cayman pricing

Anyone know of a good guide for cayman pricing. I've looked at KBB and NADA but price is much lower than what I am seeing sellers asking for

When I was looking for my Boxster, I quickly realized that KBB and Edmunds were useless. The only way to go is to use autotrader.com and set the filters up so that the options you want are shown, and then keep track of what actually sells.

And assume the selling price is less than the advertised price.

I bought 2 Porsches from craigslist in a major metro area and in neither case did I pay anywhere near the KBB prices. I went to EBay looking only at sold cars and developed comparables and used them in negotiations along with PPI results and the amount of work I'd need to bring the car up to my standards.

There are so many variables...color, location, trans, options, mods, condition, year, records, critical repairs, time to major service, wheels, tires and condition/age, etc.

Shop hard, Caymans aren't your every use car so they are especially available and priced right when someone needs to sell.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2014 04:55PM by mikefocke, '01S Sanford, NC. (view changes)

Quote
sdm100
Anyone know of a good guide for cayman pricing. I've looked at KBB and NADA but price is much lower than what I am seeing sellers asking for

actual selling price.

What you need to know is how much is the car worth. This is the wholesale price what the car can be sold for at an auction facility, the ones used by dealers to sell and buy cars. You generally can't get this info.

But you can get the published wholesale prices from KBB and NADA sites which are while a little optimistic still of value.

This then tells you approx. what car is worth wholesale and what the seller -- if a private seller can get for the car as a trade in (and probably he already knows this price which is why he is attempting to sell the car privately) -- or what the seller if a dealer has in the car as this is what he allowed in trade in for the car.

How much over this then you pay for the car is up to you and the seller.

You can if you have the patience and time follow used cars and then when you see the ad disappear call as a buyer and see if you can learn what the car actually sold for. I've tried this and had a bit of luck but it was a lot of work.

The problem too is I don't care what others paid for a car it is what I want to pay for a car that matters. I want to pay as little as possible and under wholesale ain't going to happen but wholesale is a starting point. So I start with how much the car is basically worth and then how much I am willing to pay over and above this amount.

It helps if you can show the seller a list of 6 or more nearby cars for sale similar to his though ideally priced below his car. The other cars don't have to be *exactly* like his car, they can be less fully optioned, have more miles, be a year older, even be other makes like BMW or M-B but chances are the seller will *not* spend the time to research these for himself. The idea is to plant seeds of doubt about his pricing. Then make it clear while you like this car if you don't get your price you're going to walk away and buy another car, today.

The seller must believe if you walk away without buying his car he's lost a sale to another seller. Now private sellers can be a bit harder to sway as they just don't believe their car is not worth what they are asking for it. But this is often why one comes across an unsold car that has been on the market for months. Professional sellers can be swayed by this tactic as a car is a car is a car to them. So they don't get their asking price this time. Big deal. They are you can be sure still making money on the car and selling this car frees up money to floor another car or two for which they'll make probably more money. (Used cars are quite profitable.)

You have to know someone, but this auction pricing is the floor as any dealer will dump at auction before selling you lower than this. Another way is through a "broker" that buys at auction for a standard mark up price usually between $1K and $3K. The other way, as I did it, is to do tons of research online, and then wait until the end of January or beginning of February and focus on sellers where they are getting a lot of snow. I purchased my 2009 C2S from a Volvo dealer in Minnesota at the end of January and paid, what I think, was about auction price. I had a local Porsche Indy inspect the car for about $150 which included dumping the computer looking for over revs.

Good luck, patience save big money here.

Peace
Bruce in Philly