Buying a Taycan that was bought back (lemon)

[turtletaycan]

I'm 99% close to pulling a trigger on a Taycan that was bought back by the dealer.
The first owner had it on lease, and after 14 months the dealership bought it back.
Porsche NA replaced the battery and sold it to this third party dealership.
The car has about 13k miles and still under the original factory warranty.

I did some research on buying a lemon Taycan and I hear mostly to NEVER purchase it.
However, since this is still in factory warranty and has couple years left on the warranty, I don't understand why this would be a bad purchase.
I think the only downside is when I will be trying to re-sell it, but I plan to drive it for a long time and not too worried about to resale value.

So, as long as the factory warranty is intact, and there's nothing that comes up in a vehicle inspection, can this be considered safe?

It has most of the options that I wanted and the color combinations. Also due to the Trump tariff on overseas vehicles I'm trying to hurry this purchase.

Sponsored

 

[refazi]

Lease - YES, Buy - Absolutely not!

 

[Flying ace]

There are many reasons that can cause a lemon title. Definitely buy it at a correct price bc it will be harder to sell.

Also you're likely misunderstanding the tariffs. It applies to new vehicles imported after a certain date.

 

[rim23]

I can tell you why you must never buy a lemon.

I sold my Taycan back in late October 2024 and decided to go with BMW i5M60. It was a 1 year car (not a lemon) with still 1 year of new car warranty left.

As soon as I got it my hands, in just one week, it developed an electrical fault and could not be moved (nothing worked - even wiper blades). I brought to dealer, they “fixed” it in one week and gave it back to me. After yet another week - same error. They again “fixed” it and gave it back to me. After 1 day, it developed the same problem. They had the car for 1 month and again “fixed” the car and gave it back to me. After 2 weeks, it was dead again. It’s the fourth time it’s sitting at the dealer and they are trying to fix the car. I brought it to them on 3rd of February. And there is still no prospect of fixing it.

This is an example of a severe problem. Which one cannot know 100% if it’s fixed or not. Imagine them (I’m in a process of returning the car to the seller with my attorney) buying back the car, “fixing” it again and selling further with extended warranty.

I would not never want to have such a nightmare again. You must run away from such a car. Warranty is not a solution to all the problems. It’s just an agreement who pays for fixes. I own the car 5 months and could drive it only for few weeks.

My suggestion - if it’s known a car was a lemon, run!

 

[Murph7355]

The above is why I wouldn't touch it. Being covered by warranty is great... If you can cope with the car being off the road while it's fixed. Potentially for a long time.

By "third party dealership" do you mean non-Porsche? If so, ask why Porsche aren't standing by the product on their network. I would also ask if they'd allow an extended warranty on it.

Buyers' market. Keep looking. Don't buy a car with a bad history unless it is VERY cheap AND you can accept it being off the road for potentially months.

 

[wilho]

rim23, so you still have this lemon i5? This is really tricky to get the purchase returned in Finland.

could you update the final resolution of this case here?

 

[rim23]

rim23, so you still have this lemon i5? This is really tricky to get the purchase returned in Finland.

could you update the final resolution of this case here?

Yes, i still own it (it’ll be 5 months next week). It’s extremely tricky. Laws do not work as waiting time in a court or in a consumer board is 1-2 years. Sellers know this situation and make use of that.

I will definitely update on this situation.

 

[RAHRCR]

I'm 99% close to pulling a trigger on a 2023 Taycan GTS that was bought back by the dealer.
The first owner had it on lease, and after 14 months the dealership bought it back.
Porsche NA replaced the battery and sold it to this third party dealership.
The car has about 13k miles and still under the original factory warranty.

I did some research on buying a lemon Taycan and I hear mostly to NEVER purchase it.
However, since this is still in factory warranty and has couple years left on the warranty, I don't understand why this would be a bad purchase.
I think the only downside is when I will be trying to re-sell it, but I plan to drive it for a long time and not too worried about to resale value.

So, as long as the factory warranty is intact, and there's nothing that comes up in a vehicle inspection, can this be considered safe?

It has most of the options that I wanted and the color combinations. Also due to the Trump tariff on overseas vehicles I'm trying to hurry this purchase.

If the dealer sold it to a 3rd party, that is pretty strong confirmation that the vehicle could not meet the requirements for Porsche CPO. This car would not make my top 5 choices list for a pre owned Taycan.

 

[Fish Fingers]

If the dealer sold it to a 3rd party, that is pretty strong confirmation that the vehicle could not meet the requirements for Porsche CPO.

Very good point.

 

[Tighlines]

Ok, ill ask...
How much are they asking for this ??
$20k? Yolo, go for it!
$100k? Whoa, run from it!
Somewhere in between? ? good luck

 

[PinkPorschePrincess]

Ooopf...

I'm 99% close to pulling a trigger on a 2023 Taycan GTS that was bought back by the dealer.
The first owner had it on lease, and after 14 months the dealership bought it back.
Porsche NA replaced the battery and sold it to this third party dealership.
The car has about 13k miles and still under the original factory warranty.

I did some research on buying a lemon Taycan and I hear mostly to NEVER purchase it.
However, since this is still in factory warranty and has couple years left on the warranty, I don't understand why this would be a bad purchase.
I think the only downside is when I will be trying to re-sell it, but I plan to drive it for a long time and not too worried about to resale value.

So, as long as the factory warranty is intact, and there's nothing that comes up in a vehicle inspection, can this be considered safe?

It has most of the options that I wanted and the color combinations. Also due to the Trump tariff on overseas vehicles I'm trying to hurry this purchase.

Is the car already in the US? Also, I've had three cars go back as lemons (two Volvos and a Chevrolet). Do dealers still warranty cars with lemon titles? I hope you do what is best for you and your situation, but I would definitely make sure 100% with the dealer nearest to you that the car is still covered. Simple phone call. If you have, and you are good, post the pictures. We love a good photo. ?

 

[TreyWaters]

If there's a decent discount off of a clean title MMR, I'd say go for it. I'm in a 22 CT4S that I picked up about 5 months ago. Other than it had to have almost all of the recall work done, I haven't had any major issues (yet). I would recommend spending a few hundred bucks and getting a PPI at a Porsche dealership, though.
I got about $10k off what comparables were going for, and used that savings to get a 9-year/108k-mile Porsche Extended Service Agreement.
In 5 months, I've only had 2 issues:

1. PCM keeps losing its mind. At least one of the following will happen:
- I can be playing music from my phone over BT, but I try to make a call and it says there's no phone connected. Then someone will call, and I can answer via the car. But still, no phone connected if I try to call out. Settings even shows the phone as connected. (I *think* the PCM update from a few weeks ago might have helped this)
- Weather app stops working (sometimes the error is in German, too!)
- Android Auto or BT Music not starting/connecting so I'm stuck listening to FM until I can reboot.

In those cases, a reboot of the PCM will fix things for 2-3 weeks.

2. I got my first "charging error" today after about 3 hours of charging. At a charger at work. Tried unplugging/replugging and got it again a few minutes later. I just moved to another charger about 30 minutes ago, so as long as I can finish the day, I'll say it's not the car.

I came from a BMW M550i that I bought new in 2017. I've always been a BMW fanboy, but I had frequent issues in that car (granted, iDrive was much more stable than PCM). Since my extended warranty was running out, and it WAY more than paid for itself, I didn't want to keep the car without coverage. The Taycan came up, I loved the looks, and I'd been toying with playing with an EV for my next car, so I bit the bullet. Anyway, I'm still early in my ownership, but we'll see if this is more reliable than the Bimmer was (shouldn't be too hard).

 

[turtletaycan]

I would not never want to have such a nightmare again. You must run away from such a car. Warranty is not a solution to all the problems. It’s just an agreement who pays for fixes. I own the car 5 months and could drive it only for few weeks.

Sorry to hear that, hopefully it gets resolved soon.
The dealership is a very close drive for me, and I don't mind potentially having to driving loaners for months if the car has problems again.
I did hear the lemon law applies to used cars as well, so if the car continues to have problems for me under warranty, the 2 years I have left on the warranty is plenty time to rack up the history of unfixable issue to get it lemon'ed again.

The above is why I wouldn't touch it. Being covered by warranty is great... If you can cope with the car being off the road while it's fixed. Potentially for a long time.

By "third party dealership" do you mean non-Porsche? If so, ask why Porsche aren't standing by the product on their network. I would also ask if they'd allow an extended warranty on it.

Buyers' market. Keep looking. Don't buy a car with a bad history unless it is VERY cheap AND you can accept it being off the road for potentially months.

Yes, non-porsche. From what I heard though, this is very standard for Porsche for any lemon cars whether it was completely fixed or not. So it doesn't seem to be a problem of whether they think it's still problematic or not.

If the dealer sold it to a 3rd party, that is pretty strong confirmation that the vehicle could not meet the requirements for Porsche CPO. This car would not make my top 5 choices list for a pre owned Taycan.

Thanks, I heard that no matter what they cannot CPO a lemon title. So it's not about whether they think it's not meeting the requirements or not (well not having the lemon title is one of the requirements I guess).

Ok, ill ask...
How much are they asking for this ??
$20k? Yolo, go for it!
$100k? Whoa, run from it!
Somewhere in between? ? good luck

Discount was about $15k compared to other similarly optioned ones.

Ooopf...

Is the car already in the US? Also, I've had three cars go back as lemons (two Volvos and a Chevrolet). Do dealers still warranty cars with lemon titles? I hope you do what is best for you and your situation, but I would definitely make sure 100% with the dealer nearest to you that the car is still covered. Simple phone call. If you have, and you are good, post the pictures. We love a good photo. ?

Yes, car is in US. Good suggestion, I'm having pre-purchase inpsection done at a Porsche so will ask them for all service records as well as make sure it's covered under factory warranty.

 

[PinkPorschePrincess]

Well, to be clear, unless there is a major problem you're going to have a new car! Lol. I went from wanting to spend $60k to $70k to $80k and eventually purchased a CPO 2024 for $90k. I'm a teacher with a decent salary, but no one could convince me that this was a bad decision. You want what you want, and when you know, you know! Cheers to zero problems! ?

 

[Travis]

If the dealer sold it to a 3rd party, that is pretty strong confirmation that the vehicle could not meet the requirements for Porsche CPO. This car would not make my top 5 choices list for a pre owned Taycan.

No it’s not. Porsche can not legally CPO and buy back branded title. It can have 5 miles on it. And since it’s not a CPO Porsche sells these at auction. There are many buy back Taycans in the US that have literally no problem but were bought back because many state laws require a dealer to do so if repairs can not be made in a defined time period that varies by state. Many Taycans had long lead times for parts and many owners opted to sell back a perfectly good car that simply needed a repair. Since a buy back brands the title and value, you should see a 15% reduction on market value on purchase that you will also see on sale. The very very majority of Taycans with buy back titles are from California and because they could not be fixed quick enough under state law. CA forces buy backs after 30 cumulative days out of service.

Sponsored