cali4sun

Hey for 10k you should grab it! That's a pretty good deal in my opinion. Your going to haggle over $500??? It's a Porsche not a Nissan....


'89 928S4 GP White/Black
'76 912E Silver/Black sunroof

floete

Agreed, up to a point.

The point isn't the 500 clams. The point is tossing the ultimate decision up to the fates -- and the other guy....

Plus, well, there's another car I'm looking at that I won't know more about until late next week. Man, when it rains it pours!

TRINITONY

very nice car.

Edward

I dunno, it looks great from here given the price and mileage. Cosmetics look good and clutch/tensioners are a real plus. With a good PPI and close scrutiny on your part, I think the price is very fair if all checks out right. Forget about what prices you see out there ...most of the low ones are rough, you just don't see it till you actually get there. I know, BTDT. If you find a genuinely good SC with a solid owner and PPI checks, slap down the cash and Thank God for a find!

Edward

Brett San Diego

At that price, I'd probably just test drive it and buy it if the drive felt good. Forget the PPI and have a post-purchase inspection done when I got home.

Brett

GothingNC

And just hope the head studs are still intact...

John

floete

Yeah, that. Plus, it's a plane flight away from me ... and a 10 hour, 600 mile trip home!

g-50cab

I'd settle on the $10 K and see if he'd split the PPI/Valve adjustment/Inspection... Just to make sure something didn't drop out when the valve covers are taken off

floete

That's a good idea. A PPI that includes a valve adjustment. Do I need to specify that the valve covers have to come off?
Let's say it costs $500 and we split it $250 each. After the PPI, if I decide for some reason not to buy the car, I'm only out $250. He's out $250 himself, but he also has a PPI in hand, as well as a valve adjustment. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.
Thanks!

Brett San Diego

Yeah, I'll take that gamble if I like the car enough and given that I'm comfortable with the owner and confident that he has serviced the car regularly at a knowledgeable Porsche shop. I'd talk to the mechanics who know the car, too, just for good measure (if they'll talk to me). The way I look at it, if I like the car, and it breaks a head stud, I'm going to fix it. If it breaks now or it breaks later, I'm going to fix it. So be it, if it's broken now, and I have to fix it now. If the buy-in price now seems good to me, I'll take the car. I think US$10K for a running SC that appears to be well maintained is good money.

Probably all bad advice. I can get excited sometimes. If there's no rush, and you're not in competition with other buyers, as it appears floete isn't, and you're not desperate, and you're really scared of mechanical problems, the PPI is always the best advice. LOL

Brett

floete

For me, it's PPI all the way, no offense to Brett!

So, I pitched the seller on the split the PPI idea and here's what he wrote back:

"I talked to a ***** here in *******. A PPI is about $100. Their recommendation was to see if the car needed a valve adjustment first. The cost for the adjustment is $600. So how about we do this... We split the PPI fee if it is satisfactory then you buy the car. If you still want a valve adjustment then you can arrange that with the shop here or decide to do it up closer to your hometown at a local shop at a later date."

Well, first of all, a proper PPI for $100? From what I've read, 300 - 400 should be more like it. And then he didn't go for the valve adjustment idea at all.

Okay, horsetraders -- what should my next move be?

Thanks!

salukijac

That sounds fair. I negotiated the buy price on mine and the owner reduced the price after the PPI by $300. I paid for my PPI, though.

A good PPI is more like $300 (that's what I paid for 3 hours labor). So if you go half, make sure he knows that it could be significatly more.

I had the valve adjusted on mine plus, sparkplugs, idle mixture adjust for $467...that included the hardware, oil, filter, gaskets, etc.

logan2z

You're right, a thorough PPI is usually in the $300-$400 range. Make sure you ask the mechanic to stage the PPI so that they do an initial up-front inspection in order to decide if it's worth digging more deeply into compression/leakdown tests, etc. Most good shops do this as a rule, but it doesn't hurt to make it clear. I had a PPI done on an out-of-state '83 SC that took a grand total of about 15 minutes before the mechanic decided it was a waste of money to go any further.

I don't think it's unreasonable for the owner to be hesitant about committing to a $600 valve adjustment if the car doesn't need it. They're only required every 15K miles or so. When was the last one performed?

g-50cab

Again, if I was buying a SC - I'd pull the valve covers as part of my PPI - if it had a recent valve adjustment - then see what the cost would be to pull the covers and inspect.

$100 for a compression and leakdown?

floete

Actually, I just talked to the mechanic who would do the inspection. He says he's talked to the owner several times in the past but never actually worked on the car. Did say that the owner has always seemed like a straight shooter.
The $100 figure is right, for a basic PPI, he said. But I'd need to add another $115 for a compression and leakdown test (1.25 hours).
He did say that the owner told him the valves had been adjusted 2k miles ago. His feeling is, why do it again?
I tend to trust this mechanic, as his name and firm have been praised a few times here and on Pelican.
So, that's where it stands now ... although I still think $215 is almost too cheap for a complete PPI. But what do I know?