better in person than I anticipated. With the exception of one scuff on a rim and a couple of very small chips on the front end it looked absolutely new. I have put 20,000 miles on it with no problems. I did find eBay a useful tool to determine market and also to search outside my local market for the car I wanted. The main benefit from buying outside your market is that you will have an awsome road trip driving it home! I would look at all the sources of info out there: eBay, auto trader and any others and make your best guess of what you should pay. If you then find the exact car you want, don't worry about a couple grand one way or another. If you can't get to that point with a seller just move on and be patient. Kris

I think that most car dealerships tend to place an unreasonably high premium on low mileage...when in fact, low mileage really only comes into play with collectibles where low mileage adds to the value. The fact that dealerships place that premium on low mileage would seem to indicate that they are successfully getting premium prices from people for these low mileage cars....otherwise they wouldn't be putting the higher prices on them. I think that the folks who are just stepping into Porsche ownership are drawn to the low mileage cars with the mistaken belief that low miles means better condition. On the other hand...if you were to query the folks on this and other forums....and ask those whose cars are not driven much....I think you would find that they maintain them very conscientiously whether they drive them much or not. The issue would seem to be one of how much "deterioration" actually occurs when a car isn't driven much. I think that a 20 or 30 year old car that has inordinately low mileage might have hard seals, crystalline rubber hoses, and deteriorating parts that would fail for a new owner who decided to drive it....but I really wonder how much so called "deterioration" actually occurrs with something like a low mileage MY 99, 00, or 01 car?? I read a lot of "watch out for the low mileage cars" on this and other forums....but in reality, what sort of actual failures occur? Wouldn't you think that Porsche would have a better track record for planned obsolescence? Just curious...Chuck

Chuck makes some good points, and I'm as guilty as the next guy on the "avoid low mileage cars" thing. However... Some people maintain cars based solely on mileage, not time. So your four year old 10K mile car may still be running on factory fill oil and brake fluid. Careful attention to service records comes in handy here. But mostly, I figure that cars are designed and built to be driven. It's like the people who won't drive their cars in the rain - why else did they put windshield wipers on it! Anywho... an engineer is going to make assumptions when designing something, and if a car is designed to be driven daily for 10 years, then it will have different criteria than something designed to be parked and only driven once a month to the car wash. Michael

MJ Bird....I had to laugh....I drove my car in the rain today...and while I was doing that, I thought of all the guys who advertise that the car has never been in the rain.....Well what the hell happens when you wash it? Perhaps you use dry cleaning? Yes, there are windshield washers...and rubber seals around the doors, hood, trunk, and sunroof, designed to keep water out....and underneath there are plastic deflectors and shields designed to deflect water when driven in the rain.....and while I'm at it....what's a windshield for? Surely not just for the wind. I wonder if there's any written material in the Porsche owner's manuals about keeping the car out of the rain. It would seem that the aversion to rain is something that has evolved over time as a sales enhancement for a previously owned vehicle, because there's certainly no information in any maintenance manuals, car magazines or technical write-ups about rain being something that contributes to vehicular decay.

I have a crazy boss that treats his Z06 Vette like it was his kid. He never drives it in rain...because....he doesn't want dirt and mud all over the under carriage of the car!? Go figure.