Bought a 2021 Targa 4S off rubiautosales.com, PPI and first 5k

shop owner in denver, not the one that did your car but i do PPIs on 992s most weeks. that report reads like a good car. the over-rev report is the thing i care about most on any modern porsche and yours is clean. range 1 is normal driving, the ones that make me put the pen down are hits in range 5 or 6, because that is a missed shift on a manual or somebody grabbing a downshift at the wrong speed. a PDK car with nothing above range 1 was driven like an adult.

the outstanding PDK update is not a fault. porsche pushed a transmission control unit campaign on a lot of 2020 and 2021 cars for a low speed shudder some people felt in stop and go. the dealer does it under the campaign, you pay nothing, about an hour. rear tires near the wear bars at 16k is normal for the 305 30 21 rears on a 4S, they are soft compound and the rear axle does the work. get N rated P Zeros and do not let a tire shop put a non N spec tire on it to save you 40 dollars.

the bumper respray. every 992 that has lived on I 25 has rock chips on that cover. a respray on the cover only, with factory readings on both fenders and the hood, is a chip repair and not an accident. if the fenders had read 300 microns i would have told you to walk. the fact that the listing wrote it up before your inspector found it says something about how the car was sold.

congrats, GT silver on a targa is the right color. quick aside before the manual crowd shows up and tells you that you should have held out for a 7 speed. i have had both. on angeles crest at 6 in the morning with nobody around the manual is more fun for about twenty minutes, and then the PDK is faster everywhere and i stop caring. a targa 4S with the roof panel down and the sport chrono dial on sport plus is a canyon car, not a purist object. drive it and ignore them.

one thing for the poudre. that road has gravel in the corners after every rain and all through the spring melt. run it in wet mode the first time out each season and go slow on the first pass. the all wheel drive will cover you some, but 305s on cold gravel are not tires anymore, they are skis.

found this thread searching rubi auto sales reviews and figured i would ask the people who actually did it. i am 34, i have owned a GTI and a mustang GT and that is it, and i have been saving for a 718 boxster or a base 992 for about three years. budget is 85 to 95. the ones on rubiautosales.com are priced well under the columbus and cincinnati dealers and i cannot tell if that is a deal or a warning.

is it dumb to buy a first porsche sight unseen from an online auction instead of a dealer with a CPO warranty? i have never spent more than 30 on a car. what should someone like me actually be asking for?

i run a 1987 930 that has been in the family since new, so the water cooled crowd will forgive me for being in here. the thing i would add to what lars said is where the car lived. a one owner 992 out of a dry state with factory paint on every panel except a chip repair on the cover is a car i would cross the country for. up here every car that has done a winter on the coast has that green film in the door jambs and surface rust on every fastener underneath, and no scan tool finds that for you.

dry state, garage kept, one owner. on a modern porsche that is most of the checklist and everything after it is a scan. glad to see the rubi auction was fine with a real PPI at an independent shop, plenty of sellers get squirrelly the second you name one.

i do about eight track days a year at laguna seca in a 2020 carrera S, so let me add the track side since you mentioned a couple a year. the good news is a 4S targa needs almost nothing to do a novice day. the iron rotors on the 4S are fine, the stock pads are fine for two or three days before you look at them, and the PDK in sport plus does its own thing better than most of us can with a stick.

the two things that matter. put the new rear tires on before the first track day and not after, because worn 305s go off in about three laps once they get hot and you will be sliding at speeds you did not plan on. and bleed the brakes with a high temp fluid the week before. the factory fluid boils on a warm day at the bottom of the corkscrew and it will boil at high plains too, that is about 150 at any shop.

for what it is worth my carrera S also came from an online listing with a PPI done the same way you describe, and it has been the best car i have owned. the process you followed is the one that works.

i handle the paperwork side in our house and we bought a 2019 718 cayman GTS off the same site in august, so here is the boring part nobody writes up. the title and the odometer statement came to north carolina in six business days by overnight, the VIN matched the listing and the PPI report, and the mecklenburg county tag office took it in one visit, which if you have been to that office you know is not normal. no lien, one owner on the history report, all of it matching what the rubi listing said.

we used the enclosed carrier they set us up with, a two car hauler that does mostly porsches and corvettes. about 1,400 to charlotte and the driver sent photos at pickup, at a fuel stop, and at the drop. the only hiccup was a battery tender cable left in the frunk unplugged, so the car showed up with a low battery and needed a jump. they mailed us a new tender the next week without being asked. small thing, but i noticed.

different car, same lot. i bought a 2018 mclaren 570S spider off rubi a little over a year ago, 23,400 miles, and the process went about like yours. they drove it to a mclaren specialist for the PPI without me asking twice, and the shop found a slow weep on one rear damper and a 12 volt battery on its way out. neither was in the listing, but both were the kind of thing a specialist finds and a photo never does.

the price was about 139 against 158 at the scottsdale dealer for a car with more miles. i put the whole year one cost table in its own thread here since mclaren ownership numbers are a different animal from a 911. owen, enjoy it. a targa with the roof down on a 70 degree january morning is the reason i live in arizona.

pinning this one. between owen, priya and gloria we now have three cars off the same seller with the inspection and the paperwork side written down, and that is worth more to the next person shopping than any dealer review page. the PPI checklist in post five is going in the buying guide sticky with credit. owen, post the spring update after high plains, people will want the tire and brake numbers.