I've found the last four cars that my family has bought on ebay but never closed the deal through ebay. The prices they list are typically the starting auction price and they are expecting it to go higher, they sometimes list reserves on the auctions as well to make sure they don't close for anything that would be a loss to the dealer. I found the Cayman S I wanted on ebay, it was also for sale here as it was Kaizersozay's white Cayman S but I missed the auction. However, I got lucky as the winning bidder did not bid high enough for the seller and he also had not yet paid the amount agreed to after the auction.
Similarly I found my father's Cayenne S on ebay listed by a dealer in
South Carolina called Foreign Cars Italia, I placed a call to the internet manager there, made an offer and purchased the car a couple days after the auction ended withou the reserve being met, you'll find this is the most common case on ebay motors.
My mom's 7 series was a similar experience but it was used, I bought it based on pictures from a dealer in Texas and the only issue with it was that it was filthy and in need a lot of detailing; not the most pleasant experience but the deal was great for the car at the time. You won't run into this problem with a Cayman S that is fairly new, with low miles, and comes from a large dealership.
I purchased my SLK from a Volvo dealership in California, sight unseen and only one picture but the mileage was 7,000, the car fax was clear, the car had everything I wanted and the deal was literally thousands below the car's book value.
Sorry to keep going on, but essentially I think it comes down to making sure you buy a car from a large, reputable dealer, find out as much as you can about the specific car and remember, even if the car is shipped to you thousands of miles, you can still refuse delivery based on condition. The pro's of this obviously are you can get a better deal and you miss out on what can be a high pressure sales experience at the dealership, the cons are the risk factor which can be made very low. The real benefit if you are looking for a car is not necessarily the price, it is the selection you get when you open up your search radius, at this point you could go into any dealer and negotiate a deal that might seem too good to be true. Consider ebay and other online car sale sights as a means of looking at selection, find the car that matches closest to what you're looking for and then call the internet manager and discuss pricing with him.
- Suneet
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