Just a quick comment on the number of prior owners.

Some times owners show up as the car moves from say an owner to a dealer who then may move the car on to another dealer or broker. The car may have had then just 1 real owner but 3 owners show up. If the car changes hands more than once from real owner to eventually another real owner to yet possibly a 3rd real owner the number of owners can be inflated as the car gets moved from owner to dealer/broker to owner back to a dealer/broker and so on.

A CarFax report can shed some light on the types of owners. Generally dealers/brokers don't put many miles on the car.

What one has to look out for is a series of owners who put some miles on the car but don't keep the car very long.

What the concern is the car gets bought just so the person can check off "Porsche Turbo" on his bucket list. He uses the car but then comes time for the service and he unloads the car to avoid the service cost hit and to reduce his depreciation hit.

This gets done more than once and then the car is not so attractive, provided you know this.

'course if the car comes with reasonable servicing records, or you can call around and learn about the car's servicing and are satisfied of the servicing history, then a series of owners may not be all that bad.

 

These cars are frequently a stepping stone to something even more awesome, like 997TT, or g-d knows what else. So multiple owners are minus, but not a big one. I got mine with 57K miles, after 5 owners and found nothing criminal, just bunch of routine issues, corresponding precisely with current mileage.
Like they say where I came from, "bring your eyes with you to do the transaction", that is all.

 

I'm the lucky 7th owner of my car, which had a mere 25K miles on the clock when I scooped her up. Thing is basically still in the wrapper, aside from all the pretty that Tim has added.

Why so many owners? It appears that the first owner put on an exhaust that was a little too dronesome for him and the subsequent hexagenarian owners. And both the number of owners AND the wonderfully offensive exhaust turned out to be huge negotiating points for me, so thank you original owner, wherever you are!

In the end, at least in my case, the number of previous owners was a benefit. And all I can say is that I don't foresee joining their ranks any time soon.

-V

 

Agreed on the stepping stone as in the case of the 2 previous owners of the turbo, those included 2015 Turbo S, 2011 Turbo S, R8, new CL63 AMG....

We've become friends with the previous owners so we had very little concerns with what we were buying into and they have helped us post-purchase. They are as crazy as we are and must admit, I'm not afraid of their sloppy seconds.

 

This is the problem with buying used cars, you never know how the previous owners treated it.
I've seen people in late model cars that don't think about changing oil, brakes, fluids, tires even when leasing. That's why dealers are offering these "free maintenance" packages on new car purchases/leases, its actually cheaper for them when they have to resell the car on trade in or lease end.
As for buying a used High performance car, unless you know the previous owner personally you are always taking a gamble and just need to use common sense and not make an impulse decision.

 

^ makes sense, I'd rather get slightly neglected stock car, then one of many marvels on this forum that had all kinds of mods done. I prefer used car that did not gain its mileage one quarter miles at the time

 

If you are looking for a really nice car, I have decided to put mine up for sale.

A shameless highjack

 

OMG, how much!!!??? Wait, no matter, just post your bank info, so I could wire deposit.