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i test drove a 1994 RSA today with 96,000 miles. Now, i’ll preface all my comments with the acknowledgement that i havent owned an air-cooled car in over 20 years, back in the mid nineties i owned an ‘83 sc. since then i have owned lots of water cooled stuff, but other than my GT3, none of it really did it for me. So, i had the GT3 but then had a child, so needed back seats and the GT3 was sold because it wasnt getting used.
So anyway, looking for an aircooled car. Really like the 964 and the RSA in particular (i know shocker, im thebonly one). So, i want one of those hens teeth cars, a 1994 (rear seats for the boy) that is a west-coast car, that hasnt been crashed or thrashed. I think ive found one, but it is by no means a garage queen.
Its a 1994 that has had just two owners, and currently has 96,000 miles. The current owner has owned it for 22 years. The motor has not been opened. It had a new clutch 30,000 ago and a few other bits here and there. The front bumper and hood were repainted because of stone chips. The original option sticker is still present, so the story seems reasonable. The interior was not excessively warn, but it was not particularly clean either. The paint was clearly washed regularly by someone who does not exactly believe in the two bucket method...to say the least.
The clutch is super stiff (is this normal?) he said he got rid of the dual mass fly-wheel and put in a lightweight replacement. But also that sometimes the clutch pedal does not fully return?
The shift from second to third at redline gave me just a hint of a grumble the one time i hurried it. Is this normal?
So its an honest 96,000 mile “used car”.
If i choose to pursue, ill have a ppi done.
But to get to the gist of it, What kind of valie would you put on a car like this?
Get a thorough PPI by a good independent shop to make sure you know exactly what you are buying. There are many potential warning signs in your post that could turn out to be nothing to worry about. Look at the bringatrailer auction history so see what these cars are usually selling for.
on RSA's, a lot of price is driven from the following 3 things:
1. color - red is least desirable, white and silver are the most desirable, regularly available colors. Black and blue are neutrals for price.
2. options - the diff option adds value, the absence of the sunroof option adds value, radio and AC are more personal preference.
3. originality - lots of RSA's have aftermarket suspension etc. more original cars bring better $$$.
The prices have swung wildly IMO. Depending on PPI and other answers above, I'd bet the car you are looking at would sell quickly at $85k and would sit on the market for a while at $100k.
Interior wear is often a good starting point as far as judging a cars mileage. If bolsters aren’t excessively worn and the seat bottoms aren’t sagging then it’s likely an honest 100k mile car although if the seats were redone then all bets are off. Carpet wear at the footrest is also a good indicator of mileage, a larger hole means it’s seen some miles, small wear would be acceptable for 100k miles.
As far as the exterior, a bumper respray is no big deal and to be expected. However I would expect that there will be rock chips below the headlights and on the leading edge of the hood. If these aren’t present the front has also likely been resprayed which complicates things.
A proper PPI should uncover a respray and most (not all) mechanical issues. Regardless of what the PPI says expect to spend at least $5 - $10k making the car nice, they are 30 years old after all and many haven’t had the love they deserve.
My 3rd 911 back in the early 2000’s was a 100k miles solid driver RSA I purchased out of Hawaii from the original owner for $19,500. Shipped to the northeast for $2,100 ocean freight/trucking. Those were the days!
Well, I bought that car. I had a PPI performed, and it checked out very well. Here is the only exterior pic I have so far:
Here is what its all about:
Anyway, its a 25 year old car, so inevitably there are some issues, but so far as we know, none of them major. Here are a few details about the car;
1994 RS America with ~96,000
2 owners since new. One in San Diego, the other for the last 22 years in Oregon.
Lots of work done in the last two years:
New Alternator
New Starter
New Front Lower Control Arms
Both Coils replaced
Both Cap and Rotors replaced
Further Back in Time, roughly 30,000 miles ago;
RS Clutch Disk, Fly Wheel, Release Bearing, Ring Gear
Clutch Master and Slave
100 Cell Cat
Rothsport Short Shifter
Bilstein HD (B6) front and rear
All this work was performed by Rothsport, So I felt the car was well taken care of.
But, damn was it dirty...I am quite sure the car's interior had never been really cleaned, so that's what I spent the last few days working on. A few pic's to show the progress so far:
This is after One pass with the portable rug cleaner vacuum I bought just for the job.
This gives you a sense for just how disgusting the seats were....Left done, right not started...
This is the color of the water after washing the seats and carpets. The vast majority of this is from the seats. The carpets were dirty, but nothing compared with the seats. I have to say I am thrilled with that rug cleaner and the results. The seats, literally look new now. I was not expecting it to turn out as well as it did.
Driver seat rear height adjustment was non-functioning. So thankful for the Rennlist write-up on how to take the switch apart and clean. Worked perfectly afterwords!
One suggestion when working on the switch, put a frisbee below them. I placed a soft paper-towel in the frisbee as well. Those damn little *****, will run and hide if they can!
More to come soon.... Michael
Last edited by Michael Russell; 09-03-2019 at 04:15 PM.
08-19-2019, 01:22 AM
Possible “New” (to me) RSA purchase help
