How much effort did you put into finding your car?
 

I see all sorts of threads where people spent forever searching for a car before they bought it. I think I put about the least amount of effort of anyone.

I had been wanting a sports car for awhile. I spent a couple hours researching pretty much every sports car, and all fingers kept pointing to a 911 of one ilk or another.

One day, I told Sara I was going to buy a Porsche. Her immediate reply was, "oh, no you're not." Not because I couldn't, just because she didn't believe me.

That evening, whilst downing a vodka, I spent about 30 minutes on CarGurus and found a 996 on consignment at a crappy used car dealership about 50 miles from here.

The next day, I went up there, drove the car for about 5 miles, and told the guy I'd buy it pending a PPI. Scheduled the PPI, it came back good, and the next day I returned with the cash and drove it home.

It had no documented history, but when I got home I found a slip of paper in it with a service record and a guy's name. A quick internet search, and I found the guy's email address and sent him a message. He called me the next day, and I was able to get the car's history.

So, what was your effort to find your car?

I killed my 40th, which I spent a month looking for, then spent 30 minutes finding my 996tt, looked at it, scheduled PPI the next day, bought the day after.

What kind of vodka?

After initial research, I knew I wanted a 996 4S, and after looking at various pictures, narrowed it down to seal gray on black (before I knew Cobalt Blue existed). Then I waited about 3 months for the right one to pop up.

I met my friend who had one. original owner, 10 years ago. I saw how he took care of all of his stuff, house, boat, other cars and motorcycles. I told him I wanted it when he wanted to sell it. 10 years later I own it in the first week in August. 1999c2 cab.

Mine found me...Literally! Although I "wanted" a 911 forever and always had some sort of intentions on getting one eventually, it wasn't even on my radar when an "opportunity" presented itself :surr:

Saw it in the morning on cars.com. Drove out of the dealership in the afternoon.
Had to wait for the dealership to open.

Looked for about 6 months, with pretty specific criteria, including price range. Was just about to give up when the perfect car showed up locally. Owned by a doc, always covered parking (even at the hospital), all service records, right price, etc. Had a few more miles than I wanted but at the time of purchase he had just spent many thousands on consumables, so I took the plunge. 2 1/2 years and 47,000 miles later I haven't looked back. At 63 years old I've lost track of how many cars I've owned, including many sports cars, but nothing excited me like my 996. I initially thought this might be my "starter" Porsche, but this just might be a keeper.

The first 996 candidate I found locally at a dealer, thought we had a deal but the dealer was being funny about PPI and started spouting lots of shady used car dealer jargon, so I walked. Exhausted local supply of cars that I was interested in (c2, manual, not silver or grey, miles not too high, not overpriced) so I went with a wider net. Found one in Vegas that the owner said was flawless, then it basically bombed the PPI so the owner pulled it off the market to figure out his options. Found one in Ohio, PPI came out well, so I bought it. I was originally going to have it shipped, but that was turning into a hassle and I just rented a car one way and brought her home. Nothing like an almost 400 mile road trip in a car that I just purchased! My avatar photo is from the trip home, at the first rest stop somewhere between Columbus and Indianapolis. The whole thing probably took me 2-3 weeks start to finish.

My wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I told her I had everything I wanted (pretty much true) but then I was goofing around on cars.com and saw that Boxsters were like $12,000 and my brain was like hmmmmm.... I would really like a fun car because I had traded away all my fun cars for boring sensible 5 person family holding cars. Because she is awesome she said "sure, find one."

Found one near me that I drove and it was ok but the price was out of line so I kept looking.

Found a beautiful guards red over tan boxster about 100 miles away and the price and mileage were good, so on my birthday we drove down there and I test drove the boxster. It was great, solid car and I was ready to buy. Sitting next to it was a silver 911. A few years older, a few extra miles. A few dollars more. Can I drive that one? Sure, said the dealer. Off we went. Came back. My wife asked me about it. "It's amazing. That's an awesome car." She then disappeared into the office to finish the paperwork on the boxster while I spent time admiring it and sending pics to my buddies.

Dealer comes out and tosses me the keys, says happy birthday! I hop in the boxster and the key won't work. I tell him something is wrong. "You're in the wrong car, that's one's yours" pointing at the 911. Whaaaaat? Big grin.

So, I dunno, how much effort?

After a friend told me the 996 models were affordable it took about a week of off and on looking to find one locally. From there it took another week to close the deal (no ppi but there was still snow on the ground so couldn't take it out for a drive). Car seemed solid, price was right in the market, and bought it.

So all in all it took a few weeks from knowing the time was right where I could afford it to getting one. I knew I wanted a 911, not totally in love with them or a huge fan or anything, just always thought they were neat and finally made it happen.

That's an awesome story - your wife rocks!

Saw the 997 listed on autotrader, went to see it the same day and bought the car then and there.

My 996 was almost as fast/impulsive. Had been looking for a 996tt semi-seriously for a while when I saw the C4S on auto trader. Called the guy and went to see the car a few days later. Signed the papers the same day, picked it up a few weeks later.

Wife story is the best ever.

It found me. Was at a dealer to look at a used 997. They sold it the night before. My car was in the showroom. I sat in it. It was almost like I would have ordered one and my wife said just buy it. Done.