umfan866

Hi,

I am looking at a 1995 993. The car has something like 56k miles on it. The 3rd owner is selling it. Here are the issues:

-alarm/central locking is completely off (must lock the car manually )
-door check strap - makes noise, apparently common issue in Porsche's needs to be welded again - may have been done once
- 1" crack on the rear bumper - vertical crack from the left exhaust upwards
- shortly after an inspection in Texas at 49,000, the odometer needed to be repaired. It was then either replaced or repaired and set to 0,00. Seller has all the paperwork documenting the speedo repair and has not yet sent it in to carfax, but he called Carfax and they said they would adjust the report once he faxes it in.

relatively minor /fixable stuff - I want t a driver not a garage queen, nor do I want to pay for a garage queen. The odometer issues concern me. I'd have to drive 3 hours to look at this car. I'll need to get a loan from Penfed and they use
Nadaguides.com and apparently they would loan up to 26k which is what excellence prices for high -retail on a 1995 993. However I need to ask them about the odo issue- if it is concerning to them.

I am trying to get into a 993 for 22.5k or less. My other option is to buy a similar car with no issues, 52,000 miles, however it has salvage title on it due to repairs done on the front right fender 11 years ago. Both sellers are asking about the same.

mongrelcat

I'd rather have an odometer issue than a salvage title... Have him fax or scan/email you the documentation. Hopefully the work was done at the dealership, I think there may be a way to certify the correction with Porsche if so (memory is fuzzy on that, so sorry if I'm wrong.)

And PenFed is awesome, I would not go out of my way to mention mileage inconsistencies, but they will probably catch it.

Best of luck, and be sure to post pics of your score

Warpig

I would pick the odo issue over the salvage title in a millisecond. Even more so if the seller has documented proof of the odo change that is verifiable and makes sense. These things happen. I don't think a price hit would be in order if odo is properly documented. The question is do you know the actual mileage (it does not have to be perfect to the mile but the docs must make sense and add up chronologically) and does the condition of the car reflect that.

Nick

umfan866

I just ran an Autocheck report on both. Carfax dropped their 30-days of unlimited reports so I went with Autocheck which still has 30 days of unlimited. On the salvage car, sure enough it says SALVAGE in red all over the report. Turns me off. On the car with odo issues, there are no issues listed on the report.
Looks like:

11/15/1994 FL 33
03/12/1996 DALLAS, TX 4,482
12/23/1996 DALLAS, TX 18,285
02/20/1997 TYLER, TX 15,397 not included in rollback calculation
11/17/2005 GRAPEVINE, TX 46,099
02/11/2009 TULARE, CA (no other mileage entries)

The last reported mileage is 46,099 on 11/17/2005. Apparently the current owner bought this car a month ago and he said he registered it, but either he hasn't yet, or Autocheck is not up-to-date- he bought the car sometime earlier this month, so maybe Autocheck isn't up-to-date yet. He said the previous owner had the issue and the odo was reset to zero and now reads 9,000. Apparently the same shop that fixed it is even willing to put the odo back to 46,000 + 9,000 = 56,000 they just won't roll it backwards, only forwards. The odo documentation is there but I have not gone to see the car yet so haven't seen the paperwork. Overall I think this is Ok and unless Carfax is reporting something, I could work with this - perhaps send the odo to the shop to get it as accurate at possible, keep all documentation, and call it a day.

But wait -- now I am re-reading the above report and the Tyler entry shows less than the later Dallas entry!
And autocheck says it didn't use this in the odo calculation. I wonder why? The one they didn't use is the one that would cause a discrepancy!

Oh man- this car may have a history of wrong odo... not good.

Thanks.

CalvinC4S

"Not actual mileage" is a branded title as far as I know and 22.5 is high for this.

mongrelcat

Yeah, unless you can get service docs with date/mileage/VIN all along the cars ownership I'd be leery, or like Calvin alluded to - discount for the discrepancy.

s4for5

A lot of states do not track mileage when a title is 10 years old or greater.
MA will blank the mileage, correct or not if you bring a 10 year old car in from another state. Sucks
There is a page in the front of the warrantee book for a dealership to document an odo change out.
If the book is intact with the proper dealer stamp showing the change I would be ok with that, anything else, all bets are off.
I personally would be concerned about the shop willing to roll it forward, if they have those skills why didn't it get done at the change out?
A good PPI should reflect the vehicles true miles or find another shop IMO
Good luck in your search, I think your budget is a bit low for a good 50k coupe but you may get lucky as the summer winds down in a few months or you go for a CAB of which there are a lot of for sale at this time.

Leon993

yup, odo issue is the one I would get. This car looks to be one of the VERY early OBDi 993s. If the alarm system has been disabled, that means it has a 964 alarm system, thats not a bad thing. I have a late OBDi 1995 993 when Porsche "modernized" the alarm system to the point that its impossible to remove. So you are at the mercy of your remote control forever, and if your remote battery goes out, your dead in the water.

Dont be afraid of the odo issue. As long as its all properly documented its ok.