MadIrish

I've found a '99 C4 with 70k on the clock that I will be making an offer on (subject to the outcome of a PPI). I've seen the car in person, it is clean, with reasonable wear.

Engine was smooth and noiseless, started up nicely. Drove well, smooth shifting, mebbe a little pull to the right (hard to tell due to the condition of the road!). Clutch and IMS bearing replaced ~4.5 yrs ago with only a few thousand miles on it since. Replaced with an LN Eng. retrofit bearing. Unfortunately, the bearing will reach the replacement time long before it's mileage limit.

Only concerns I have are: mebbe a slight misalignment, yellowed/burned spots in the interior lenses from the halogens (not too dark, but noticeable), low usage since the IMS/Clutch (IMS done only because it was opened up for the clutch)....and, a lack of evidence of regular service after the second owner (a 4 owner car) sold it in 2010, That and the fact that I'll have to redo the IMS within a year and a half.

It isn't the car I really want (that one is a 2001 C2 with 36k miles on it that is just spotless...but will need an IMS bearing ASAP, so a clutch, too)....but it is the one that fits my budget, lol. My goal was to find a car <= $20k....and the one I'm drooling over is closer to $30k all in....but that hasn't happened, so I'm tolerant of a little budget creep, but not THAT much!

Anyway, as I am in CT....I am looking for a good shop to do a PPI in northern New Jersey....Parsippany, Mahway, Paterson.....somewhere up that way.

Any recommendatons? PROTOSPORT is out...they won't do any more PPI's, they told me.

Thanks

Dan

MikeinBloomfield

Check out Powertech in Rockaway. A little west of where you are looking, but they are extremely knowledgeable (saw nothing but Porsches there when I took my 928) if a little pricey.

http://www.pwr-tech.com/

993James993

Hi Dan,

I called the two local Porsche dealerships in the nearby city where the car I was looking at was located. I asked to schedule a multipoint inspection to include a reading of the codes. Both shops were willing to schedule the inspection without question. One had availability in two days. This was a very nice experience for me. The inspection was thorough, methodical and well documented.

In the past I've had two independents do PPI's for car's I later purchased. In both cases the shops were out of town (for me) and came recommended. Both missed expensive issues and flagged non issues.

About your budget and buying a car, take your time. There are lots of 996's out there the come up almost daily. Don't buy a car unless it meets all of your criteria. They are out there.

Good luck,

Jim

Quadcammer

Parsippany and mahwah are pretty far apart from each other.

Where is the vehicle located

Bubrubb

It's a litter further west, but Precision Motorsport Racing in Califon works on all my family's cars in Northern NJ.

Will is a standup guy.

MadIrish

Thanks, I have a call in to PowerTech. Saw their name pop up in some older posts, too. If I do this car, I will likely do a LN retrofit bearing and they are authorized/certified for the retrofits, so mebbe I'd just have them do that, too.

Widehips1

PowerTech is great.

Esfoad

POWERTECH is my only go to shop. Mike is awesome.

MadIrish

Thanks for the feedback, I've spoken with Mike...he's kinda jammed right now, but we'll try to make it work.

MadIrish

Well, the seller accepted my offer (contingent on a clean PPI) for a '99 C4 cab with 70k mi. Will PPI Friday at PowerTech.

MadIrish

well....sh$t....another failed PPI. The tech at PowerTech had a good eye.

So I made a lowball offer on the over budget car I mentioned in the first post....that offer was immediately laughed off.

Oh well. Back to the hunt.

Ck986

Pwrtech is a great shop. What was wrong with the car?

MadIrish

Lots of stuff that added up to a car that wasn't well taken care of. Biggest issue was paint. First time I saw it, it was really dirty from outside storage on the dealers lot, yesterday it was cleaned up some from the rains and you could see more. I knew the car had a light rear end hit about 11 years ago and I knew they had reshot the front bumper (it wasn't a perfect match in texture), come to see that there's a ton of Bondo around the right rear wheel well, badly prepped (pebbled, sanding marks, etc), and basically most of the car had been repainted, including the rear wheels (not the front) and a lot of it badly done. Passenger door already had some chips out of the paint edge near the window molding. Waiting for the clear coat to peel off in a few years. Top was bouncing on opening (gonna kill the hyrdraulics). Lots of leaks in the engine (right side valve cover, a number of the spark tubes, oil pan), use of silicone instead of metal gaskets in some of the wet joints, rotten brake rotors. Some cracked signal lenses, some trim pieces going bad (window seals, some stuff in the frunk), 2 loose sway bars (one front and one back), the halogen lenses were melting, etc.

All in all, nothing insurmountable on the mechanical side, but I wasn't looking for a project car. Between the fact that the IMS needs to be replaced in the next 1.5 years (LN retrofit with 4.5yrs on it), plus all of the odds and ends, I'd be much better off buying one of the higher priced cars I've looked at that were in better shape.

The thing that really scared me was the paint. If it had been untouched and showing its age, I'd have been happier with that. Don't want to risk watching the paint come off that car in a few years.

Dealer was pretty offended when I told him the results..turns out they had done some of the repainting (hmm, I'd given him a chance to divulge that previously, too) because of "all the scratches" on the car. Basically said mechanics don't know anything about body work, now he knows how they work, what their agenda is....I'm like "what? what agenda did Powertech have? I don't live in NJ, they aren't going to get any work from me". "Well, I know what I have here", he says," they don't."

Honestly, when I went to look at the car I really want (the overbudget one, lol), I finally got to take it for a test ride (no more snow and crap on the road)....and knew I had just dodged a big bullet on the car above. Night and day. Problem is that the overbudget on is way too far overbudget, lol. Guy is asking $26 for it, but said he'd take $24.9. I offered $23.5 with new rubber (fronts are 11 years old for chrissake) and he got all offended and walked away. His ace in the hole is some dummy who "woulda bought it today, but he needs a loan to buy it"...good luck with that.