TomR9964S

To be honest you will fall in love with the car and never let it completely fall apart. Lets face it we are talking about your first Porsche not a Honda civic. I purchased a '04 C4S with 65K miles. Unless the car gets totaled I plan on giving it to my son as a college graduation present in 9 years. My personal opinion is buy the best 911 you can afford that leaves you room to keep it properly maintained and 20K miles will not be a stopping point. Also, as many other post have pointed out it looks like the 996s have bottomed out and will only appreciate from here.

jaetee

So in the end it turns out the strength of your PPI disqualified you as a buyer as soon as it became a negotiation tool... The seller is basically looking for an idiot buyer.

That's a pretty big list that I guess would take a good $5k to sort. Even more if a new immobilizer is needed for the central locking issues. And you can believe there will be more issues that show up once repairs get under way...

+1 on finding another 996, walk away

williamr91

There is an old saying, buy the newest, nicest Porsche you can afford. Spend an extra couple of k to get a well maintained 911 and you'll be more happy than one you buy and have in the shop the next day (unless you are doing some sort of build and expect it, that is different).

I do not believe in the newest Porsche part of the saying, but for sure the nicest. If you look at how a person keeps a car cosmetically (shown in photos, so you don't waste time on crap, same thing goes for peoples yard and exterior...**** on the outside, **** on the inside), the mechanical's are probably good too (big assumption, hence the PPI).

Gretch

my 2000 C4 has 140k on the clock and has none of the issues you describe...........

keep looking.

Also on a PPI, high mileage car especially, I would want the oil pan plate pulled and inspected for debris.

docmirror

Keep shopping. This is a car that has NOT been maintained.

docmirror

I'd throw $10-11k at this; https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto/6021287668.html and put $4k aside for glitches that come up. If you need your reserve, it's there. If not needed - bam, drive, enjoy. IMS done, looks to be taken care of fairly well.

There's all different kinds of buyers, for all different level of cars. Most folks don't wrench on their cars, and they should look for the best condition, and most up-to-date cars at the higher prices. But - there is a market for the down-n-dirty cars. The cars with a long list of gewgaws that aren't working right, and needs about 2 weeks of time, and maybe $1000 of materials to make right. The trick is, to not pay top dollar for the lowdown cars. I'm a bottom feeder, and don't mind saying it at all. I lucked out this time around, and got a pretty nice car for bottom feeder price. What kills, is when people pay top dollar($15k) for a rough car. The advice to find the best one you can seems obvious, but pointing out that rough cars gotta sell too.

From the pics, this one needs mounts too, and the lights need a polish which tells me it's been an 'outside' car plenty(not a surprise, given the cost of garages in SF). May need other light work, but that's what the reserve is for. Plenty of good indy shops around bay area and south to give you service options. I would stay far away from any dealer on the 996.

chamilun

once again, drive a couple. the good ones jump out, as do the bad ones. I dont care about history, PPIs, none of that. drive the car

ejdoherty911

Buy the best 996 you possibly can, newest lowest mileage with the budget you have. All these "cheap" 996 are in fact not cheap at all. They tend to need a lot of maintenance and new parts and if you aren't doing all the labor yourself you will be well above $4,000 in the blink of an eye. High mileage 996? Well if it doesn't have a fairly new suspension installed it will need one. That suspension refresh alone will cost at least $4,000. And that's just ONE item. Water pump, AOS, ? The list goes on and on. Buy the best condition 996 you can possibly afford. If you do end up going with a "cheap" 996 be absolutely certain you have $5,000 in cash ready to put into that vehicle with no hesitation or regrets whatsoever. There is nothing cheap about owning ANY 911, you either pay up front or you pay during the first 18 months of ownership.

stan23

A craigslist ad is never as what it seems. Another member mentioned here that he did a PPI on the car, and it came up with lot's of problems.

anorphirith

Stan please let me know more about this I was going to go see it tomorrow.

as far as the BMW dealership 911 is concerned, I actually drove it, it drives amazing despite the mileage and if I remember correctly it's a one owner car the guy traded it after all these years for a BMW. I did hear the rattle at low RPM, the salesperson refused to comment on it haha.
I also tried to negotiate and they wouldn't bulge stating that they could get just as much trading it to a Porsche dealer who would flip it for more ...

Bringebaer

Hehe, love the salesman BS. Meanwhile it has been sitting on their lot taking up space and time for close to half a year

anorphirith

yeah, the San Francisco BMW sales manager said that BMW mechanics are trained to detect IMS failues before they happen and that this one didn't have any symptoms ........

docmirror

Thank you for quoting my entire post. Particularly the parts where I said to set aside $4k for followup issues, and that I'm the bottom feeder who wrote "I WOULD throw $10-11k...." That's me, not you, not the OP, not Joe Bagodonuts.

So, if I were to buy the car for $11k, then spend $2k on catch-up mx, I would be into a 140k mile car, now with updated mx for ~$13k, including an IMS. Of course, if the car needed a whole new engine, that would alter the math, but 'lots of problem' don't equate to a $10k bill.

I just completed my 90k major service. If I were to send it to an indy to do, the bill would have been over $3k. I did all that was needed except the front trans mount for about $700 in materials. Water pump, serp belt, all fluids except AC, motor mounts, key switch, Y cable, filters, oil change, etc. This car already has an LN IMS change, so that's gotta be worth something.

Anyway, I said there are all kinds of buyers. I'm not like the OP, but so far my method works ok. I have the time to spend, and I have a source of reasonable parts, so that's the way I do it. The OP should not follow my method.

stan23

I buy/sell a lot of cars and motorcycles. My point is, you can NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER take a CL ad at face value. Especially an ad with just a few sentences.

Your blanketed claim about, "oh just buy this and this" (based on a crappy CL ad) has really little value on educating potential buyers about what they can be getting themselves into.

stan23

My only advice to you is that a 15K 911 is just that. A 15K 911.