I've had some free time recently here and there and I've visited a couple of Porsche dealers.

I went into the dealer closest to me and they had one 911 on the lot. It was already sold and they had no idea when they were going to get more in.  The salesman made no attempt to show me any other cars and seemed most interested in getting back to whatever he was doing before I
arrived.

The website for another dealer about a 30 minute drive away lists a CPO 2018 911 4S with 37K miles.  I was able to get off work very early today so I drove over to the dealer to check it out.  The car had been sold by the time I got there.  In chatting with the salesman, the only reason they had that car on the lot for more than a day was that the prior owner of the car was a cigar smoker and the car reeked of cigar smoke.

Per this salesman:

- used 911s are selling in hours, sometimes less than an hour

- their allotment of new 911s is very small and they typically sell very quickly

- I could custom order a new 911 and it would arrive in about 4 months

The salesman was great and let me sit in some of the different seats and take pictures of the cars they did have on the lot (sold, but not delivered yet).  The Sports Plus (18-way) seats were not comfortable and I won't buy a car that has them.  The seat is very narrow and has a hard edge that hits my hip bone even when the seat bottom bolsters are adjusted as wide as possible. (Please feel free to creatively comment on this.) The  Racing Yellow body color looks MUCH better in person than it does online and would be an acceptable choice, but not my first choice.
The Red Bordeaux leather, is, somewhat unattractive, and would not be my first, second or third choice of leather color.    The frunk has more usable space than I thought it would.  It would still likely not be big enough to store my wife's shoe bag on a weekend trip.

The salesman did due diligence and tried to sell me a Taycan  - Porsche's electric vehicle  They had several Taycans on the lot and there were a couple that were used as demo/test drive cars that had less than 500 miles on the odometer, but were being sold for $10K-26K off retail price.  Some of the non-demo cars were also being sold below MSRP.

It looks like my choices are to:

- be patient and continue looking for a used 911 and be ready to pounce on it

- bite the bullet and pay full MSRP (or perhaps more!) and order a new 911

- buy a discounted Taycan and be happy with a car that doesn't check all the boxes for me (the most notable being the range -- 230-240 miles per the salesman where I often go on 250+ mile trips)

The MSRP for a conservatively optioned new 911 4S is $136,910  ( http://www.porsche-code.com/PNJNCCD4 ).  

Most of the 2-3 year old 911 4Ss I've found have been more generously optioned and have been running between $112K and $119K.

My original budget was for between $105K and $120K for "the perfect car".  Used car prices have been rising rapdily and the difference between a 2-3 year old car and a new one is getting smaller and smaller.  

I've also not come across many 911s that are between 3 and 5 years old.  The do come up for sale often, but nowhere near as often as younger ones.

I will give you a piece of advise........ Be patient. The car market is INSANE right now ( I am a GSM of a dealership) I would NOT buy a car now........... Set up a search for a used one on Autotrader, cars.com, and Autotempest. Dont be scared to buy private party just do your due diligence and pay for a PPI. Also join some Porsche forums and FB groups.

That said if you HAVE to get one just order what you want, pay the premium and like it ....... :)

I would not spend any serious money on a car right now.  If I NEEDED something I'd get a beater and wait it out.

I’m looking to trade up from a 986 and 944 and a raft of BMWs, everything I want goes quickly.

Part of me has considered selling my 991 because the market is so crazy right now.  
But then I’d miss my car and be sad.  
It’s not a good utilitarian SHTF vehicle, but it sure is fun to own and drive.

Most people I know custom order there's..

No self respecting Porsche guy is going to buy a off the shelf new ride..

Crazy is right. I can now sell my low mileage 996 for more than I paid for it (used).  Almost like the used truck market, eh?

You probably used this to find the car at the nearby dealership but, in case you didn't, go to the link below and click Shop at the top, and you can search the new and preowned inventory for all Porsche dealerships in the US.  The tool works well allowing specific filtering or wide open, catch-all style
https://www.porsche.com/usa/

Check the Rennlist classifieds several times per day; continue to make your list of absolutes and compromises you will make on color/interior and other options.  Know what you want so you can pull the trigger quickly if something comes available.

Yep, I'm checking the Porsche site, Rennlist and Porsche Club of America classified site.  Yesterday's dealer visit helped me determine what acceptable colors/options are.  

Some shitty dealerships will list cars they don't have in inventory, claim they sold it before you arrive, and try to sell you another.


Agreed with this.  Any transaction where you feel like you're rushing is usually a BAD (inefficient) financial decision.

I would also advocate slightly expanding your shopping list.  Only having one car you're interested in makes your potential market very small.

That's boss & usually what a little patience leads to.

You could hire a car shopper... I did for a Camry once (I was super busy and needed a second car). Gave the person my criteria and got a call a week later. Drove to a lot, paid, and left.

I worked in the car business for 22 years through several mfr strikes, plants that were hit with tornados and the tsunami in Japan. I've seen lots of dealer inventory suffer but it's never been across the entire industry as it is now. OKC has a huge car market and the lots are nearly empty. Manufacturers have issues with chip availability. All dealers are begging for people to sell them cars. Now is definitely not a time to be a buyer. It's a great time to be a used car seller though. Used car prices have got to be skyrocketing at the wholesale level with so many many buyers and no sellers. Just like the housing market, if you have a nice late model used car I bet you can shop it with Carvana, CarMax, givemethevin.com and the other big wholesale buyers make some money.

I just bought 1 last week. Only buy a used one if it's a cpo. If I were you I would order a new one. You will be paying the same price as a used 2019 for a new if you can wait.

The prices for the 2017-2019 911 4Ss that I'm looking at have gone up $10K-$15K in the past few weeks.

I'll keep looking to see if I get lucky, but the price gap between a 2-4 year old car and a new one is closing.  

I'm not in a hurry.  I would rather wait 6 months to a year and save some $$$ than get one now.

If you order one and can swing the paint to match color option it seems to add to the resale on the back end..

I think a lot of it has to do with how many of each model Porsche produces.  A few minutes of Internet research makes me believe that Porsche makes about 20K Macans per year, but only 8-10K 911s.  

Porsche makes more Macans than all of their sedans, wagons and coupes, combined.

The Porsche dealer up in Cincinnati that I bought my 996 from sent me an email saying they want to buy my 996 back.

It's about to get the suspension rebuilt at a local indy.

By the looks of things, 6 months may not even be close to bringing things down to normal if the current projections keep going like they are.

If you can swing it, getting locked into MSRP is the best bet for getting something in a timely manor, and making sure you don't have to fight dealer "Adjusted Market Value" bullshit, which is spreading to more cars DAILY.

My dad is trying to find a C8 Corvette and he's an instant buyer on a 2LT+ with Z51 and Magride at MSRP. All we see starts at 20k above MSRP, or we could order one at a current lead time of maybe getting a 2023/24 model.

Used market is insane. My Honda dealer just bought me out of my Accord lease. I had 16 payments left. They said just hand over the keys and walk away. So that's what I did.

Anyone want to buy a used 2021 Silverado for $10,000 more than it was new?

I just want to know where everyone is getting all this money from?

Order one and do the Atlanta delivery experience and drive it home. Well worth it!!   The four month production wait time assumes there is a 911 allocation available to be built... unlikely in this market unless you know someone who knows someone.

C4S 7 speed here. Ordered Jan 2020, car went into production two days before factory shut down for covid finally received in July.   I can recommend a great dealer to order through, if interested you can send me a PM.