Streamliner

1973 911E Targa in Aubergine with tan, Recaro seats with houndstooth inserts.

JohnLane

I have thrashed air cooled pork and current GT3 as well as GT2RS.

Air cooled cars have nothing on current Pork. Stiffness of chassis... handling balance... power.... BRAKES! Comfort. The current cars are from a different planet by comparison.

Tricky Rick

Yup... I had an old 1987 911S Targa that looked very similar to that and a 1990 911 C2... I loved them!

They absolutely are! And MUCH more powerful! But I still love the smell of the old air-cooled cars and the leather. Plus the older style! After 1994 they started going down-hill style-wise until the early 2000s when they got away from the cracked egg headlights. My son has a 2017 GTS... He is toying with selling it as he doesn't drive it that much anymore.

Streamliner

There is SO much more to car culture than speed. The new cars are all blistering fast, but they have no soul like the old ones. I would take my old Targa over ANY current sports car, I don't care how fast they are.

JohnLane

Horses for courses!

I loved my 124-036 500E but recognize it has nothing on current cars.

I’ve spent enough time in a current GT3 and GT2RS to assure you they have the magic.... and are not forever wanting to swap ends.

ChrisHimself

Ex dealer advisor here. It means almost nothing. It carries usually an extended warranty which is already factored into the price. You can buy a car with cooked brakes, old fluid, squeaky suspension, old wipers, original filters and none of it will be covered by the warranty. It'll typically have a fresh oil change and full reservoirs in the engine bay.

The CPO means they looked at it, it looks good inside and out, and there isn't anything immediately broken but that doesn't mean they actually did any service to it since it arrived. It's the same service they claim to do during your Service A more or less.

Don't worry it's not exclusive to MB, I just prefer not to drag other makes into it since I don't have experience besides MB.

Tricky Rick

Chris.... I am glad I didn't buy a car where you worked. Yes, I agree that *some* dealers are like that. But not every dealer is a bad guy. I have been in the auto industry for 36+ years now. I can tell you I have met some slimy pirates and bad apples. But I have also met some people of the highest integrity. The trick to it all is to avoid the former and BE the latter.

I was a used car manager about half a lifetime ago when CPO first came out. We took it very seriously. I always took my job seriously. Since then, I have migrated over to the financial side, but I am still in dealers almost every day. There are places I would take the car if it were free and then there are others I would pay a premium because I trust them and they take their reconditioning very seriously.

CPO rules vary by manufacturer... But are largely the same.

MBNUT1

Prefer the lines of the non Targa but absolutely gorgeous example! What a fun car.

BeanBR

When I bought my car it had 48,500 miles and/or one year left on the factory warranty. Originally It was not a CPO. I asked the dealer if they could certify it for me and they did, at a cost obviously. I did it for two reasons 1) I would reach 50,000 miles soon 2) I wanted to get extended warranty and from what I understood this was the way to do it.

In the end I left with the CPO plus 2 years of extended warranty. For me it was absolutey worth it. Cost me about 4k total and has covered every issue I've had so far with the exception of the multi contour seats that stopped working a couple of months ago. That one I had to pay for

Streamliner

Yes, I loved the coupes as well, but back then, a sports car meant top down driving for me and if you wanted a 911, Targa was all there was.

W205C43PFL

There are also options that you can almost never find in CPO cars that you have to order when new yourself or that you can never find in dealership ordered stock either, ABC on R231 comes to mind.

W205C43PFL

Oh since we are talking about Porsche, the Remote Park Assist Package (I think you call it?) also isn't ordered by new owners as often so if you want Rear cross traffic alert on a Cayenne and want to buy used? Forget about it, just buy new by ordering yourself.

W205C43PFL

Although it is not the same as the past (it never will be again there is a reason why there is so much love towards classic Porsches), the GT3 RS with the 9K RPM at least have somewhat (?) a soul, being able to adjust PASM, PTV Plus, etc. on the fly instead of having the vehicle parked and then manually do it is sort of a game changer. If you have a chance drive the GT3 RS and GT4 RS, you might also enjoy it as much as my friend did as admittedly I too never had a chance to try those aforementioned vehicles, my friend did though.

s810

I bought a 2011 E350 wagon CPO in 2016 from the dealer in Van Nuys, CA. The vehicle had three regular tires and one runs-flat when I bought it. Insulation in the engine block was loose and needed to be replaced. One of the side window sunshades was stuck in the door and couldn't be raised or lowered. The rear seat middle passenger seat belt buck tongue was installed backwards making it completely non functional. The third seat head rests were missing. The CPO checklist said they had inspected the distronic and parktronic system and they were working. This vehicle didn't come with distronic/parktronic. There were a few other features that checked out OK on the CPO report that my vehicle didn't have.

The CPO is a complete joke. I got the vehicle at what I considered a good price and I'm still driving it today (after getting all those little annoyances repaired). I had assumed that a CPO designation means that Mercedes did a thorough inspection and repaired any major safety issues. I don't believe that anymore and I wonder what kind of an inspection they do on the used vehicles that the dealer sells that do not pass the CPO guidelines.

as.thompson

That's very strange as I bought a CPO S Class from that dealer and it was perfect. Perhaps it was with different management at different years.

ILoveNY

should we always do an independent inspection for a CPO car?

I heard somebody bought a smoker CPO... also want to check if the car got flooded

Tricky Rick

That is up to you and your comfort factor with the dealership where you are looking to purchase. The whole point to the CPO process (Ideally) is to avoid having to do that as most items will still be under warranty.

Side note... My old baby...

Streamliner

Recently, there was a black CPO 2020 S560 for sale at RBM in Atlanta. It had three things going for it: It only had like 2,700 miles on it, it had Magic Body Control, AND it REEKED OF SMOKE! In a walk around video they sent me, you could see rippled areas of the driver’s seat. My guess is that some guy used the car as his “SMOKING CAVE.” He went & sat in there with the A/C running, massage seats going, audio playing and enjoyed himself away from the wife & family. The car showed that ultra low mileage, but was really not as advertised.

Lou B

Do you know the asking price or, if it sold, for what price?

as.thompson

There are ways to get rid of the smoke smell in cars. I'm surprised that a dealer in a major city like Atlanta didn't avail themselves of that solution.

Tricky Rick

I was thinking the same thing. They have ozone machines you can put in the vehicle for 30-60 minutes and it comes out clean as a whistle!

W205C43PFL

Whatever is cheaper for these stealerships, I guess they don't think smoker's cars are deal breaker for many buyers...

Tricky Rick

Most of them that I know have nice machines just for this... And cat smells too!

W205C43PFL

A detailer usually knows what they are doing

will_atl

I wouldn’t touch this particular dealer, I use their sister location RBM of Alpharetta, every time I have gone to look at car at RBM of Atlanta they have NOT been well presented, and twice I stopped at the Alpharetta location and bought a car on the way home. They are the same company but operate very differently.