I have been looking for a C4S and one of my local dealers took in a lease turn in. I noticed that with 16,000 miles on it the right rear tire was almost bald while the other three had balanced wear but at least had some tread left.
With the locking differential on the C4S shouldn't the tire wear be balanced on all 4 tires?

 

all porsches wear the tires. at 16000 mi they are absolutely gone. You are lucky to get 10 to 12000 mi out of a set of rears. Who knows why one tire would be balder than the other, but at a used car dealer you are liable to see anything

 

I do understand that there is tire wear on Porsche's but the excessive uneven wear on the back is puzzling.
The Porsche Dealer said they could CPO the vehicle but if there is something wrong with the locking differential that is causing the excessive wear would they actually fix it?

 

Sounds like a back tire was replaced on a worn pair and the other, more worn tire, was left alone. It's well known these cars go through backs 2:1 to the front. When you replace tires, they should be done in at least pairs and within 4% max. OD difference from the fronts.

The car needed two back tires and they cut corners by only putting on one.

 

Before you buy...tell the dealer that you want 2 new rear tires on the car. I believe they cannot sell you an unsafe vehicle...so depending on how worn that one tire is, make them replace the 2 rears as part of the deal.

When I got my C4S I had the dealer fix the rims because the previous owner liked to kiss the curb...so part of the deal was to fix those.

If they CPO the car...your covered..no worries there.

Good luck

 

In my experience you're better of buying a pre owned Porsche from a Porsche dealer and as a CPO car due to the checks/standards that need to be met to certify it etc.

In my search, in one instance I was offered an 09 C4 PDK car with 29k miles for $64k from a private seller, had the car PPI'd and found about $5-6k worth of maintenance that needed to be done, guy got desperate and offered it for $50k eventually because he was "desperate"...definitely something off about the car if it was that cheap...go figure a local dealer bought the car and put it up for $60k CPO and couldnt sell it, then it found its way (through dealer auction I presume) to a Porsche dealer in Colorado who last I checked was asking $75k for it LOL....sorry for the rant, at the end of the day get the car PPI'd and CPO to be safe, just my opinion

 

Appreciate the guidance, the search continues...