techweenie

I'm in So Cal, where there is an abundance of 996TTs. One or two-owner cars with low miles are bringing a disproportionate premium, IMO. For a well-priced car, you need to be flexible on the service history and the number of owners and the miles. Many of these cars were bought as rich guys' toys - joining a fleet of other cars, so they could have 6-7 owners in 4-5 different states and records lost along the way. As for wood interior, those are all removable parts, and on my first 996TT, I removed & sold off all the wood parts for a fair amount. So IMO the presence of wood trim should not be relevant in your search.

docwyte

Amount of owners and mileage I don't really care about. I'm happy with a car with 60k+ miles on it, no problems with that. I would prefer a service history tho...

wyo

pfbz

Absolutely agree...

Unless the mods are

1. Fully documented,
2. Done in a completely cohesive way by one of the very best tuners (UWM, Sambot, Markski come to mind),
3. Are not mods that might have been 'best of class' ten years ago but components that would not used these days on a new build (the recent 6speedonline turbo for example, lots of parts that really are "old school" and not how most would upgrade a turbo today.

It's too bad the sixspeed/Boulder car doesn't have all the original components to return it to stock, not to mention the oem parts like intercooler ducting and airbox that would also have to be replaced and wont be cheap. That car would IMHO definitely be worth MORE if it has zero mods on it vs. the old-school mods it has.

Lesson here, keep ALL of your original parts when modding a car, and don't cut anything until you figure out how much it will cost to replace that sacrificed part! :-0

docwyte

Ok, that follows what I've been seeing. A lightly modded car with stock turbos and a tune, with suspension and exhaust etc is selling for more money than a turbo swapped car...

docwyte

Sold my M3 today, so it's Game On! Who's got a 996 turbo they wanna sell me?

THP23

I'm REALLY sad I missed out on this car, sold in 5 days. I'm down in Florida and would have done the Fly out and drive home. That was a really clean car.

THP23

BTW, this sounds like a good match for you...
https://clarksville.craigslist.org/c...603980302.html

docwyte

Drove an '03 996tt today that had the UMW tune on it. OMFG was it insanely fast! I'd been waffling between a 996tt and a 1M, now I'm not! 996tt all day long!

Looking at two other 996tt's tomorrow, will hopefully have one in my garage by the weekend!

2fcknfst

Interestingly, when I got mine it had 77kms on it, and from the outside, looked pretty good. With that being said, by the time I updated and addressed the most glaringly obvious problems (shifter, detent, wheels/tires, spark plugs, caps, tranny insert, new pads and sensors, buggered wing, etc.), I have spent another $20k (CDN), and I expect a motor out service during the off season to update clutch, gears fuel injectors, pinning etc.

Yar, this be an expensive hobby...

THP23

And I thought I wanted to 996tt...

docwyte

Think I found my 996 Turbo yesterday. Waiting for a few things to get cleaned up on it, hopefully close the deal and have it in my garage this Friday.

Question tho, I typically do some mods on my cars and planned to on whatever 996 Turbo I got. Nothing crazy, but maybe a flash tune, exhaust, put a more modern stereo in (bluetooth, MP3, etc), tint and clear bra.

Will any of that negatively impact the value of the car? Right now the car is bone stock. I always keep all the stock parts and never do anything that physically alters the car. Ie, only things that bolt on to factory attachments that can be easily and cleanly reversed...

pfbz

I think that depends largely on the car...

If your buying a low mile, pristine, 2005 Turbo S in a paint-to-sample color that is 100% original, you might want to keep it that way even if the mods you are thinking about are "reversible".

If your buying for example a 40K-70K mile 2001-2004 than anything fairly reversible will have little or no impact on value as long as you reverse it before sale.

Might as well make it yours assuming you haven't bought what you think is a collector car you wouldn't want to put miles on anyway... Carplay radio, tune, exhaust, suspension, tint, wheels/tires and drive the wheels off of it!

By the way, congrat's! Your going to love it! What color/year/options?

docwyte

No, not a late model pristine Turbo S.

It's a 2003 Artic Silver/Black leather with 29k miles on it, 100% original, very good condition. Small rock chips here and there on the bumpers with small scuffs on the bumpers that a detailer should be able to remove. Sport seats, headrest crests, aluminum instrument dials, metal door sills. Seller has some other parts I may buy as well that he never used like a Precision GT2 decklid/wing, spare wheels/tires and a Tubi exhaust that was on the car briefly. Car has stock exhaust on it now...

So it's not a Turbo S, but it is a very nice, low mileage car. I don't plan on letting it be a garage queen, I will drive it maybe 3-4,000 miles a year.

pfbz

Sounds like a nice car!

I'd say your more than safe for the mods you talked about while keeping all oe parts, being careful not to cut wiring harnesses, etc. In fact it's kind of a shame to run a 996 Turbo without at least a basic tune on it, they respond so well!

I'd still suggest coil inspection for cracks (or just pre-emptive replacement as they can be purchased reasonably and the hassle of getting to them is pretty high) and a full boost pressure test as often it is the age rather than miles that effects the components that fail. Plugs too if not done in the last 10K, fuel filter for good measure. 5W50 Mobil 1 instead of 0W40, especially in the Denver heat, then tune. Exhausts are really pricey and many of them are overly loud for my tastes, but can give you decent gains, plus the hassle of taking them on and off if your registering in the front range emissions area.