hevquip

I'll probably cross post this in the 944 turbo specific section too because I need to expose this to as many local Rennlisters as possible and get feedback before tomorrow. I should have asked for advice earlier in the week, though I didn't want anyone to potentially jump on this before I did hehe (I'm pretty sure though that I was the first to call and the first person he'll be meeting with).

...anyway, tomorrow I am checking out a 951. Here is the ad:

http://boulder.craigslist.org/cto/2150396049.html

You can see some pics and I'm going to post what it says on here anyway so I can explain my feelings on it, why I'd purchase it, and the things that put me off from purchasing it. Well, it is a "best offer" deal though, so if seller comes down to a certain level...sold!. Keep in mind, I have a daily driver to get around and a crotch rocket to satisfy one aspect of speed and I have owned a 944 and 951 with light mods before, so next to my motorcycle, this next 951 will be my other "toy" and may see a 2.8 stroker kit or 3.0 swap i.e. the car I list below isn't a perfect example of a 951 and doesn't need to be for me to consider buying it.

"I am selling my 1986 Porsche 951.
68,XXX miles
Black on tan interior in great shape, no rips or tears
Authentic RUF wheels as seen in picture. $1,400 a piece when new. They are also in great shape.
Runs and drives great
Ajustable shocks
MBC gauge mounted by right knee
New hoses on top
Needs a Tune up and some paint/ body attention but over all good condition.
Front Bumper currently removed, needs fog light.
Asking $6500, will take best offer.
Thanks! please call or email with questions.

970 819 0930, leave message"

Year doesn't matter to me, though I'd probably change out the steering wheel. Don't care about ABS and didn't miss it on my first '86 951, I'd be installing Big Reds as well.

Mileage is low, says 68,000. I entered his phone number into Google and the results brought up an ad he placed 5 months ago and the mileage is listed as 86,000...so one of those is a typo. However, the Craigslist ad does state low miles and I consider 68K to actually be low miles, not so much the 86k, though 86k miles is still good for these cars.

The interior is EXACTLY the kind I want, two-tone black/tan. Almost just like my first 951, though my seats were black in my first car.

RUF wheels. I don't really give a ****. Their only value to me is what they weigh. If I found something lighter, the RUF wheels would be sold. In fact, I'd probably sell them anyway because I like black wheels and I'd assume those RUF's would bring me some cash.

Runs and drives great...but doesn't everybody's car do that in all these ads? Yet to see one person state "Sometimes runs and does so poorly, drives like ****, probably illegal to sell car in current condition. Seeing as you'll probably die from it on the way home and no one know what lead up to your demise, I'll be more than happy to hand the keys over to you."

Ajustable shocks. As long as those are the same as "adjustable" shocks, I'm cool with that. Seriously though, I'm just a stickler for grammar and typos and I'm sure the seller is a decent and intelligent person, he seemed like a pretty good guy over the phone and came across as honest and upfront about the car.

Boost controller. Something I would've bought or would replace with digital. I will have to ask about mods and whatnot because that's the only thing I noticed and if it has a MBC, the boost has been played with at SOME point...

New hoses. All that **** would get replaced anyway, plus some, so not really a determining factor.

Needs tune-up, paint/body attention. Paint and body, assuming everything is straight, doesn't bother me much. What does tune-up mean? To me it means the engine and things like the car is running rough or rich or lean or timing is off or whatever, but above he says it runs and drives great. I talked to him on the phone briefly (I want to save most of the talk for face to face and when I can actually see the car) and asked him about the tune-up and with what he told me about what the car needs, his idea of a "tune-up" sounds like the little things here and there that the car needs, not the engine specifically. We'll see when I show up tomorrow. If it's an engine tune, I'm not that scared because my next car is supposed to be my candidate for a 2.8 stroker (the block in this car would be used if it is 68K miles) or 3.0 (in which case we'd be getting rid of that 2.5 in need of it's tune-up), so the engine would either be torn down or swapped out, not to mention the fact that I'm looking to go stand alone EMS probably.

Front bumper removed, needs fog light. Yeah, but the bumper goes back on right and I'm sure we can track down a fog light? My point is that I'm assuming the bumper came off to replace fog light and is obviously going back on afterward. Putting a bumper back on and finding and replacing a fog light is a non-issue, unless electrical problems caused a fog light to burn out.

Asking price is $6,500 OBO. Well, I have my "OBO" in mind, let's see what best offer the people on Rennlist would put down on this car. I will say that this car was listed for $7,500 several months ago, so it's come down a grand since then (memory hazy, but seller's old ad MIGHT have indicated that the price was set $7,500 because the RUF wheels were optional, car would be cheaper on other wheels and tires he had at the time).

This is where I get confused: A low mileage car should fetch a good price, price has dropped even more, what's responsible for the price drop? Now sometimes I like to be an optimist and this is one of those times. I'm hoping that I've found a low mileage 951 going for a good price because the seller has realized market value for our area, needs cash more than the car, and doesn't want to dump anymore money into things like a tune-up, though the car is in running and driving condition at least. Am I crazy to be thinking that I've found a steal of a deal. I'm just hoping to hear that it's going price is for the issues addressed in the ad and the things he spoke to me over the phone about, not some unforeseen mechanical disaster!

I guess seeing what his bottom dollar price on the car is will tell me what kind of car I'm looking at...

Tom R.

"Needs a Tune up and some paint/ body attention but over all good condition."

Add the standard belts to the body work and probably motor mounts and where are you? still a low price for a clean 951. Give it a look.

I may have the opportunity to buy my old S2 back from my brother. Add in the cost to ship it from NY to Denver and it is easier for me to find one locally. Plenty of nice rust free used cars here at low prices.

hevquip

Yeah, until I see it, I'm going to assume it's fairly sorted and that the price is reflective of it's condition. My main reason for starting this post was in hopes of finding a Rennlister that may have seen the car before or known something about it (or dealt with the car and turned it down...), pretty easy to remember it with that color and those wheels. But alas, not every Porsche and it's owner can be found in the depths of Rennlist...

StickShift

"Front Bumper currently removed, needs fog light."

Question here is, how bad was it hit? You don't need to remove the bumper cover to remove a foglight. At least not on a S2.

Have those front seats been recovered? I don't think I have seen factory seats with that pattern. Looks like they may be sport seats? Can't tell for sure from the picture.

If you get it, share some pics for sure!

docwyte

I think you should assume it's a basket case. "Needs a tune up" means it runs like crap...

catfish

I think you'll be disappointed when you see it. He mentions nothing about records in the ad, and it's been listed for a long time. If he really had a $7,500 car and knew it, there'd be a lot more info in the posting. To me, a car with $1,400 chrome wheels that needs a tune up and doesn't have a bumper sounds like trouble. Many cars that seem to be perfect in ads tend to have a few pretty expensive problems with them. But maybe by now he's pretty motivated to sell...

m73m95

There is no such thing as a cheap 944. Pay now, or pay later.

Well..... You're going to pay later, just a matter of how much

bonus12

those do look like sport seats...must have been reupholstered or more likely colored due to what someone said above which was the unusual (?) color-pattern. those pictures are pretty worthless so who knows what it really has going for it. is the passenger-side front reflector missing?

My official guess is that it's due for a lot of regular maintenance and he is ditching it off on the buyer. yes, that's my final answer.

are those wheels really $1400 EACH new???!!!

Dougs951

Probably.

Hollywood D

If they are genuine RUFs then yea probably

stogie25

Very cool. Welcome back to the 944 club.

Darwantae951

Only slightly exaggerated. They run about $3400 per set new.

hevquip

Yeah, the car was listed for more a few months ago, maybe now he just needs the cash. I started looking at this car mostly because of the "best offer" and wheels. With what the car needs, my offer is going to be in the 5K range and hopefully I could sell the wheels for a decent enough price to offset some of what I spent on purchasing the car. Well, I'll know how good a car this really is in a matter of hours, I'm going to keep my money in the bank though so I don't jump on it just because I have the cash on hand.

Darwantae951

All I have to say is don't rush and don't settle. That car doesn't seem like a very good buy if his description is accurate.

rdanford

It's been posted for some time now....I think I saw it back in Sept 2010