You guys are making great points! I'm working on the price right now.

 

Paid 17k for my car a month ago. 67k miles. Low options early 99 with cable throttle. Clean in and out. New dual row ins, clutch, brakes and tires. 9k in receipts. Clean carfax/auto check. Ocean blue on space gray interior. Clean in and out, but not 'enthusiast' clean. Just fwiw.

Ken

 

Well to start it looks like this car has been available for quite a while. That gives an indication on the market and asking price - definitely on the high side. IMO $30K for a 996.2 is top dollar. I would say real value on that car is more like $25K due to continued 997 depreciation and as mentioned you are close to 996 TT prices.

The real question is why are you paying top dollar for a ultra low mile car that you are going to drive? The sweet spot, IMO, is a 60-80K mile car in your EXACT color/interior preference, that has the updates and service history with clean record. A car with that many miles is not going to lose much value with another 6-8K miles that you tack on over the next couple years. Something like that should ring in under $20K all day long. That way you can actually drive the car and not worry about resale value.

 

^^^
Hmmmm..... show me a sub $20K immaculate reasonable mileage 996.2 for sale. I'm sure the odd one pops up here and there, but that would be a rare find IMHO. Lotsa' 996.1's in that range though.

 

Might have another find. 2003 targa tip with full leather and Bose 63k miles 26.5k

 

Can you give us your parameters? You are throwing me off with the 2nd option which seems completely different from the first? Is it based primarily on the color you mentioned earlier?

 

I'm pretty much wide open. I would rather have under 40k miles. Coupe or targa. Either transmission. Must be blue exterior and black, grey or tan interior. 30k budget.

 

I really like the 13500 mile one, but I think it slightly over priced and everybody got me nervous on the bearing issue.

 

I got it down almost another thousand dollars.

I think I'll take that 13,000 mile one.

 

Congrats... ****** it up and get the LN IMS done...
The money you carve off the dealer will pay for the updated bearing.

To be honest, I'm happy to see 996's sell in the high 20's-low 30's... Means the sky is no longer falling...lol

 

Did you think I can wait one year/ 4k miles to get the job done?

 

Absolutely. Change the oil and filter as soon as you get it and do a thorough inspection and if all is good you can wait forever if you want.

Most IMS bearing do not go bad. It is someting to know about and be aware of and take care of when you have time.

 

Agreed I was probably a bit optimistic on the 996.2 cars however the market is flush with examples and a bit of patience and searching will uncover something much closer to $20K than $30K.

Yes this is a 1999 but IMO an outstanding bargain for someone looking for a driver. 1999 996 Black, Aero, Sport seats, 63K miles $16500. I am pretty confident that could be bought and driven for ~ 20K miles and sold for == money.

 

My advice... Have the dealer preform an oil/filter change and allow you to cut the filter open to look for any metal particles before the deal is done... Then, if it checks out, take it home and drive it for the weekend. Put a couple hundred miles on and dump the oil/filter again looking for metal. If both times you are not seeing anything then the bearing is at least good right now.
Without previous history, its a crap shoot....

Mine went 80,000 stock and never showed signs of an issue. I just changed it for piece of mind.

 

JMO but if your not going to update the bearing you could ask for a warranty. This car falls in the "high risk" section of failure prone IMSB's. Why you ask?

According to the data the worse offenders are early MK2's with low mileage. Low mileage equals lots of down time for the bearing and probably infrequent oil changes. If you dont take this seriously, you may end up with a 13,500 mile "roller".