Advice for considering to buy a lemon/buyback?

albo23

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I'm considering buying a Taycan that was a lemon/buyback for the manufacturer reasons listed at the bottom.

- How much of a discount off a comparable, non-lemon, would you expect?
- Any pitfalls or huge mistakes I may heading into here?
- This should still have the standard Porsche warranty, no other considerations?


Reason provided by Manufacturer:
- Multiple faults with PCM. Also
- Etc.
- Faults would appear on instrument cluster.
- "Chasses error"
- "WBA limited"
- "Porsche connect issues"
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02bluesuperroo

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Here are the things that would worry me.

1. Most likely the dealer already tried to fix it several times
2. Electrical issues can be very hard to diagnose
3. Parts availability of semi-conductor parts
4. Manufacturer warranty on a lemon? Seems unlikely
5. High cost vehicle but if it's a brick then it's just as worthless as an inexpensive vehicle

Unless you're into taking big risks or you're a very experienced auto mechanic, I wouldn't pay more than the parts value for it. Even if it's fixable, I would be prepared to wait a long time to get the right parts. I would also try to have a dealer already committed to helping resolve the issues.
 

schad

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I'd ask for a 30-day, no questions asked, full money back return period. I really don't think I could bring myself to pay money for a buyback without that. If the car can make it 30 days without any problems, it's probably been fixed and I got a great deal. But at the first nontrivial problem, the car goes back to the dealer and I walk away. I'm not even giving them a chance to fix it. The car should already be fixed by the time they list it for sale. If it's not, that means they can't fix it, and I want no part of a car that can't be fixed.

If they were still willing to talk to me after that initial demand, the rest of the conversation would probably be easy. Balance of factory warranty, CPO warranty, proof that all recalls/campaigns have been applied, full service history, substantial discount.

If bluesuperroo is right about no factory warranty, hard pass. If Porsche doesn't trust the car enough to warranty it, why should I trust it enough to pay money for it?
 

02bluesuperroo

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My first reply was assuming that the car was being sold in the state it was in when it was returned as a lemon. Has the car already been sent back to Porsche and/or repaired at the dealer? Or do the problems listed still exist?
 

Skilly

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The car should be priced about 25% less than its equivalent without a buy back on its record.

The reality is that the mfg bought the car back and refurbished it (hence the Lemon title), then put it back on the market via auction to be sold in the grey market. Porsche cant CPO a lemon car, and they dont want it on the lot, so its auctioned and it will show up in a resellers lot. The buy back could have been all sorts of things but considering Porsche quality and reputation, it was 1. fixed correctly and 2. very likely something minor and couldn't be repaired within the window of consumer protection clauses.

I don't know if I would be worried, but there are considerations for buying one.

First if you're financing, ask your bank about lemons - some wont give money to a lemon car. They dont want to be on the hook for a car you decide was a bad choice and value to recover their costs is unpredictable. Second, that mark on its history will never go away so it will always be at least 25% below market. As you put miles on it, that may vary but not by much. If you intend to keep it, and you have your own financial methods, Id follow the advice noted in prior posts about protection in your purchase.

Finally FWIW regarding resale - there are a surprising amount available in the US market - about 150 or so - all are following (for the most part) normal depreciation despite the WW shortages in the car market. And, they all have low miles - it's rare to see something with full ownership from the start and hovering above 10K miles. Bottom line, is that what you see as a deal now a year from now might be much worse, especially as the added variants to the fleet start to hit the market.
 


DerekS

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Reason provided by Manufacturer:
- Multiple faults with PCM. Also
- Etc.
- Faults would appear on instrument cluster.
- "Chasses error"
- "WBA limited"
- "Porsche connect issues"
Sounds like a fairly normal Taycan to me. :)

- I've had many PCM bugs and issues.
- I've seen the occasional weird message on the instrument cluster.
- I've had issues enabling Porsche Connect services.

In short, the software side of the car is still a little soft in the middle. I don't think I'd avoid the car for them, but you might be able to leverage a good discount since it's lemoned.
 

Chris8536

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Paying out of pocket to fix what are likely complete un-self serviceable errors will quickly add up to far far far more than you are saving. I can't believe anyone would consider a lemon'd Taycan -- you can't fix the PCM/Software/Update issues yourself. Unless of course it carries over the MFG warrantee?
 
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Skilly

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Get it. They warranty will fix everything.
one more thing, and its a big one - you want to contact Porsche on that warranty. Marked for Lemon can often void the MFG warranty. Make sure that they will put in writing that its still intact. That isnt guaranteed.
 

Mr.Smith

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If eventually reselling it matters to you, I wouldn't do it. Harder to sell branded titles
 

Bella

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albo23

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Yeah you’re right, thanks for the feedback. This may be a case of penny wise pound foolish.
 

amelen

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Having almost returned a car in the past as a lemon (it was an Audi with a lot of issues) - I would not recommend buying a previously returned lemon vehicle unless it's SUPER discounted. For example, I bought an almost-new Panamera before (I think 300 miles?) that had a fender bender while at the dealership (on their watch), so they bought it back. Even their I was skeptical, but it was discounted enough where it made sense. In this case, I don't think the discount is enough to warrant the risk.
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