Beware of Porsche Boxster 24 hour test drive offer

peterg1965

nullogik wrote: »

If you can't afford to pay the excess if you total the car on the test drive, then you can't afford to own a Porsche, simple as that.

Really, anyone who hasn't got at least £10k to hand (I mean in a bank) shouldn't be even considering purchasing a Porsche let alone test driving one, you're living beyond your means!

Absolute rubbish..... join the real world!!

plane_boy2000

anewman wrote: »

If you can spend 35k on a car, losing 10k to you is like me throwing away £1.

No, losing 10K would be a significant event to me, and I dont have 500K in savings, I just enjoy cars and am in a position that I can afford to spend 35K on a car so do because of the pleasure it brings me.

aj3001

anewman shut up you don't know what your talking about and your making yourself sound stupid

OP, the insurance excess I believe is to encourage people to not use it on a track day or try any street racing

I do agree the cost seems fairly extortionate, maybe if you were seriously considering the car, take it for a test drive with a sales man, normally then you wouldn't have any excess, or a considerably less one

movilogo

Last month I went to test drive a Toyota and had to sign a disclaimer for £500 excess. I also test drove other cars [Honda, Kia etc. but didn't have to sign any disclaimer].

I think you need to sign disclaimer only if you take the car unaccompanied for a test drive. If someone from dealership stays with you in the car usually you don't need to sign anything.

Coming to the point, the whole point of high excess is to dissuade people who are highly unlikely to buy the car. Many people who has absolutely no intention (as well as money) to buy a Porsche will go for a test drive.

However, if I had the money to buy a car with £35k still I'd be fearful about a £10k excess for a test drive.

I'm sure if you appear in a Ferrari for a Porsche test drive and refuse to sign £10k excess policy - they will reduce it to £1k for you. But if you appear in a Vauxhall or Ford they probably won't...

roswell

Excuss me if im being thick hear but the excess is 10 000 most likely they would just put a charge against your credit card for that amount and remove the reservation the next day. EG they are making sure jonny i want a porsche but cant afford one isnt going to come in and right off £40 000 worth of car.

That seems fair to me.

lets be honest, your going to have the car 24 hours, there is nothing stopping you taking it to the nearest ferry terminal and sending it over to europe etc to be chopped.

there taking a risk and because of that they are looking to protect some losses if the worst happens.

nullogik

I don't see a problem with this huge excess as long as its made clear (either in T&C's or from the salesperson).

Put simply, if you don't want to risk £10000 then don't test drive the car!

DKLS

In the past 2 weeks, I have test driven some very nice cars including a Mint NSX Type R, an Evo and a Volvo!!!, and was covered by the Garages policy every time. Then again I have only driven what I could afford. EG I really want to play in an RS4, but its out of budget.
I guess the Porsche offer is to help screen out the dreamers and wannabees, but could be worded better.
I feel like a kid in a pick and mix shop, will have to decide soon tho.

philhuff

Fully agree with the OP, and can't help but chuckle at some of the outrageous comments from other posters.

Starting with the original point, if it's clearly stated that there's such a large excess, then that's fine, but the OP suggests it's hidden away - that's not on.

Moving on, I nearly bought a Boxster, but ultimately went elsewhere. It was a close call, but the £32k for a Boxster was tempting, and that doesn't mean I'm prepared to stump up a £10k excess on insurance.

Here's a quick bit of maths…

A Boxster is £32k. After three years I'd expect to be able to sell it for around £20k. Servicing would be about £750 a year, and I'll even add in insurance (about £700 a year for me) meaning it would have cost me £16,350 over three years.

A Vectra SRi (and I think anyone would agree that that's a 'normal' car) costs about £18,000, and could be sold after three years for about £6,000. Add in servicing at £250 a year, insurance at about £300, and the total cost would be about £13,650 over three years.

That means I need to be about £900 a year 'richer' than somebody driving a normal car. It's not that much when you look at it that way, is it?

To put it another way, and using the same arguments about being able to afford the £10k excess, the Vectra owner should be able to quite happily spend £8,000 on an insurance claim and, according to one person, will have £400,000 in the bank.

Anyone who runs a car should know that the purchase price means very little. Take the life costs in to account, and suddenly a world of possibilities are open to you.

DKLS

philhuff wrote: »

Fully agree with the OP, and can't help but chuckle at some of the outrageous comments from other posters.

Starting with the original point, if it's clearly stated that there's such a large excess, then that's fine, but the OP suggests it's hidden away - that's not on.

Moving on, I nearly bought a Boxster, but ultimately went elsewhere. It was a close call, but the £32k for a Boxster was tempting, and that doesn't mean I'm prepared to stump up a £10k excess on insurance.

Here's a quick bit of maths…

A Boxster is £32k. After three years I'd expect to be able to sell it for around £20k. Servicing would be about £750 a year, and I'll even add in insurance (about £700 a year for me) meaning it would have cost me £16,350 over three years.

A Vectra SRi (and I think anyone would agree that that's a 'normal' car) costs about £18,000, and could be sold after three years for about £6,000. Add in servicing at £250 a year, insurance at about £300, and the total cost would be about £13,650 over three years.

That means I need to be about £900 a year 'richer' than somebody driving a normal car. It's not that much when you look at it that way, is it?

To put it another way, and using the same arguments about being able to afford the £10k excess, the Vectra owner should be able to quite happily spend £8,000 on an insurance claim and, according to one person, will have £400,000 in the bank.

Anyone who runs a car should know that the purchase price means very little. Take the life costs in to account, and suddenly a world of possibilities are open to you.

At last common sense, I know what I would rather be driving.
All to easy to point the finger at those evil porsche drivers, when you have a 1988 Nissan Micra.

nej

Some weirdness on this thread!

I bought a car for £25k last year... but I seem to be missing £400k in my bank account... the car is being financed over 5 years, and is basically paid for by my company car allowance.

My car depreciates quite a lot, a Boxster wouldn't. I probably could've got a Boxster if I'd pushed the boat out a bit, or done it as PCP or something, but it's not quite as practical as the people carrier I bought...

And I don't have £10k for an excess, either. In fact, I have hardly any money. This doesn't stop me from affording a car, though (and no, I can't spend £1k on a second hand car with air-con and blah blah blah because I have to get a certain age car as part of the allowance deal).