Should You Wait Until Spring to Sell Your Porsche?

Or is the best time to make a change actually now?

It’s a good question.

And certainly one we’ve been asked every autumn for the past 35 years.

As the days get shorter, the weather turns and another summer of motoring comes to an end, people start thinking about what to do with their Porsche.

Should they keep it? Put it away for winter? Wait until spring, when surely there will be more buyers around?

Or perhaps now is the time to make a change.

My answer usually starts with another question.

Why are you thinking of selling?

Once the Thought Is There…

In my experience, once someone starts seriously thinking about selling their Porsche, that thought very seldom goes away.

You might deliberate, hesitate, prevaricate. You might convince yourself that next year will be different.

But usually there’s a reason the thought appeared in the first place.

Perhaps you’ve enjoyed the car for years, but fancy something different. A new face, a new experience.

That doesn’t necessarily mean something newer or faster.

You might fancy going backwards in time, swapping a modern Porsche for something older, simpler and more involving.

Or perhaps you’ve spent years enjoying a track-focused car, but these days you’d rather lower the roof, catch the breeze and enjoy the scenery than chase the fastest lap.

Our tastes change. Mine certainly have!

Sometimes it’s circumstances.

You need more room. You’re moving house. Your family or lifestyle has changed. Or perhaps there’s another opportunity in life, and releasing the money tied up in your Porsche would help make it happen.

And sometimes, quite simply, the car isn’t being used.

The Porsche in the Garage

This is one I see rather often.

A Porsche that’s been loved and enjoyed for years, but now spends most of its life sitting in the garage.

Perhaps it’s covered in dust, but full of memories.

Wonderful holidays, trips abroad, Sunday mornings, special occasions and roads you can still remember as though you drove them yesterday.

And letting go feels difficult.

I understand that.

But here’s something worth remembering.

The memories don’t go with the car.

You get to keep those.

And quite often, once you’ve made the decision and moved on, the next chapter is rather uplifting.

A different Porsche. A different experience. Perhaps something completely unrelated to cars.

Meanwhile, the Porsche you’ve loved can begin making memories for somebody else.

There’s something rather nice about that.

Doing Nothing Isn’t Necessarily Doing Nothing

One thing I would encourage owners to consider is the cost of waiting.

A car doesn’t stop costing money simply because it isn’t moving.

Insurance, storage, maintenance and the occasional unexpected repair all continue.

And cars deteriorate through lack of use, sometimes in quite different ways from cars that are driven regularly.

Batteries fail, brakes seize, tyres age, seals dry out and problems can develop that weren’t there when the car was last used.

A properly stored and maintained Porsche can, of course, be perfectly happy over winter.

But leaving one untouched for months, or years, is another matter.

And what about the Porsche that’s approaching a significant maintenance bill?

Perhaps it needs a major service, tyres, brakes or some more substantial mechanical work.

Do you invest the money and continue enjoying it?

Or is this the sensible point to let somebody else take it on?

There’s no universal answer.

We regularly encounter Porsche at exactly this stage, and sometimes the right decision is to carry out the work. Sometimes it makes more sense to sell.

We can help you weigh that up.

But Surely Porsche Sell Better in Spring?

Well, yes and no.

There’s generally more activity in the spring. More people are thinking about cars, the days are getting longer and the prospect of summer motoring is rather appealing.

But there’s another side to that.

There are usually more cars for sale, too.

More buyers, certainly. But more competition.

And every Porsche is different.

We’re not selling identical washing machines.

One might have a particularly desirable colour combination. Another has wonderful history, unusual specification or exceptionally good provenance.

Sometimes we’re looking for just one buyer.

The person who’s been quietly searching for exactly that car.

And when is that person shopping?

It could be November. It could be February. It could be any time.

We’ve had customers looking for months, sometimes much longer, waiting for the right Porsche to appear.

Often their purchase is driven more by desire than by a rigid timetable.

They see the right car and suddenly everything starts moving.

We can also help with the practicalities. Part exchange, funding, storage and even overseas transactions can all make a purchase possible when it might otherwise have been delayed.

So while the market is undoubtedly seasonal, the right buyer doesn’t necessarily wait for spring.

And Preparing a Porsche Takes Time

There’s another point that’s easily overlooked.

A good Porsche deserves to be presented properly.

Before a car is offered for sale, there may be servicing, mechanical preparation, cosmetic work, detailing, photography and all the other things that go into making it ready for its next owner.

That can take weeks.

And then, of course, finding the right buyer may take a little while longer.

So if you’re thinking about selling in the spring, starting the conversation in November might actually be rather sensible.

It gives you time to understand the market, consider the options and make decisions without feeling rushed.

Waiting until the first sunny weekend in April doesn’t necessarily mean your Porsche will be sold by the second!

Markets Don’t Stand Still Either

Of course, there’s always the question of value.

Will your Porsche be worth more next spring?

Possibly.

But it might be worth less.

Markets change. Demand changes. New models arrive. People’s tastes move on.

Some Porsche become increasingly sought after, while others settle into a different part of the market.

And the cost of keeping a car for another six months can sometimes outweigh any improvement in its selling price.

I wouldn’t suggest trying to predict the market to the nearest pound.

After 35 years, I’ve learned that it’s much more useful to understand what you’ve got, what it’s realistically worth today and what you want to achieve.

Then make a sensible decision.

So, When Is the Right Time?

My advice is usually quite simple.

When you first start seriously thinking about selling, that’s probably the right time to start talking about it.

Not necessarily to sell it tomorrow.

Not to rush into anything.

But to explore the possibilities.

Whether you have a Boxster, Cayman, Macan, Cayenne, a modern 911 or something from Porsche’s earliest days, we’re always happy to discuss it.

We can give you an informed view of the market, talk about what your Porsche might be worth, explain the different ways of selling and help you decide whether to invest in it, keep it or move on.

And if you’re thinking of changing to another car, we can help with that too.

Sometimes the best advice we can give is to keep what you’ve got.

That’s absolutely fine.

We’ve been looking after Porsche and their owners since 1991, and we’ve helped cars find appreciative new keepers throughout the UK and around the world.

It’s something we genuinely enjoy.

So, if the thought of selling has been quietly sitting at the back of your mind, perhaps don’t wait for spring simply because that’s what everybody says you should do.

Give us a call. Have a chat. It costs nothing, and you might be surprised where the conversation takes you.

After all, the next chapter could be rather exciting.

Adrian Crawford