Talk me down?
 

Soooo, I'm not really in the market at all, but I saw this article the other day and its been keeping me up are at night.

The cheap 996 at the top of the article is near my home. It's nearly the same color as my old 928 that I loved. I do my own wrenching, and I have a back up car, but I don't have $12K I can throw away if this thing grenades.

So, you only live once? Don't be stupid, you can't finance a 20 year old car.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...e8bf426bc4.jpg

Edited to add: yes it's a tip, and though I prefer stick, if I pulled the trigger on this, I would putting miles on it, and a tip makes more sense for where and how I drive.

If you like the colour and the interior spec/package... then go for it. :-)

I guess do your own googling about engine issues and make up your own mind based on the vehicles service history and what's been done to it.

I have a tiptronic 996 - which I picked up by choice. I wanted a daily driver - something I could easily commute in. I also had very specific preferences around colour and interior; silver on black basically. My car looks exactly like this one: http://richmonds.com.au/portfolio/19...e-911-carrera/

The Tiptronic is great for a 20 year old automatic. Like, really good for it's age. But you just don't get the feel of the engine in the same way - You cant play with and hold it in the power band like you can in the manual. But then again you know a tiptronic has never been over-revved and you dont have expensive clutch replacements. In the Australian market the Tiptronic is probably more desirable in general.

So basically I now have to buy another 911 with a manual box to scratch that itch. I'll be needing a bigger garage LOL

YES, you can finance a 20 year old car if you have good credit. Pen Fed or LightStream.

I used LightStream to buy a 15 year old 996 recently. They ACH the money to your bank account and they don't hold the title and they really don't care what the car is (thus the requirement that you have good credit). Pen Fed wanted the particulars on the car and couldn't tell me the interest rate until that point, so the savings juice wasn't worth the squeeze so I went with LightStream. They are a subsidiary of Suntrust.

And just keep in mind that your "cheap" 996 will likely come with a maintenance bill behind it from a few thousand dollars on up... As I said before here, you should definitely drop the oil sump cover and verify that there are no metal or plastic bits in there. But realize that someone else could have done the same and removed them. Mine had pieces of timing chain roller in it which is why it is off getting work done on it to the tune of a lot more than a couple thousand dollars...

My 2 cents: Don't buy any older Porsche if you can't pay cash. And especially don't buy a low price 996 unless you have the ability to spend another $5k +/- out of pocket to do deferred and preventative maintenance (in the absence of proof of recent work). If the off chance of having a $10-20K engine grenade keeps you awake at night, it probably isn't the right vehicle.

I mostly agree
 

My plan was to finance in case a big bill showed up after I bought it. I definitely wouldn't buy a 996 because it is "cheap". The reality is that you can probably get a decent 997 for $40-50K and you could easily be out $30-40K on a 996 after acquisition and repairs.

Every local shop may tell you "I've never seen an IMS issue", but so what, there are a lot of other things that can go wrong with one of these engines. I knew when I bought it I was gambling, but I bought the 996 as my first Porsche and I bought one that had what I wanted in a car that I was going to keep forever: great interior, great paint, manual transmission, black on black, RWD, and very few options (less to break over time). I was prepared to have the engine rebuilt if necessary. Fortunately I found the chain roller bits before the engine grenaded at 70 mph.

Said another way...

Sir, please turn around slowly and step away from the ledge...

I wasnt in the market for my 996 either until I kept seeing its price drop on craigslist and I went out to have a look on a whim.

Mine didnt come with ANY history and post purchase inspection at my local dealer gave me a $10K repair bill... HA! DIY im sure it'll all be done for less than $3k...

The risk will ALWAYS be there... just have a plan. Mine isnt my daily driver so if I have to park it for a year to collect parts/do repairs, so be it.

I'd say find one in the configuration you want though. It would be more enjoyable that way.

Thank you for your thoughtful replies.

One of the reasons that I feel so drawn to this car, is that, for what would be a fairly impractical purchase, a C4 tip is probably fits my needs better than any other configuration.

I love the color.

Also, my good friend that is a very good professorial mechanic, whom I run to whenever there's an issue beyond my skills or tools, lives in the town where this car is being sold. He is a Porsche guy, that owns an early 996. He said he'd check it out for me for free.

These things are drawing me in!

I know I should walk away, it's just so sexy!

HELP!

Fear not. I'm already sexy.
I was talking about the car.
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My suggestion is to always pay cash for everything, especially for depreciating assets!

About that, I would absolutely expect depreciation, but do you expect prices to just keep falling?
Are we looking at $5-6K 996's in a few years like some old 944's. I kind of had the idea, outside of the expected high maintenance costs, and as cheap as the purchase price is already, it couldn't depreciate all that much.
But that isn't really based on any experience or anything. That may just be be trying to justify the purchase in my head.

Doesn't matter. Car is gone. Unless the OP wrote the check(although I doubt it if he's into finance).