Art Boone

Do your homework.

I had a situation where the previous owner bought the car from an independant foriegn car dealer. No records and no PPI done. I'm not a trusting soul, so I did a lot of homework and a PPI. I used the lack of records as a negotiation position.

Get a carfax to determine the basic stuff. How many owners....location of previous owners, accidents, salvage title,etc.

Call Porsche of America-Customer Commitment-(888) 549 6307 with the VIN # and they can tell you which dealer sold the car. Start with the dealer. Porsche dealers utilize a network...server?...that records warranty claims. A friendly service manager from any dealer can tell you which dealer has done warranty work on your car. The savvy P-car owners do not use dealers for service so you will have to find independant in the area of the Porsche dealers who performed the warranty work. Rennlister's can tell you who are the good independants. Call around. You be surprised how much you can find out by phone and e-mail.

Most important.....get the PPI done. I used a dealer because I bought it out of state and I didn't know any of the independants. Looking back, I should have asked Rennlisters for a local shop.

I found that the meticulous record keepers are not going to sell cheap. if you expect to find a "deal", do your homework.

Good luck.

jnx

Art, my objective is not to find a "deal". I would expect and be willing to pay more for a well documented car. Turns out I had a fellow Rennlister look at a potential car { today } with many records, and thanks to him, I will not waste a trip.

Bull

Service records fall into the "interesting if true" catagory for me. The real question is what is the current condition of the car today? That can only be found via a VERY complete PPI, which will not be inexpensive. Then, I would do all of the service work that would currently be due at the point in time you purchase the car in order to establish a baseline starting point, regardless of records, unless the most recent can be confirmed.

911nut

I have bought used 3 Porsches, 2 with complete, records, 1 with partial records. In general, my opinion is that oil changes are important, the rest can be done after you buy the car with out any real problems for the car. Late brake fluid and trans fluid changes shouldn't hurt except that fluds may be bad until changed. Think about it, how much harm can an extra 3 k miles (out of 15 to 20k miles for recommedned changes) on the oil really cause? The synthetic oils are great and very durable. Buy the car and enjoy it.

Tour18

Yes.

pastpob

Great question and great replies. This helps me as well as I am looking at buying my first 993. Thanks!

H