I had been working with Bryan at Park Place for about a week. I asked him to make me a reasonable deal on the 2004 C4S in gray that they have on the lot. He called me and asked how much I wanted to pay per month, what I had in trade, how much I owed, etc.

A day went by and I got a call from Bryan saying they would take my trade plus I needed about 14.5k. I would finance 11k of it and pay the other 3.5k in cash. This sounded like a decent deal. It put the price of the car out the door around 40k (they have it priced at 48k). I agreed to come down on Monday to work the deal.

On Sunday I emailed Bryan and doubled checked the numbers. He confirmed.

On Monday before I went down there I triple checked the numbers and asked him to look them over. He said they looked accurate.

I proceeded to drive down to the lot. They checked my trade out and it was fine. I checked out the C4S again and it was fine. I waked into the dealership and was told that they couldn't sell me the car at that price. They made a mistake and that it would require about 26.5k plus my trade instead of 14.5k plus my trade. I explained to Bryan that wouldn't work for me. He was apologetic but I was pretty pissed off. If I had spent the money for the PPI I would have been enraged. He didn't attempt to salvage the deal even though they have a 2003 C4S on the lot for a lower price.

Back to the drawing board for me. I guess I continue the search.
Lesson learned. Stay away from Park Place Ltd.

 

Wow, that is pretty lame. You seem to be a lot calmer than I would have been.

 

the old bait and switch

good for you for "sticking to your guns"

let me guess... the consignor changed his mind... yeahhhhhh right.

 

Don't feel bad I am like 0 for 3 there. Great fun to look but unless you don't mind getting hosed enjoy. Always 3 to 5K overvalued min and it is what it is. They are consistant. Good place to see what you like and then track down the car you want.
I love the hunt.

 

that 12k different ,that a big A$$ mistake ,I would've been **** ,cussing out everyone **** .

 

Sorry to hear that. Luckily I have been blessed with quick easy and head ache free transactions with car purchases.

 

I love the hunt too but I am getting tired of searching all the time. I want to get the car and enjoy it. I feel like a part of me is on "hold". I have been lurking around here for quite some time and was hoping to get to one of the XXX breakfast meets. The C4S is kind of rare and Park Place has 3 of them!

 

I just took a look at their website and found the 3 C4S's that you metioned. The white one with the aero kit isn't really for sale. It's driven by the wife of the owner and for the loan or deal or whatever on the car, they have to list it for sale but of course they have no intention of selling it (that's why it's priced thru the roof).

When I was looking for my car a few months back, I wasn't really looking for a C4S (Cabriolet in my case) but I actually found alot of them when I was browsing up and down the West coast. I ended up buying mine from a private party down in the Bay Area.

 

The white one is nice but $$$. I was hoping to find a 996 C4S 2003 - 2004. They have a silver, gray, and a black. The black one is pretty hammered for having such low miles. The headlights are yellowed, the tail lights are cracked on both sides, the seats have been repaired, and water leaked into the driver door and some of the leather is a bit damaged. The silver one is very nice, and the gray could be nice with some tlc.

 

Did the car belong to Park Place or was it on consignment?

 

Get on Auto Trader. You might have to travel to see a few cars but it is part of the adventure. I decided I wanted a Maserati GT Coupe with a manual 6 speed. I was on line till all hours of the night searching. It is like a mission. Sometimes you have to really dig deep. Tehre are guys on Maserati Life that have been looking for a car like mine for over a year. I had it in my garage in umder 2 weeks. I had to go to Maine but it was all good. I transported this one back but I should have driven it. If you search Auto Trader only the same 3 cars kept coming up. The seller of this car was 81 years old and I had to go old scholl to find it. I ask this question all thie time. Where would an 81 year old guy advertise. Hemmings Motor New! They are on-line with the brown catalog now. Just a discription and no pictures. He sent me pictures but I missed them flying to see the car. Did my home work. Saw it, drove it and bought it. Good hunting. A bought a few cars now long distance and have driven them back. We had a blast driving the wifes Jag back from AZ. Vegas Reno and home. Knew what tha car needed by the time I was home.

 

unreal!?!? after all those confirmations and days for it to simmer on their end. Must be too busy to look at deals completely, pssh.

Apple Sause brought up a good question....consignment or Park Place owned?

 

My advice is not to give up. My brother was looking for a 997 C4S and managed to find one in Las Vegas. A road trip later, he had it back up here and has been loving it since day one.

I've never really been a fan of Park Place and your experience just reminded me why. Good job, not letting them rip you a new one.

 

The car is not on consignment. The silver one they have is. I have thought about selling my car privately and expanding my search to other parts of the country but then I lose the tax credit from the trade and I am without a vehicle while I am searching.

 

Yup, just as others have said, increase your search radius. I looked about 4 months using both autotrader and cars.com and ended up finding my car in Santa Clara. I found a very limited selection here in the Northwest and every car I found was priced pretty unrealistically.

On my car, the seller was awesome to work with, ended up trading a few pictures of the car on email and a few phone calls. Had him drive the car to Stevens Creek Porsche for a PPI/DME, flew down there with my wife, met him at the dealership, car checked out perfectly, and my wife and I had a wonderful two day drive back to Portland.