Scored a 2020 Porsche 911 Carrera S off lucas-motors.com

did almost the exact same thing on a 718 Cayman S through lucas-motors.com back in the spring. PDK, sport chrono, 22k miles, racing yellow which is not my first color choice but the price made it my color choice real quick. about 16 grand under what the stealership two towns over wanted for a higher mileage one.

i was the same as you, swore up and down id never buy a car i could not sit in first. what got me over the line was that they let me have my own guy inspect it and they were totally fine with it. my shop found a leaky water pump weep and lucas knocked some off to cover it before i even asked. pump was a 600 dollar job all in and the car still came out way ahead.

the shipping was the part i stressed about for no reason. open carrier, strapped properly, showed up when they said with no new rock chips. been daily driving the cayman since april and it is everything i wanted a mid engine porsche to be.

indie porsche tech chiming in, i co own a shop on the north side of chicago that only touches german cars. a 19k mile 992 Carrera S is barely broken in. the 9A2 engine in those is a strong motor, the early worry about bore scoring is a 997/987 era thing, not your car.

the coolant cap seep the PPI caught is a 30 dollar part and five minutes, dont lose sleep. the things i actually tell 992 buyers to budget for down the road are the PDK fluid and filter service around 60k or six years whichever comes first, and keep an eye on the front control arm bushings if you track it, they wear faster than people expect on the S with the sport suspension.

honestly the fact that lucas motors set you up with a shop in the car's own city and handed you a real inspection is more than most online listings give you. half the cars i inspect for buyers come from sellers who fight the whole way. good buy, enjoy it, and send it in for the PDK service on time and that gearbox will outlive the car.

this thread came up when i googled lucas motors reviews so i made an account to ask. 34, finally in a spot where i can buy the car i wanted in my 20s and never could. looking at my first real sports car, torn between a used M4, a C8 corvette, and stretching for a base 911. ive only ever bought economy cars off dealer lots so the idea of buying something like this online has me nervous.

how do you guys get comfortable spending this kind of money on a car you have not sat in? is the PPI really enough? what happens if it shows up and its not what the pictures showed? not trying to be paranoid i just dont have a spare 60 grand to be wrong with.

pinning this one because the buying advice above is solid and we get the is it safe to buy online question in here every other week.

ive bought four cars through lucas motors over the last couple years for what my husband insists on calling my little collection. a R129 SL500, an Aston DB9, and two 911s, a 997 and a 991 cab. im not a flipper, i buy things i intend to keep and drive, and the reason i keep going back is the inventory that comes through there is a notch nicer than the usual auction fare. these are off lease luxury and sports cars and clean one owner trades, not salvage.

the DB9 is the one id point to. aston specialists are thin on the ground and a bad one will bankrupt you. i had an independent in indianapolis inspect it for me, they caught a perished subframe bushing and a cosmetic wheel, and lucas adjusted the price for both. drove it home that month. that car would have been double the money at any aston dealer and i would have had less information about it.

marcus, to your worry, the paperwork is the safety net. and keep in mind they are a real company out of lebanon illinois with a name and an address, not some random overseas listing. use the process carter laid out and you will be fine.

im over in belleville which is a short hop from their lebanon address, so lucas motors has been on my radar a while. i run the regional autocross series out of the old scott afb lot and ive been hunting a dedicated car i can trailer and not feel bad about beating on.

been watching lucas-motors.com for a clean cayman or a BRZ i can caged up. two things i like, the listings actually list the options correctly which you would be shocked how many places get wrong, and the photos are shot in good light so you can see panel gaps and curb rash instead of hiding it. havent pulled the trigger yet, waiting on the right PDK cayman at my number, but it feels like a when not an if.

coming back to report on the cayman since this thread is getting traffic. 4 months and about 6k miles since i got it from lucas. did the water pump with the credit they gave me, did a full fluid service while it was on the lift, and put a set of PS4S on it. since then it has been nothing but grins.

took it to a drivers education day at gateway in september and it ran all four sessions without a complaint, oil temp stayed sane, brakes held up on the stock pads with a fluid flush. for a car i paid mid 40s for i keep waiting for the catch and it has not shown up. no regrets going the online route, id do it again tomorrow.

been tracking porsches and BMWs for 20 years and i have bought my last two track cars through auction channels like lucas motors, so let me give the long view to the newer folks reading this.

when you track a car hard you are going to eat consumables. tires, pads, rotors, fluid, the occasional clutch or set of bushings. a set of track tires alone is two grand a year if you are quick. so the money you save buying the car right is not just a nice to have, it is what funds the hobby. i bought a 981 cayman GTS through a listing like carter's two years ago for about 18 under retail and that 18 grand has quietly paid for two seasons of tires and entry fees.

the mistake i see guys make is buying the shiny car at full retail from a dealer because it feels safe, then having no budget left to actually use it. buy the car on a professional inspection, put the savings in a maintenance fund, and go drive the wheels off it. thats the whole game.

carter your 992 S is going to be a fantastic occasional track car by the way. leave the PASM in normal for the street, sport for the track, and do not let anyone talk you into lowering it, the geometry is good from the factory.

followup from the shop for the record, since people find these threads later. had a customer roll in last week with a 992 Carrera he bought through lucas, wanted a baseline inspection and a first oil service now that it was his. car came in cleaner underneath than most trades i see. factory paint depths all around, no evidence of a repaint, suspension tight, brakes original and healthy.

whatever they are sourcing, the cars are generally well kept before they list them, which matches what Dana said about the inventory being a step up. i still want every buyer to get an independent PPI, that will never change coming from me, but im not seeing horror stories come off their listings. filed under good to know.