Nader Fotouhi

How easy/difficult is it to alter/disable odometer on 3.2 Carreras? The reason for the question is that I am wondering whether the milage on a car I plan to look at is the actual milage.

The Carfax shows that the car was sold (to the current owner) in Nov. 2001 with about 29800 miles. The only other record on Carfax is service at a local shop at 32900 in Sep 05 (only 3100 miles in 4 years). The current milage is around 33600.

The owner says that he drives the car very little and does most of his own service and has no records from a shop. I plan to ask about receipt for oil and filter purchase (changes oil once per year which makes sense). I suppose that if the condition of the car is in line with its milage after I see the car, I should get a warm and fuzzy feeling which should turn into a woody after the PPI.

The best indication may be the tires. The owner says that they have been on the car for over 10 years. I think the date of manufacture is burried amongs other numbers on the sidewall.

Tim993

Besides the obvious wear items (seats, steering wheel, etc..) I would check the pedals for signs of extended wear. It sounds to me that you may have indeed found a low mileage car. My '86 3.2 has only been driven less than 1000 miles a year for the last couple of years due to the purchase of a '96 993 and the addition of 2 little girls that limit my free driving time. Maybe the seller of the car you are looking at has a similar situation. I am sure a complete PPI will give you all the information that you need to verify the milage. Good luck.

Edward

A 911 is perhaps the easiest car on the planet to alter mileage and the odometer is absolutely not to be trusted if there are any other signs/hints/suspicions that the mielage does not jive with the condition of the entire vehicle. The bottom line is to use all that is within your disposal to assess the car as a whole:

- a thorough PPI by a trusted wrench who really knows 911s is paramount
- maintenance records
- carfax
- condition of interior, exterior, and other mechanicals
- your gut feeling about the seller
- your discerning eye

If anything looks fishy, remind yourself that it may cost you dearly to "make it right," AND that there are plenty of good 911s out there waiting to be bought, though it may take time and patience. And on a slightly different note, consider also that a low mileage 911, seldom used over these 2 decades is not necessarily the better car by virtue of its low miles. LOTS of things go wrong on any car that sits unused so you owe it to yourself to be careful. Best of luck, but proceed with care.

Edward

Rick964

Nader,
Run the carfax again and for the VIN put a letter O in place of the zero in the 3rd space - WPO rather than WP0. You may get back an "invalid VIN" from carfax or you may get back some more info - often times shops enter the VIN wrong and while it is invalid carfax does have them in their database if they were submitted. I found many instances of this in my last 6 month car search.

Nader Fotouhi

Well, here is the lengthy update. Any words of encouragements or discouragements are welcomed.

We went and looked at this 2 owner 86 Targa yesterday. It is black with burgundy interior and has 33,7xx miles. It looks like a new car. I did not look at books (BTW, where are the option codes on a 3.2 Carrera), but the owner said the original owner ordered the car with all the options available (LSD, rear wiper, heated sports seat, Carrera whale tail and front spoiler, etc) in 86 with the exception of ordering partial leather. The paint has no blemish and is shiny. The interior is 9.6 out of 10 (IMO sport seats show normal use worse than non-sport seat, however, we are not talking about any excess wear or blemish). The engine looks as new (the lid shocks do not work, but the owner has new one to install). It did not smok on cold start or when I drove it at 4000-5000 RPM and let it coast. No signs of oil leak. It looked great. Asking price 24K.

My 7 year old was ready to buy. My wife (a woman that keeps track of every penny I spend on the race car) had a twinkle in her eyes. I think I was the only one who was trying to remain emotionally detached.

Here is the catch. When we considred getting another Porsche, it was because my 944S2 is now a full time racer and is a pain to trailer it ro track for my wife to do DEs. So, we wanted a car that is stock for use on the street and an occasional DE car for a beginner and I my start AX in it again. This car is just too nice to take to the track, but I think we are leaning towards buying it and track it like a Porsche meant to be.

seronde

A few places to look that I found helpful (I bought an 88 coupe with 39K miles):

Look at the Key - on a car with 35K miles it should not be worn down, instead, it should still feel almost sharp if you run your finger down its edge.

On my car the coating on the underside of the car was still easy to spott, plus very little road dirt.

Look at pedals and shifter. These will tell you a lot.

Marc Shaw

If the buyer will let you - pull the speedo out and see if it has been opened or otherwise tampered with.

Marc

NeufCentOnze

I was told that the ECU records the total number of times the engine was fired and this info can be retieved by any Porsche service centre able to run an electronic diagnostic test on the car.
It is a simple matter of converting this number of engine cycles into approximate kms/miles to check whether the claimed mileage is genuine or not.
Of course that assumes stock ECU...

Anybody knows this more accurately?

BReyes

If you are certain, get coroboration. Are you planning on a PPI. At the point you bring your wife and family along, you are distracted.

The PPI will also give you an idea of what to expect to pay once you get it.

Good luck!