Hey guys. I’m interested in purchasing a ‘15 F-Type from a dealership in Illinois w/roughly 11k miles on it. I’ve never purchased a vehicle site unseen before. Even with this vehicle having so few miles on it I was wanting to know some thoughts on how to get this done & if a PPI is necessary or just good practice for a vehicle with such limited miles. How would you more experienced purchasers of site unseen vehicles go about this? Thanks in advance.

 

"Probably"

I recommend getting one done by an independent shop, not a dealer, that may have a vested interest in not finding problems that threaten the pending sale. Even if you take it to a different dealer, they may be buddies and informally agree to not poop on pending sales by finding things. Lastly, a PPI is just that, an inspection. If them miss something, their only liability is covered by claiming "Oops, missed that." I had a PPI done and they missed a broken engine mount. I have no way of knowing whether they did see it and said nothing, or were just lazy.

Bottom line: it's up to you, and how much they want, but I'd stay clear of the selling dealer doing the work.

 

Depends on the price.

I got my '15 R Coupe with 29k miles on it with a PPI for $3600, covers 5 years 60,000 ODO miles total (so 30,000 more miles coverage). I work from home, so that was an easy decision. Peace of mind, and increased value if I sell since its transferrable.

 

There's a lot of conventional wisdom to get a PPI. I've made a number of sight unseen purchases over the years. It's not a lot of money and at least buys you peace of mind (and maybe keeps you from buying a mistake). FWIW, I've only had a PPI done once, but in a situation similar to yours - older/higher value car with low miles (911 Targa). The only difference was that in my case, it was bought from an individual. As it happens, I knew the local dealer and their report was the car was "showable," but needed new rubber parts all-round. I was able to negotiate that into the deal had new tires (belts/wipers/etc) when my wife picked it up and drove it home. In one other case, I looked at a used 911 Turbo when I was shopping for my F-Type. It was at the Porsche dealer and I paid to have them pull a history report on the engine. From it, I discovered it had been over-rev'd several times - all within the past couple of months. I'm guessing some tire-kickers took it out and abused it. I passed as a result.

On your car, if it's a JLR dealer, I might be content to get the repair/service history from them. If it's been regularly serviced by them with no unusual issues, I'd probably be OK, but if it's not from them, I'd have the local JRL dealer do a PPI and ask for the history. If it came from someplace else, or from and auction, "Joe's used cars," or even a used car megadealer (Carvana, etc), I'd be EXTRA cautious.

 

I would love finding a PPI attached to a warranty. How did you go about that? I plan on keeping the F-Type for 3-5 years.

 

Its at an Audi dealership & they said they’d welcome a PPI within 15 miles. They said it’s a JLR dealership down the road & they’d be happy to take it their for a PPI. They also sent me their 150 point inspection report.

 

I used LemonGurus to buy sight unseen and shipped out from Texas. I highly recommend. The PPI is step one, the Warranty is step two, and comes from a 3rd party, so not "tied" but the PPI was a factor in the pricing of the warranty.

 

Thanks. I’ll look into that.

 

My understanding is that service records are considered private, so they will not share them. The only way I got a copy was because they literally used scissors to cut out all previous owner info.

 

I would find a good indy local shop to do the PPI. I have had several done on past cars and if you are getting into something like this, its a good few hundred spent. I bought this due to a PPI being relatively poor on a 997.2 I was planning on buying. Now I have a 2016 R that I bought a couple years ago with an aftermarket warranty that I bought through the dealer. My cousin sold me the car so I hope he didn't steer me wrong. I will find out since I am dropping the car off at the dealer tomorrow for a faint coolant smell.