Rick Lee

Strangely, I've never had a PPI on a car I bought. I've had a few PPI's on cars I eventually passed on. But somehow, with each of my Porsches, I was gonna buy them no matter what. The first one (Carrera) came with some receipts, which I later learned were paid by the PO, though the shop never did the work. The 993 was concourse clean, had 24k miles on it and the seller was the most ****, neat freak I'd ever met. I felt pretty good about buying it. I poked around a lot, but the only issue I missed was a torn toe arm grease boot. That would not have been a deal breaker and I doubt he would have budged on price, since he called me the next day and wanted to buy the car back for more than I paid him.

By the time I bought the SC, I was pretty sure I knew what I was doing and went to the seller's house with some tools and a new valve cover gasket kit. I pulled the valve covers, checked the head studs (all were fine), installed the new kit and bought the car. Two mos. later I went to adjust the valves, pulled the covers off and out rolled two broken head studs. $5k later I have a super rebuilt engine. That was the only surprise. The other issues I knew all about.

AOW162435

I don't think anyone is trying to say that the early engines have problems. Quite the contrary. From what I've read (somewhere) a number of the early 1995 993 cars came with the 964-style cam wheels, which were secured by woodruff keys, not just friction. Mike J is certainly the latest authority on this, as I believe he backdated his cam wheels to the older design for reliability.

Andreas

ZombiePorsche44

Semi OT:
Porscheologist,
2K for a steering rack replacement....WOW! My 993's PO only paid $521.00 for the rack and $280.00 for the labor including alignment, your PO got screwed by over a grand......

ZP44

Aussie Alan 993

I saw mine in the late evening in very poor light, no PPI, just a short drive, no warranty. I said "I'll take it"

It was confident that I was getting it at a good enough price to self warrant it for 2 years and all is well.

long_beach_968

being in the car business, a wholesaler I know stumbled on my car which was traded in at a volkswagen dealer. my technitian did a ppi, which included pulling the exhaust manafolds to look for the old sai prob, clean! hit it with a paint meter, and carfax, orignal flawless paint, scored! and at the price, couldnt have made out better. still cant figure out why it was traded in at a volkswagen dealer.

tj90

What is a paint meter? Does it measure depth, uniformity?

long_beach_968

oops said too much, car business secret, it measures the depth of the paint in mils. helps detect lies told by the customer. most places dont care to use them, but here in porsche, when you take in a ferrari (that italian thingy with the horsey) you want to be sure of the car's (and owner's) integrity

SR71BLACKBIRD

Hmmm 1 owner 95 Iris Blue 26,000 miles (build date 4/94) at Porsche Dealer that originally sold car, all records including Window stickers, New tires, wipers, hood struts, cig lighter and Dealers 911 mechanic that had nothing but good things to say about it. It was traded in for a 997S.

I was smittened and suckered and no PPI because the car was just in such good condition. Hmm like getting married without checking to see if your partner has STD's

The first week I had a leak at the right rear floor boards which the Dealer took care of it. They even gave me a deal on the 30K service for 800.00 and a Cayenne to drive for the week.

To date 16 months later with 11K of fun weekend drives - no problems at all except for the obsession that I have with this car and logging on to talk to you guys on rennlist.

Scott

AOW162435

Classic.

Andreas

pcar964

Except some STD's can't be fixed.

mborkow

i got a new rack pretty recently and the price was about $1k. your PO either got a great deal or he replaced the rack before porsche doubled all of their prices (which was right around the time i got my 993). here are the details from my rack replacement (on 03-23-2005):

power steering rack $1,012.50 p/n 993 347 011 X
boot, steering rack $ 7.95(x2) p/n 191 419 831
alignment came to $108.00
labor charged was 4 hours ($420)

long_beach_968

well I got a ppi done on mine when I bought it 2K miles ago at 55K. She mechanicly is brand new and pristine, however I just had my second CEL! now granted the first was random misfires at empty tank, OOPS! but I know this time the car had almost half tank, so im very worried as to what this one is.

jimwood

No PPI here. A/C was cold, engine ran well, no oil leaks, everything worked, and I talked to the mechanic who worked on the car.

Quite frankly, I think PPI's are overrated. A car is a car and when your buying used expect to have problems, but hope for the best and use common sense.

Wilder

Aussie and Rick Lee have a good point. The two most important things I look for when I'm buying a car are: 1) buy privately and get a sense of who the guy is, the pickier the better. 2) buy it right, if anything goes wrong, you can justify the expense of the repair given that you bought the car below market. I still get PPIs, as with my recently purchased 993 (sight unseen), and it still was misrepresented by the head mechanic of the franchise Porsche dealership that checked it.

cab&coupe

I too think PPI's may be somewhat over-rated. I bought both my 911's without a PPI but, exercised extensive use of references and follow up with previous owners in addition to records. Common sense or just luck of the draw?