BSara

Planning to look at a 964 for sale outside of St. Louis. I live in Dallas and so far have only seen email pictures and talked with salesman over phone. I want to somehow include a PPI into the purchase procedure. There is nowhere close to get a PPI done. Closest place is in St. Louis( hour drive ) and according to the seller he cant / wont agree to have a PPI done before the sell . He says the logistics are to difficult to handle. I was thinking about buying the care and having a PPI done immedietly and if there is a major engine problem then having some sort of sale cancelation clause as part of my original purchase agreement to void the sale. Any thoughts about that? Has anyone ever done a purchase that way. Kind of bas akwards but I may not have a choice.
Any reccomendations as far a a shop in St. Louis that can perform a PPI
This is my first Porsche purchase and its somewhat overwhelming. Have gotten great info from Rennlist, hence my desire to get a PPI.
Any info is greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Bob

jimq

I have bought all 4 porsches I owned without a PPI and have never had any nasty surprises. From what I have read and heard a PPI isnt always correct. Perhaps a lister in the area can take a look at the car first to see if its even worth spending the $200-300.
Welcome to the fun. What is the car like?

Chad T

It is overwhelming! I also bought my car without a 3rd party PPI. I just was't sure the info would be valid or be something I couldn't spot myself. I also bought from a seller with a very good rep. Car is utterly flawless. Any history on the car? Records? Dealer stamps in the book? Can you see if the distributer vent has been installed? (This is an easy fix but shows some attention has been paid to maintaining the car).

The search is overwhelming but the sensory overload of finally having your very own Porsche is worth it. Make sure you really want the car you are looking at before going through a bunch of hassle. When I finally found mine I knew immediately it was "the one" and I was very glad to have missed out on the few I didn't get.

Chad

BSara

90 C2 Cab, white/ Black 5 spd. 86k. asking price is 19,995.00. I have been looking for awhile. Not anything in the Texas area. Patience.
Bob

Michael Delaney

Reid Vann is a well known Porsche shop in St. Louis. 314-968-4100. I would balk at a seller that was refusing a PPI.

BSara

Thanks for the info I will call them today.
Bob

last toy

If you live in dallas and still open to more opportunties, go to www.victorymotorcars.com. He is a dealer of Porsches and classic cars located in Houston and carries lots of clean 964's. I got mine from him and real satisfied and did not get a PPI. I got what I paid for with no surprises and Robert has a good history of feedback on Ebay. He 's a broker but does seem to deal with only clean cars.

Marc Shaw

I would too.

While opinions will vary as to whether a PPI is a necessity, any seller who would not permit one should be avoided.

FWIW, the necessity of a PPI depends on your comfort level at assessing the car from a distance (based on records, seller reputation, etc) as well as your own ability to assess the mechanicals of the car in person.

If this is your first p-car, I would suggest that you should get a PPI as the specific oddities of the 911 (964 in particular) may be over-looked if you don't appreciate what you are looking for or looking at.

Marc
p.s. I got a PPI on mine (first p-car) and don't regret it.

Miguel

gEt a PPI or a RL member who looks at the car...one or the other. Don't trust in cancellatiion clauses, because it will always be a hassle.

jeff522

Marc is right.Anytime a seller is unwilling to have the car inspected befor buying should be avoided. I bought mine from a Porsche dealer and I still took it to a thrid party for a PPI.The dealer had no objection.If you are the one taking it for the PPI,I don't know what "logistics"would be a problem.Offer some form of security while you do the PPI.If he still wont agrea don't do it.The cancelation clause may be hard to enforce once he has the money and has singed the car over.

Trader220

Don’t forget with the MY1990 there is the potential to have some expensive problems with the cylinder head issue. I know its an over blown issue but if you’re one of the unlucky ones who has the issue its an expensive fix. Seems to me its worth the few hundred bucks just for that insurance alone.

911skb

I bought my first 911 (a 1977) without a PPI from a dealer. Great car, excellent condition. But, a ppi would have told me about the dried brake lines, no pop-off valve, etc. While those things are small in themselves, I probably jumped right into more the $1k in repairs just to work out some delayed maint. items. That was $1k I could have negotiated off the selling price possibly or could have used for performance upgrades. I would have been more bummed if it didn't have chain-tensioners ($1k alone), or the thermal reactors removed, or had had bad compression tests.

I think the PPI does two things great:
1- helps you avoid the car that is just waiting for a top-end rebuild, clutch job, tranny work...big $$$
2- get an idea on regular maint items you need to address and how they will run you.

With a 90', you need to be aware of the:
- possible leaking from no head gasket
- original flywheel still in place or not
- distributor vent installed

Jay H

This distributor vent kit thing is almost a non issues these days. The parts are mearly $15 and it takes 30 minutes at most to install. If the car doesn't have it, just put it on.

Also, all 964's (and 993's for that matter) are old enough to warrant having their dual distributor belts changed regardless of mileage. That should be done every 50,000 miles or 5-7 years on average for good preventative maintenance.

Yes, an early 964 with a vent kit is nice, but it's not even close to a deal breaker on these cars.

If you can't afford to spend $500-$2000 on a 964 (or a 911) within the first month or three of ownership to get stuff up to snuff, you probably shouldn't be buying one. All these cars need something (they are in fact old high performance cars) and PPI's don't catch everything. However, always do your homework as best you can and be ready for surprises.

Good Luck,

Jay
90 964, 84 3.2

Bearclaw

I agree on the PPI necessity. But after going through 3 possibles that failed their PPI's, I bought from a dealer without doing one (I had the ever-so-popular POST-purchase-inspection ) and everything turned out to be ok. The dealer had sent me all the service history, paint meter readings, etc. I coulda got burned without a leakdown I suppose, but I rolled the dice because it seemed like a nice one that had been taken care of.

The only problem I have with PPI's, is that there's no real 'standard'. You know basically what you want: compression, brakes, accident check, what works-what doesn't. So you're under the gun, because if it looks decent and the price is anywhere in the ballpark, there'll be 20 people behind you wanting to look at it - some will buy sight-unseen. So you're trying to find a reputable shop, poking around for maybe a local club member who will steer you to a good place, trying to expedite things so as not to make the owner impatient... So you find a place and the price is either way too low, so you wonder what they're really doing, or way too high - I think some shops have found PPI's to be a "cash cow". And did they uncover everything significant? I've read about more than a couple buyer's whose PPI's were less-than-enlightening.

Then, if it's a failure, you have to go back to the owner and tell him A) why you're not buying his car, and B) maybe some things about it that he didn't know and didn't want to hear.

Well anyway, you know what I mean - it's not an easy process. In any case, I agree about the necessity of being prepared to spend $500-$2000 on a 10-15-yr.-old high-performance car. I looked at Ferrari's before I bought the Porsche, and that's a huge problem in that arena. Your major service WILL be $6-8K if you have a shop do it right. Many folks can afford to buy, but not to maintain. Then a buyer comes along with his eyes wide open, and guess who gets stuck with all the deferred expense?

garrett376

That's a tough call - I don't know if you should pass this car up just because of this. When I sold my C4 Cabrio which was my baby, I had a guy ask to have it "PPI'd" by a specific shop that was downtown (30 minutes from me) and I don't have time during the week to do that - the logistics were too tough to handle for me. Additionally, even if he had offered, I would NOT let him just come pick up the car and take it for me, either! No unsupervised joy rides, thanks!

I've bought 3 964's with no PPI's, and no regrets. If you can assemble a list of things to check (it's HUGE if you want to be thorough), you can do it yourself with a few simple tools, a small floor jack and a jackstand. Often times you will find more stuff that a shop may miss. It would take you a couple hours and you will have a great idea of the car's condition.