{Opinion needed] 2017 Boxster S sold as NEW, is it suspicious?
 

Hi All,

I found a Porsche Dealership selling a 2017 718 Boxster S NEW, with 20miles on it.

I am wondering what happened to the car for 2 years.. They say warranty was punched July 2018..

Would you be suspicious here?

Dealers do strange things all the time. Sometimes they need sales to make incentive goals and they will inform PCNA that a car is sold, start the warranty, and keep it in their demo/loaner fleet. In this case, it doesn’t look like they have ever loaned it out, if indeed there are only 20 miles on it. I have seen dealers take a new car, use it as a demo for a couple of months and then sell it as CPO with a longer warranty, which works out pretty nice.

If you are interested in the car, I would ask the dealer for the story, and also demand CPO status so that you get max warranty coverage.

No. And yes. And given my generally cautious (borderline suspicious) nature mostly yes.

A dealer will report to the factory a new car being sold even though the car has not been purchased. Not sure what really happens with the car. Does the dealer actually pay off the bank loan on the car or is just it a paperwork thing? Regardless it is to curry favor with the factory. As long as the car is not registered it is considered a new car. But it does start the warranty clock running.

(The 2008 Cayman S I bought new back in early April 2009 was such a car, it had been "punched" sometime in late 2008. The few months of lost warranty time was not a concern to me.)

For the prospective buyer then one concern is when did the warranty clock start running? I'd want to see paperwork to confirm the July 2018 punch date but assuming that is accurate the car has lost nearly a year of its 4 year warranty.

Did you look at the manufacturer's tag on the door? This will have the month/year of when the car was built. For a 2017 MY car the car could have been built in the summer of 2016 in order to show up on the dealer's lot in the fall of 2016 for the introduction of the 2017 MY cars.

The other thing is how does a new car manage to sit maybe 2.5 years without being sold? That it only has 20 miles on the odometer indicates it has not been road tested all that much. (All told the salesman and I put nearly 20 miles on a 2002 Boxster - and this in January of 2002 in snow and ice -- in test driving the car that I bought. The test drive miles brought the car's total mileage to around 26 miles IIRC.)

It the car in an odd color? Optioned poorly? Or so extravagantly optioned the price is way over the car's normal base price?

Let me add this. I was looking at Boxsters and ended up at a dealership that I don't recall for sure how where it was. This back before I bought my Boxster in January 2002 so my recollection of which dealer I was at is not clear so I can't name the dealer.

But what I do remember is In walking around the facility looking at candidate cars I happened to spot a wrecked Boxster tucked in an out of the way spot. The car had been in a pretty severe accident. The story was the accident occurred during a test drive. The accident I was told was not the fault of the Boxster driver. (I don't recall -- if I was ever told this -- if the salesman or customer was driving.) I do recall being told neither fortunately was injured. The accident was severe both dash air bags had deployed. I asked what was to be done with the car and the salesman said it would be repaired. What was not said but I assumed would be the case it would be sold as a new car. Technically as long as it remained unregistered it was a new car.

This Boxster might have ended up a hold over car having spent all the time awaiting repair or being repaired. (In July/August 2009 my 2003 996 Turbo required 2 months to repair after a rather mild collision with a mule deer.) This wrecked Boxster could have sat on the dealer's back lot for a time until it could be booked into a repair facility. Or it could have been booked into a repair facility immediately after I left. But in either case the repair might have taken longer than one might think. The factory may not have had the spares available to use to repair the car immediately. All parts being used to produce new cars. Spares might not be available for months, towards the end of the model run.

Ignoring the what ifs, know this. The tires could be 2.5 years into their 6 year life span. The brake hydraulic fluid and if equipped with a manual transmission the clutch hydraulic fluid is past due for a flush/bleed. This should be done every 2 years and I can tell you based on my experience letting this go 2.5 years can cause problems at least with the clutch's operation and as a side effect with the transmission's shifting.

The battery has been run down probably more than once. The car has obviously not been driven enough to keep the battery topped up and while the dealer has portable battery chargers to use to recharge batteries of cars in the lot often this is not done until the car is pulled out for a test drive and the battery is found flat. A spare battery is swapped in so the test drive can proceed and in the meantime the original flat battery is charged up.

The brake discs are probably heavily rusted and unless one is careful when he first drives the car to perform a mini brake bedding procedure to remove the rust if the brakes are used hard and the car brought to a stop this can result in uneven material transfer from the pads to the rotors and afterwards the brakes will pulse when used.

Where does all of the above leave you?

There is a story with the car. While you can ask the dealer you may not get the truth, I'm sorry to say.

There is also this: The general rule of buying a used car is to avoid cars with a story. While much rarer the same applies to a new car. This car has story which details how the car came to remain unsold for possibly 2.5 years. As a result my advice would be to avoid the car.

Thanks guys! Appreciate it.

Thanks Macster for the detailed response. Your points make sense. So far I have not looked at the car but will most likely avoid it because it does not look like they sell it as CPO, which is another big red flag

It is expensive to put CPO on a car. You can negotiate it in if you really want it.