Have a great op to buy a 98 993 cab 25K miles
with major wood options hifi sound , digital stereo upgrade etc. My neighbor is a dealer. My price $54 k. The downside , my 90 c2 targa w/ 84k miles is a $20k tradein. I love the 993 and the price is good I think but its
hard to accept that my clean 964 is only worth $20k. Money is not really an issue. I
truly want a 993 and with the wood dash and steering wheel this is the nicest 993 I have seen. Can anyone come up with any reason I shouldn't buy this car? Thanx

 

$54k for a 993 cab is very high, even if it's mint. Prices on 993's have been dropping over the last year, as the economy has gotten weaker. For that kind of money, it should have the aerokit and motor sound, at the very least. Even with those options, mint 993 cabs aren't going for more than $50k or so. Also, $20k for a '90 targa is a little low for retail. As a trade-in, I'd accept that price if the dealer was giving you a deal on the car being purchased. However, he's asking absolute top dollar for the 993. Sorry to rain on your parade, but this sounds like a lousy deal. I'd show him ads for other mint 993 cabs in the $45k range (which is where most are) and tell him to either increase the trade in on your 964 or reduce the purchase price on the 993 cab.

 

Sorry, but I disagree with McDonald. We're talking about a 1998 with 25k miles and from what I've seen I would say the price you speak of is fair. Not terrific but not bad. I have never seen a "nice" 98 Cab with 25k miles going for $45k.
Can't speak to the trade-in, I always sell my used cars myself since the dealer pays wholesale and you can probably get half way between retail and wholesale.

 

Agree w/Miller. IMO, a $54k dealer price for a clean '98 cab as described would not be too bad. However, your actual price is higher. You would pay $34k + the real value of your trade. Price the deal w/out the trade to get your true price & to find out just how much your neighbor, the dealer, wants to floorplan a Porsche cab through a recessionary, Buffalo winter.

Moral - a dealer is a dealer is a dealer, even if he is your neighbor!

 

I have to agree with Miller that the price is not great, but fair. I traded in beautiful 89 cab and probably ate a couple of thousan for the luxery of not screwing around with trying to sell it privately and to me, it was worth that. I hate selling anything. My trade in was for a boxster s, which a few months later I sold to buy a 98 S. Larry

 

Agree w/ miller

 

By any measure, $54k for a clean '98 cab is a good price. Just for reference, go to edmunds.com and punch in the info about the car (make sure you hit the "customized appraisal" button)...you'll get a significantly higher price. In my experience, Edmunds has tended to underprice used Porsches.

 

Just out of curiosity, I pulled up a few web sites that have a good selection of Porsches for sale and couldn't find any 98 Cabs for less than that. Seems like a fair price to me.


-Tim
97 993TT

 

The 993 I am looking at checked out at the Porsche dealer this morning. While on the lot
the P dealer had a 96 cab with less options, more miles for $59900 and a 95 cab w/50k miles for $49900. The neighbor/dealer deals in real world prices in my case wholesale to wholesale. My current 964 I had to go to Fla. and buy it and ship it back for $900.
His offer of $20k translates to $21600 with sales tax savings. I feel I would be lucky to get anywhere north of $23k for my car in Buffalo realistically. Is it worth a grand or two not to have to market/sell the car
and search nationally or ebay for a slightly cheaper car and then go retrieve it ? I think so. Especially with the wood options
And moto sound on this car. Will let you know if/how the deal pans out . Thanx for the imput!

 

Before I purchased my 993 I had several inspections performed of 993s being sold by "wholesalers". All five of them were found to be, at a minimum, previously wrecked(including a 993 "wholesaler" named Joe from the Buffalo area). I would recommened having a thorough mechanical and body inspection on a car being sold by any wholesale car dealer. Also, FYI most Porsche dealers dont/wont do a thorough body PPI on any car, as they dont want the liability for a mistake. I would recommend taking it to a body shop.

Through my search I discovered that if a "wholesaler" has a low mileage 993 it was likely purchased from an auction or from a Porsche dealer that didnt feel the car met his standards to keep on his lot, which usually translates to an accident history.

I hope your car is the exception since, based on the prices I saw when looking for my car, it sounds like a very good price.

John

 

I can think of one good reason not to buy it--it's a cab. You won't be taking it to the track and enjoying the car to its fullest.

 

Sorry to bust on all who are commenting that the $54 is a good price, and, FWIW, I'm a dealer, so you can take this with a grain of salt, but I can do cars like that all day long at better prices than $54, and could probably do it and get you at least $20 on your trade, if not a little better (I'd have to get all the details obviously) but with this market, I'm buying 99 996 cabs for $58 with 10K-15K miles on them, and though I don't have a list of what I've got available in front of me, I'm fairly confident I can easily beat that price. If you're interested, email me off list and I'll be happy to go over some of what I have available.

Jason

 

John, your post was right on point. This car has no records, no books, no owners manual, the dealer had nothing on their computers.I had to pass on the car because it had too many questions for a $55K CAR. My present 964 has a receipt for every quart of oil can of wax bought for the car. $13k in dealer service receipts in his 8 years of ownership!
Needless to say I was very confident knowing exactly what I purchased in 1998 for $24k and have had no problems or surprises. This could in worst case be a nightmare and best case be fine until I want to sell the car and someone wants records from 1998-2001
or perhaps an owners manual or other trivial thing. So the search goes on! Thanx for the advice guys.

 

bobinbuff, Glad to hear you found potential problems before it was too late. I agree that $55K is a lot of money to gamble with. You may notice that there are many seemingly cheap 993s in Texas. I have come to believe that this is were previously damaged Porsches come to die. If you are ever looking at a car from an independant dealer in Texas, let me know, I probably dealt with them.

Jester240sx, Perhaps your cars are the exception, however, in my search every low mileage, low priced 993 from an independent dealer that I found came with a "story", albeit most of the time I didnt hear the story until after the inspection revealed the seller was completely untruthful in their description and their answers to my questions. The two most common stories I heard were "the orginal owner dinged (read dented) the car backing out of his garage and it needed a minor repaint" and "the car had a 4" scratch on the door so the entire right side was painted." Some were outright obvious. One had overspray on the steering wheel(someone forgot to close the sunroof before painting began) and another was so bad the paint was peeling(this guy also swore the car never had any paintowrk before the inspection-unbelievable!).

I found that most of these sellers got in over their head, not realizing that a previously damaged Porsche is seriously devalued. Others simply hoped to slip it past an unsuspecting consumer. Most were still for sale months after I inquired about them.

If your cars come without "stories" I am sure you will find buyers for them. So many of us have almost been burned by untruthful sellers in our hunt for our cars that most would be willing to pay a little more for the assurance the car is as described and comes without the seemingly inevitable "minor paintwork" story.

Sorry for the rant. This is not directed at you personally, this post just brought up bad memories.

 

I thought I'd chime in here, since this I too went through the searches for a clean 911 with all books & records. What I found was that most owners treat 911s like any other car and don't keep service records. On most other cars, who cares ?? A buyer isn't going to be paying top dollar for it used anyway. But on a 911, neglected maintaince will get you in the worst way.

A friend of mine purchased a 1993 964 that I passed on because it didn't have service records, and although it was immaculate inside and out, had 65K miles. For a well maintained car, no sweat, but for one without service history, no way. My friend drove it precicely 1300 miles before it needed a top-end rebuild (at $5000+), because the previous owner hadn't had the 60K service done which would have adjusted the valves, and checked the cover seals. Rough, I know. But it happens.

I bought my 1995 993 in March, and paid 47K for it, but that was post 3 large in 60K service. And it had all books and records from the date of purchase, even though I am the 3rd owner. In my case, I felt that the price was fair given the execellent history of the car and the condition, which was pristine. (For the record, I bought the car from Youbert Alcota at Carlsen Porsche in Palo Alto, CA - and would deal with them again in a heartbeat.)

Just repeat this mantra:

"Good cars have good books. Period."

Stepping down off my soapbox for now,

cheers,

sean