That's where I'm at with mine. I opted to buy a short block and do the the labor myself. Still a staggering amount of money to spend. I'm not in love with the car as it's a car. My favorite car is my 94 Ford Ranger. I paid $1000 for it 15 years ago. It starts, and runs and drives every time.

Tell us about the PPI. Did they scope? Who did it?

I am going to drive mine for a bit after the rebuild and then pass it along for someone else to spend money on. Keep us apprised of where you list it.

BaT is a great place to sell a car, but not a great place to buy a car. For the biggest buck I would list it there. FWIW that's where I got mine and got completely ripped off.

Best,

 

As a buyer: Good luck finding somebody that did a PPI, has perfect record history, oil analysis of the past 6 months, video footage of everything, dropped the pan multiple times with footage, oil samples, etc. You'll be waiting almost certainly an eternity if ever finding one. Certified pre-owned loaner cars don't have that kind of record history.

As a seller: If somebody had all of that presented to me, I'd be more skeptical than a car with no service history. Like, why are you spending thousands of dollars and tons of man-hours to sell a vehicle when it's As-Is anyways? You see that as transparent, I see that as fishy and over-selling it.

At the end of the day, it's a 20 year old car...the Concours car will need something from being not driven. The car with it being driven daily will need something. Bottom line? If it's in your budget, you or somebody you trust has looked it over, and your gut tells you it's OK, it's probably OK. Just buy with common sense knowing it's not a brand new car.

 

Just a thought from a 20 year owner of a 996. If I was to sell my car (i am not) and attempt to get top dollar I would want to prove its in perfect mechanical shape. So I would not only show the complete service history over the past 20 years, I would also show the bores and sump including the oil filter in pictures/video. As well as the oil tests. Plus I would give the prospective buyer the name of the shop to call and discuss.

Why, because my car is in awesome shape. I service the he'll out of it anyways so why not prove it. If it wasn't, I would do like the vast majority of sellers do, and list it with a couple of service records and a trust me. There is a reason why most of the cars on Bat have no service records or info. It's because they haven't been properly serviced.

That may be the difference between and extra 5-10k depending on market forces.

 

You won't test drive my red VW? FWD, 1992, 240WHP.

 

no this is just a normal PPI, I would never bother pulling an oil pan for a car with no issues. if a buyer wants to pay for it, I'll happily drop it off to be done.

 

Luckily I have great service records!

 

Did they at least scope the cylinders on bank#2?

 

When you sell real estate do you hire an inspector for the buyer or is this just for old cheap cars? This is nonsense.

 

That car is special because of the celebrity ownership and has earned an exemption.

 

Maybe or maybe not.

But to your point, I would wager a guess that less than 10% of today's buyers get a bore scope done. But that will change as the 996 market continues to heat up, since borescoring is guaranteed slow death for an engine.

​​​​​​Pity the seller who hasn't gotten their car scoped who is trying to sell it when an intelligent buyer gets it scoped and finds scoring. The sale price will very quickly go from 40k to 10k.

Seems to me the best course of action is to (1) change your oil very frequently, (2) check your oil pan and oil filter for debris on a frequent basis, (3) get a bore scope ever year or two, (4) take pictures in case you want to sell your car, and (5) test your oil.

Funny thing is I am going thru this exercise tomorrow with my shop. But no, I have no intention of selling my car. But I do have every intention of keeping it running. So I gotta keep looking inside.

I suspect the 996 market will bifurcate in prices over the next year or two with proof from the seller that the bores are good.

IMHO, right now it's a buyer beware market. It will eventually become a seller beware market.

 

This is the mentality that has led to many subsequent RL posts that start with "My new 911 is suddenly making a ticking sound.........." Unless the "somebody you trust" has x-ray vision and can see the inside of the cylinder walls this mentality will end up costing you more than you bargained for.

 

There is no such thing as a seller beware market for used cars (In the states), it's as is. Doing due diligence for a buyer for anything cars, boats, houses, etc... is foolish. I'm not proposing being dishonest but there is no way I'm finding problems for a buyer that's their job.

 

Seller beware is when you have bore scoring and you don't know it and the prospective buyer gets a bore scope and they find it. You wanted 40k and now they offer you 10k.

Good luck seller, you should have been aware.

 

Lets now fast forward a few years and the good examples of the 996 are now going for 60k. Seller didnt check their engine for borescoring and they put it on the market. Prospective buyer gets a scope done and finds borescoring. Seller wanted 60k and buyer offers 10k. You get the idea.

The higher prices go for the 996, the more the buyers will start to check. Seller beware.

 

Many 996 sellers don't want to have their cars go through an invasive inspection because they're scared what that may reveal.