Should I Be Charged For This?
 

I took a test drive of a Cayman yesterday and was talking with the salesman back at the dealership afterwards. Awesome car, by the way, i really believe i want one.

Anyone, i told him what color(s) i would prefer and he said that might be hard to find. I asked him if he had a geographic location he could only dealer trade with or could Porsche dealers get cars from all over the United States. He said from all over, but if they had to go too far there would be transportation costs involved.

So, if they have to transport a Cayman to Indiana (where i live) should i bear the costs of having that car shipped? lets say from Florida to Indiana? or California to Indiana?

Can anyone offer any thoughts?

Mike

Well, they probably can sell the car where it is already located fairly soon, so why should they pay the shipping? On the other hand, the salesman may be telling you that both as a start for any negotiations if you are serious, and in hopes you'd give up on that idea and buy a car he has in stock. If you are serious, ask him to give you the best as-delivered price he can on the car you want and see what happens. Don't expect an easy go of it or much price flexibility, you have told him already what you want and he knows it is hard to find.

When I got my Ferrari, it turned out what I wanted was very rare -- a new Ferrari with a 6 sp manual: the factory had already shifted to fitting only the F1 electronic transmission in all cars it made. I was in no position to bargain given there were, at that time, no more than two dozen still unsold 6 speed manual trans cars available. Add the color and options I wanted, and it was likely the only one left, period. I not only paid a premium for the car, but probably the maximum the dealer could rationalize to have it carted a long distance from where it was, to me.

I just shipped an E420 from Ohio to Florida with American Auto Transport and it was $650.