Shouldn't retail cars be about perfect?
Discussion
Looking at 720s.
Am I being unreasonable to expect a car to be pretty much perfect at £180K
I've just looked at a car, that didn't have PPF on, so it's probably not surprising, but there were stone chips on the bonnet and what looked like a scuff on the bumper.
As a main dealer, why would you possibly put up a picture like this?

Am I being unreasonable to expect a car to be pretty much perfect at £180K

I've just looked at a car, that didn't have PPF on, so it's probably not surprising, but there were stone chips on the bonnet and what looked like a scuff on the bumper.
As a main dealer, why would you possibly put up a picture like this?

supersport said:
Looking at 720s.
Am I being unreasonable to expect a car to be pretty much perfect at £180K
I've just looked at a car, that didn't have PPF on, so it's probably not surprising, but there were stone chips on the bonnet and what looked like a scuff on the bumper.
As a main dealer, why would you possibly put up a picture like this?

A complete wast of advertising space,Am I being unreasonable to expect a car to be pretty much perfect at £180K

I've just looked at a car, that didn't have PPF on, so it's probably not surprising, but there were stone chips on the bonnet and what looked like a scuff on the bumper.
As a main dealer, why would you possibly put up a picture like this?


Trouble with main dealers they are run by accountants these days with lots of primadonna salesman who don't want to get their hands dirty
or even bother to call you back where as a decent high end specialist are mostly enthusiast's who have to try harder,
Sold my 993 Porsche to Paragon Porsche and although i thought it ready for the forecourt they found paintwork wise quite a few small
and i mean small imperfections that they would have to rectify before they were happy to retain it to the public,
I dealt with the owner Mark and he did admit to being very fussy about what he sells and said that another dealer may not bother and offer the
car as it was being close to immaculate,
For £180K you would expect a car like a McLaren to be as near new as is possible.

Edited by ratrod 2 on Wednesday 1st November 15:41
ratrod 2 said:
A complete wast of advertising space,
Trouble with main dealers they are run by accountants these days with lots of primadonna salesman who don't want to get their hands dirty
or even bother to call you back where as a decent high end specialist are mostly enthusiast's who have to try harder,
Sold my 993 Porsche to Paragon Porsche and although i thought it ready for the forecourt they found paintwork wise quite a few small
and i mean small imperfections that they would have to rectify before they were happy to retain it to the public,
I dealt with the owner Mark and he did admit to being very fussy about what he sells and said that another dealer may not bother and offer the
car as it was being close to immaculate,
For £180K you would expect a car like a McLaren to be as near new as is possible.
I agree in some respects, but its unlikely to be as new or as near to new if its done reasonable mileage in my opinion, obviously you are not expecting scuffs as per the op mentions, but its almost impossible to drive a car without some little marks appearing.
Trouble with main dealers they are run by accountants these days with lots of primadonna salesman who don't want to get their hands dirty
or even bother to call you back where as a decent high end specialist are mostly enthusiast's who have to try harder,
Sold my 993 Porsche to Paragon Porsche and although i thought it ready for the forecourt they found paintwork wise quite a few small
and i mean small imperfections that they would have to rectify before they were happy to retain it to the public,
I dealt with the owner Mark and he did admit to being very fussy about what he sells and said that another dealer may not bother and offer the
car as it was being close to immaculate,
For £180K you would expect a car like a McLaren to be as near new as is possible.

Edited by ratrod 2 on Wednesday 1st November 15:41
Some dealers don't even prep cars these days, they hope you don't notice.
Some dealers do minimal prep.
Some dealers and specialist will go above and beyond prep wise, but alas this can be rare.
Most dealers on 100k plus cars these days are typically adding around 20-30k profit on top on what they bought add, take out the cost of warranty and prep work gives them their bottom line, as such many will try to get away with minimal prep.
Buy on condition and try to buy private ideally.
Some dealers do minimal prep.
Some dealers and specialist will go above and beyond prep wise, but alas this can be rare.
Most dealers on 100k plus cars these days are typically adding around 20-30k profit on top on what they bought add, take out the cost of warranty and prep work gives them their bottom line, as such many will try to get away with minimal prep.
Buy on condition and try to buy private ideally.
Many dealers including main agents don't seem to own their stock preferring to return a higher figure to the owner on SOR,
Problem with that most are reluctant to put more than a valet into the car hoping any reconditioning whether mechanical or cosmetics
can be done once a deposit is taken which could be the case with the McLaren.
When selling my F430 i got many calls from dealers and on-line auctions and almost went with Kent High Performance ,partly because
i have bought a couple of Ferrari's from them and some racing parts for my GTB which came off Rogers own racing car but most
of all they wanted to rectify some minor stone chips and peeling on the red crackle in the engine bay before they would entertain putting it into their
showroom at no cost to me unless i decided wanted the car back , decided against it only because " Collecting Cars " kept contacting me so i gave
them a go, they successfully sold the car and is in Australia now .
Problem with that most are reluctant to put more than a valet into the car hoping any reconditioning whether mechanical or cosmetics
can be done once a deposit is taken which could be the case with the McLaren.
When selling my F430 i got many calls from dealers and on-line auctions and almost went with Kent High Performance ,partly because
i have bought a couple of Ferrari's from them and some racing parts for my GTB which came off Rogers own racing car but most
of all they wanted to rectify some minor stone chips and peeling on the red crackle in the engine bay before they would entertain putting it into their
showroom at no cost to me unless i decided wanted the car back , decided against it only because " Collecting Cars " kept contacting me so i gave
them a go, they successfully sold the car and is in Australia now .
Edited by ratrod 2 on Wednesday 1st November 18:52
br d said:
AB has that gorgeous Paris Blue 720S in your price range which is pretty mint.

I spoke to him a few weeks back. 
It needs some work, which will be covered by the warranty, the wheels need referbing and it might need paint.
The difference is the honesty and it’s admitted as not prepped yet.
The crap pictures are unforgivable. And to my mind scuffs on a main dealer car at less than 8000 miles are not a good sign.
Obviously a four year old car without PPF is going to get some blemishes and I was surprised there wasn’t more. But I think I would also expect it to be presented sorted.
In years gone by Porsche used to automatically just paint the front ends of second hand cars.
Maybe it would have been dealt with as part of the deal, I didn’t ask, as I didn’t like the interior.
supersport said:
I spoke to him a few weeks back.
It needs some work, which will be covered by the warranty, the wheels need referbing and it might need paint.
The difference is the honesty and it’s admitted as not prepped yet.
It needs some work, which will be covered by the warranty, the wheels need referbing and it might need paint.
The difference is the honesty and it’s admitted as not prepped yet.
The warranty work is done on the car now
It had a few chips because I'm not a fan of PPF, I prefer to get my cars sorted come sale time.
You're certainly right though about main dealer presentation, it does seem a bit half arsed at times, maybe because the used market isn't their primary concern.
supersport said:
br d said:
AB has that gorgeous Paris Blue 720S in your price range which is pretty mint.

I spoke to him a few weeks back. 
It needs some work, which will be covered by the warranty, the wheels need referbing and it might need paint.
That would be in my rough as a badgers ass category albeit wheels are easily repaired.
Less keen on paintwork though and maybe indicative of how it's been treated generally.
A lot of people have so much money they just don't care or look after cars like its their P & J
br d said:
supersport said:
I spoke to him a few weeks back.
It needs some work, which will be covered by the warranty, the wheels need referbing and it might need paint.
The difference is the honesty and it’s admitted as not prepped yet.
It needs some work, which will be covered by the warranty, the wheels need referbing and it might need paint.
The difference is the honesty and it’s admitted as not prepped yet.
The warranty work is done on the car now
It had a few chips because I'm not a fan of PPF, I prefer to get my cars sorted come sale time.
You're certainly right though about main dealer presentation, it does seem a bit half arsed at times, maybe because the used market isn't their primary concern.
I was with you on PPF but I think I've changed my mind.
supersport said:
So your car then?
I was with you on PPF but I think I've changed my mind.
Yeah, if I'm not chopping I always go through Alistair, top service.I was with you on PPF but I think I've changed my mind.
I had a 720S Coupe years ago which Mclaren put into Topaz before I picked it up, 9 grand IIRC.
I took it on a euro tour and when I got back it had several digs which were beyond the PPF's ability to restore so half of it had to come off the car.
I know most people swear by it but that put me off. Once I've picked up a couple of chips I just get it sorted, I prefer it that way.
Of course my experience might have been an outlier.
In the interests of honesty and after doing a complete U turn I'm going for the Track Pack PPF on my new car!
After a chat with Ben today it makes sense. I will be taking this car on long trips and for the relatively low cost of £3600 I think its worth the punt.
After a chat with Ben today it makes sense. I will be taking this car on long trips and for the relatively low cost of £3600 I think its worth the punt.
Edited by br d on Thursday 9th November 17:55
Where are you and where are you getting the PPF done? My car had ‘track PPF’ done as part of the deal, but I then ended up taking it somewhere else to have the bits that weren’t included originally added. And it would have been cheaper to have the whole lot done at the second place originally.
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