I had a call from a chap who was considering buying a 996 Carrera 4S. The 4S is the Turbo-bodied car and sells for a premium over the standard car.
He explained that he was concerned it was too cheap at £19,000. Now that is cheap for a decent 4S – they’re usually start at about £23,000 for a half-decent example. He said it had 88,000 miles on the clock, had a full service history and had been serviced 4000 miles ago. An HPI check had proved clear and the car seemed sound if a bit dirty.
The seller, apparently, was having financial problems (not surprising if he’s selling a car so cheap!) and needed to get a deal done by the weekend, hence the low price. My caller reckoned also that the seller didn’t really know anything about the car.
The caller also told me he was worried that the car was cheap because there was something wrong with it. I pointed out that, if that was the case, the seller would be honest and tell him. If he was going to hide the fact that the car was faulty, then he’d surely try to get the full price for it!
I said he should tread carefully, get the car inspected (it was too far away for me to do it, so I put him in touch with an associate) and maybe, just maybe, he could end up with a bargain.
There are people out there who genuinely do need a quick sale and therefore will set an attractive price to achieve that. It’s always worth looking out for such bargains but, as I said to this chap, do tread carefully!
