The Deed is Done, The Search is Over - I'm a 993 Owner - Mandatory Pics Within
07-02-2009, 10:08 PM
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The Deed is Done, The Search is Over - I'm a 993 Owner - Mandatory Pics Within
Whew... What a ride! Been looking for a 911 for over 4 months now. The search is over. We Have a Winner!
I started looking several months ago for a 964. I looked at probably 12-15 cars driving all over the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan. I kept trucking along had a few that were very close to purchases. Even had a previous car in for a PPI in Detroit, owner didn't want to fix the AC before purchase or give a discount for it being broken... Kept looking.
Streetfighter suggested I not rule out a 993 even though I was searching specifically for a 964. He said 'Drive both and then decide". So I opened up slightly to the idea of a 993. Included 993's in all my search efforts the same as 964's. Most 993's were more than $10K above my spending limit.
During my daily multi-state scouring of craigslist, ebay, autotrader cars.com and many others I stumbled on a brand new craigslist listing in Milwaukee. The car was at an auto broker and was priced at 28K ($5K higher than my self imposed limit). it was a Saturday around 1 pm and I immediately picked up the phone and called them after reading the ad. I talked with the sales rep and he said I had to see this car to believe it. I hung up the phone and 2 hours later (3:30 pm) was in Milwaukee standing in front of her taking loads of pictures of all the important bits so i could start my due diligence. We took her for a ride, my first drive in a 993, and I really liked the car allot. I could not find barely a blemish in the paint (a 10/10 for a used car) and the interior looked great as well (a 9/10 I'd say) The clock said she had 34K miles on her. This all added up to me as "This may be too good to be true". If it was the "real deal" and the car was sound it was a good price. I knew the car wouldn't last at that price and mileage so I wanted to pounce...
After some advice from all of you and a little research I realized, in the state of Wisconsin if I sign a purchase contract and make a down payment the dealer cannot legally sell to anyone else after that point. I might have to pay a penalty if I didn't buy, but I made sure the penalty written into the contract was $0/0% before I signed it and made a down payment.
I had a friend of mine who owns a body shop that does work on exotics go up last Saturday with me to look at the car for a body PPI (I was very skeptical and do not trust anyone when buying a car) he went over the car and said the body was in great condition and had no work done to it. I scheduled a PPI on Monday for today. Went for the PPI today at Mraz Imports in Brookfield WI. They went over the car with me and showed me everything while doing the PPI. I was VERY impressed with them, they seem to have GREAT customer service.
Turns out the front struts are shot the rear struts are weak and it needs a corner balance and alignment. The engine is strong and runs very well. I asked about compression/leakdown testing and they said this car runs great that I would just be wasting my money. If there were any hint of a problem they would suggest doing the Compression testing but said it was a waste of time and money. They came back with some minor issues. Filters needed cleaning/replacement new wiper blades. A small amount of oil seepage at both valve covers and said don't worry about it until the engine has to come out to do other work. The heater blower motor was throwing a code and upon inspection was vibrating & the tech said that will need to be replaced. All in all Mraz said the car was very nice and the few things it needed would run about $1700 maybe a tad more in all.
It was a great 90 mile drive home from Milwaukee back to Schaumburg, IL.
Thank you everyone for all your responses and input.
So here she is... the all important "Mandatory Pictures"
I started looking several months ago for a 964. I looked at probably 12-15 cars driving all over the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan. I kept trucking along had a few that were very close to purchases. Even had a previous car in for a PPI in Detroit, owner didn't want to fix the AC before purchase or give a discount for it being broken... Kept looking.
Streetfighter suggested I not rule out a 993 even though I was searching specifically for a 964. He said 'Drive both and then decide". So I opened up slightly to the idea of a 993. Included 993's in all my search efforts the same as 964's. Most 993's were more than $10K above my spending limit.
During my daily multi-state scouring of craigslist, ebay, autotrader cars.com and many others I stumbled on a brand new craigslist listing in Milwaukee. The car was at an auto broker and was priced at 28K ($5K higher than my self imposed limit). it was a Saturday around 1 pm and I immediately picked up the phone and called them after reading the ad. I talked with the sales rep and he said I had to see this car to believe it. I hung up the phone and 2 hours later (3:30 pm) was in Milwaukee standing in front of her taking loads of pictures of all the important bits so i could start my due diligence. We took her for a ride, my first drive in a 993, and I really liked the car allot. I could not find barely a blemish in the paint (a 10/10 for a used car) and the interior looked great as well (a 9/10 I'd say) The clock said she had 34K miles on her. This all added up to me as "This may be too good to be true". If it was the "real deal" and the car was sound it was a good price. I knew the car wouldn't last at that price and mileage so I wanted to pounce...
After some advice from all of you and a little research I realized, in the state of Wisconsin if I sign a purchase contract and make a down payment the dealer cannot legally sell to anyone else after that point. I might have to pay a penalty if I didn't buy, but I made sure the penalty written into the contract was $0/0% before I signed it and made a down payment.
I had a friend of mine who owns a body shop that does work on exotics go up last Saturday with me to look at the car for a body PPI (I was very skeptical and do not trust anyone when buying a car) he went over the car and said the body was in great condition and had no work done to it. I scheduled a PPI on Monday for today. Went for the PPI today at Mraz Imports in Brookfield WI. They went over the car with me and showed me everything while doing the PPI. I was VERY impressed with them, they seem to have GREAT customer service.
Turns out the front struts are shot the rear struts are weak and it needs a corner balance and alignment. The engine is strong and runs very well. I asked about compression/leakdown testing and they said this car runs great that I would just be wasting my money. If there were any hint of a problem they would suggest doing the Compression testing but said it was a waste of time and money. They came back with some minor issues. Filters needed cleaning/replacement new wiper blades. A small amount of oil seepage at both valve covers and said don't worry about it until the engine has to come out to do other work. The heater blower motor was throwing a code and upon inspection was vibrating & the tech said that will need to be replaced. All in all Mraz said the car was very nice and the few things it needed would run about $1700 maybe a tad more in all.
It was a great 90 mile drive home from Milwaukee back to Schaumburg, IL.
Thank you everyone for all your responses and input.
So here she is... the all important "Mandatory Pictures"
07-02-2009, 10:29 PM
#4
Well looks good but take a close look at the speedo and it seems to have small white particles of dust inside. That tells me maybe tampering might be an issue? Unless it's just the picture? That's what I look for when I buy any 911 made from model year 1998 and back. It seems that from that close up shot you can see small particles of inside the speedo.
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07-02-2009, 11:24 PM
#11
Nordschleife Master
Well looks good but take a close look at the speedo and it seems to have small white particles of dust inside. That tells me maybe tampering might be an issue? Unless it's just the picture? That's what I look for when I buy any 911 made from model year 1998 and back. It seems that from that close up shot you can see small particles of inside the speedo.
First ... congrats and welcome to the 993 club ....
Second ... forget about the naysayers who look for dust inside the speedo ... a clean PPI is much more important ...
Third ... drive it like you stole it ...
07-02-2009, 11:40 PM
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Polar Silver! Excellent choice.....let me be the first to say it....upgrade your suspension and lower it!! you will love it. good choice and beautiful car. I looked at the 964 too when searching and I'm so glad I got the 993. Have fun. Did you sleep in it yet?
07-03-2009, 12:27 AM
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Congrats! The "research" and "search" part of the story brought back many memories of my "hunt" and the same process that I went though to find that elusive Pcar. The "mulit-state scouring" made me laugh as that is exactly what I did every single day....see the link to my thread below:
https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...ferrerid=56320
Congrats once again and enjoy the slippery slope!!!
https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...ferrerid=56320
Congrats once again and enjoy the slippery slope!!!