When I was looking for mine I was told buy my insurance company that insuring a grey market car was a bit more difficult.

 

Offer him 10-12K for it, as I agree with JBH. no one will want to touch that thing afterwards. Enjoy it at a low price if you can get it at that. When it comes time to sell, you will have an easier time with a low amount. good luck.

This is no investment, just for enjoyment in my mind.

 

I finally got ahold of the last high bidder. He flew in from Colorado to pick the car up. he said he was very dissapionted in the condition and decided to pass. I might go look at the car on Saturday but will keep everybodies suggestions in mind. I think I might be better off paying just a little more and getting a much nicer car with good history.
Thanks

 

Just a little CarFax experience to lay on you all. I have two different experiences - personally!

My 1989 Factory M505 stant has a SALVAGE title from 1991 through CarFax. So I did some extensive research on the car and the history. My first clue about the car was that it had ZERO damage anywhere. Second, numbers matched the PCNA Certificate of Authenticity issured by Porsche Cars North America for my VIN and nothing was missing in fact all of the build tags, bar codes and any other stamping numbers were all correct. Not to mention that the car with less than 10K miles on it when I purchased it ran like new.

So I contacted the DMV that issued the title loss and was kindly told that the file did NOT contain any accident report, damage report or loss report (they call it a percent of loss) which seemed strange to them. DMV then told me who the insurance company was that reported the vehicle loss. When I called them I was told that the car was STOLEN and later recovered most likely without any damage and then sold at auction. We figure that because there was not a pigeon hole for a stolen/recovery car to be put in at the time it received a SALVAGE title which INLCUDES COLLISION DAMAGE - completly inaccurate for this car but labled non-the-less "officially" by good old CarFax.

Now the fun started. I began a dialog with CarFax about getting this corrected and removing the "bad rap" about the car. After many email letters back and forth, CarFax would NOT retract the misleading statement they list about COLLISION DAMAGE and therefore they remain dead wrong with their statement.

Interestingly enough Equifax also has a reporting system and my VIN with them is completely CLEAN. I also have a clean title for the car and it had a clean title when I purchased the car from the previous owner.

SECOND case. About a month ago I purchased a ONE OWNER 996 from a dealer with a CarFax report showing absolutely nothing on the car whatsoever - not even a delivering dealer!
Monday I took it into Porsche for service and found out that it has had TWO previous owners and **now get this** it had the ENGINE REPLACED in it!

My bottom line..................................................................

CarFAX can and IS wrong more than you may think. The experts will tell you that they don't pay any attention to CarFax at all because it is WORTHLESS!! I am about to sue them for false representation and I will keep you up to date when I know more.

 

If it is a true euro, you'll get the better exhaust, better, fuel system, more aggressive stance, and assuming the headlights were left the same as the euro H4s instead of the sealed beams. However, it might be a little more difficult to insure depending on your company. They may have to send it to underwriting to insure it. You'll pay a little less for it, fine by me, but 90% of the car is identical to the US version and almost all parts are interchangeable. Its not a big risk in my mind.

 

+1, I would like to follow your case and see how it turns out.

 

Many 996 did for the RMS problem. It's not a big deal....

 

Mine was a CBS (counter balance shaft) failure at 6,000 Mi.
eric

 

Some of the cylinder walls break too.

 

Please don't go there..... I am trying to recover now. Sure is a sweet driver though.

 

There are a hundred 930's available every month on EBAY. Why on earth get involved in a salvage car?

As far as an investment, do you want to drive it, or hide it away in a climate controlled garage for 20 years and hope that the other 10,000 or so 930's all rust away or get crashed? Seriously, the investment end of this is a pipe dream by people that own garage queens.

 

Look at all the people who bought Buick GNXs 15 years ago for 30K and now the sell for 80 to 100K.

 

Hey Cory, when I get to doin' it and get some response or solution I will probably start a new thread call CARFAX Experience so look for it.

BTW, I hate to say this but my 996 has quite a bit of tuperware on it too!

 

They made that car for like 3-4 years maybe? I am not sure how many they sold. I do know that my 930 is 31 years old, and is worth 31,500 according to Erie insurance, and about the same according to EBAY. Buicks may be worth more than Porsches just like Harleys will always be worth more than well built European motorcycles, nothing we can do about it.

I invest in bonds and commodities for a living, and I can only find amusement in this sort of speculative investing.

I own a Porsche so I can drive it. If it is worth more in the year 2025, that's great. If not, that's okay too.

 

I think it would also be fair to say you are going to spend alot more money on keeping the car in tip top condition than you are ever going to make on it increasing in value.
Even if you don't use the car it is going to cost money to store and insure etc etc & what is the fun in that unless you can keep it in your house to look at, if your lady will let you that is...