White Trash With Cash

I agree with you, but i think there will be less overall inventory out there than a few years ago. I think a lot of chaps have already been taken to the cleaners by the markets.. When I was looking in 2009-2010, there were just a MASSIVE amount of big boy toys out there going for ridiculously cheap prices,. I was watching auctions on p-cars and speedboats and I could not believe the deals that were being scored, especially on EBAY. At the time I was looking to get a baja boat ( a high end, high performance monohull). There were practically new, ultra low hour boats out there selling for half of what they were bought for a year before. I saw this all over the state.. Unfortunately, I could not sell my boat at the time to cash in on these fire sales..

Carlo_Carrera

I would value the car at $47k-49kish, but getting the seller down to that price is another matter.

There are a few low mileage 996TTs with tips or 6pds out there for less. The 01 MY cars are very reasonable right now.

Have a look:

http://www.cars.com/for-sale/searchr...les&sf2Dir=ASC

Clever_User_Name

I just paid $42.5k for my '01 Tip w/ 25.5k miles. It was at a non-Porsche dealer. Likely overpaid by about $1k, but they were so much more aggressive on my trade than other dealers that I figured it a wash to slightly positive for me. For the same mileage and a couple years newer, $47k-ish sounds right to me.

Farfelc2s

I do own an 03 996 TT and need to sell. So far,I have only $43 offered.
No pics, but I have never seen a better looking 996 anywhere. the car is in storage till Thurs when I can take pix. Seal grey/Natural brown full leather w lots of OE Options and two sets of OE Wheels.

It seems that NOBODY wants them these days.

Macster

Where have you advertised the car? My advice would be -- if you haven't already thought of this -- would be to advertise it nationwide, in Canada and of course in the USA.

Many Turbo shoppers are not against going some distance for the perfect car.

Also take lots of hi res pics. Use good lighting. Take shots from straight on from the front, both sides, rear, and 3/4 views. Pics of each brake/wheel and tire. Pics of the interior, front trunk, engine compartment, keys, manuals, even a pic of the orignal window sticker if you have it.

The pics want to show anyone who looks at them the A/C condensors are the same color and the ducts clean and all and I mean all the body panel gaps are even.

The pics wants to be such that a viewer can feel he knows the car very well from just the pics. Good pics can go along way to helping move a car.

Good luck with your sale.

Sincerely,

Macster.

SSST

It's the economy. I'm in the market for a second home and have the cash in the bank, but am waiting to see what happens. I'm thinking there will be some really good deals later this year or next Spring.

If I was in the market for a new toy, I would be taking the same approach. I know a tt isn't a rational purchase, but most people with the money are rational people.

We're at the stage where buyers are looking for a deal and sellers aren't ready to give in. With economic uncertainty and the 991 release, I predict a soft market for the 996 in the near term.

It will probably come back up, but we will likely find the bottom over the next year.

That said I hope all the buyers and sellers get their price. I could be wrong after all.

c32AMG-DTM

Overall, a logical post IMHO - agree with much of it. I'd be surprised if we saw these revisit the fire-sale prices of late '08 and early-mid '09 (when the DJIA was in the mid-upper 6k range) by next year. But you never know.

sfhondapilot

Another point of view is that anyone sitting on cash is probably more interest in timing a market reversal than buying a new toy.

vincefaro

So I drove the car today. The exterior was in great condition. The one issue I had was the headlights looked a like they were starting to fade. Im not sure if toothpaste will do the trick or not, but that was one thing. The car drove great. Steady, new tires although the are Hankook's , I saw a recent service where the brakes were at the yellow level. The car's last service was in April 0f 11. The 30k mile has not been done. The interior was excellent , the center console had some scratches but that is minor. The leather was great near perfect. The spoiler went up and down , I tried it several times. The battery was dead when I got there. It had to be jumped. The car started right up , no unusal smoke. Overall I liked the way it drove. Perfect driving position, great brake feel, steering and that power, well that is awesome. It has the exhaust tips that look like sport exhaust ,but i do not see that as an option on this car. Im thinking about this car......

Macster

Be sure you drive the car long enough (30 miles) to really give the engine a chance to get noisy, leak, or the DME to detect a problem and turn on the CEL. Be sure the CEL lights up when you 1st turn the key on too.

Faded headlights I don't know. My 03 Turbo's headlights have not appeared to have faded any.

(My Boxster's headlights have yellowed, well the original one has. The driver's side is new replaced after it fell to the ground and broke knocked out when the car was rear-ended at a stop light.)

In the case of my Turbo, the passenger side headlight unit was replaced (the original one was damaged in encounter with a deer) with a new factory unit and both headlights look near as I can tell the same. Now the car (and headlights) didn't have that many miles when the headlight was replaced. But I've driven the car another 2 years and 60K miles (the car has just under 70K miles.

Toothpaste is a horrible polishing compound.

If there is a way to polish the headlights and remove that fading -- if that is what is wrong (or maybe someone's been at the lights with toothpaste...) you better be sure you know the way and can do it successfully because a new headlight is expensive. IIRC around $1800. And if you ruin two...

If the battery was dead budget for a new battery because chances are that battery is near its end.

Sincerely,

Macster.

Kevinmacd

In 2010 The 996 had a resale of 37K low, and 49.7K for a high. So now we are towards the end of 2011, I would think these numbers have come down some. Add a little for the X50, and 10% premium for low mileage.

Don't underestimate the Hankooks! My feeling the kooks are better than the Michelins for street driving!

vincefaro

Wow. 1800.00 for new headlights? Man I bought a pair of clear headlights for my 2001 Boxster for 250.00. They were not xenons but man that is significantly higher. Can polishing save the headlights?

c32AMG-DTM

No "s" - headlight. Each side is about $2k USD for the whole headlight. So about $4k for new headlights.

Macster

Well, with my experience with glass/plastic finishing polishing is what you do after you have brought the surface to be polished to a suitable condition that can take the polishing.

For plastic/glass polishing is not an abrasive process per se, but more a chemical process. Material is not removed completely but simply relocated from the high spots to the low spots to bring the surface to the desired finish.

There is a very definite limit to how polished a surface can become and it depends upon the condition of the surface to be polished.

The pre-polished surface wants to be very very smooth and of course clean and kept clean or the polishing will just scratch the heck of the surface being polished.

So the answer is probably not.

But...

Now it may be possible the headlights have a special coating on their outside or even inside surface that has turned dull or faded. I have a pair of sunglasses (with plastic lenses) and one lens has developed a very faint (but noticable) dullness to it, like the lens has a very faint fogging to it. I believe the anti-scratch/anti-glare coating has well, just reached the end of its life. The lenses are probably 10 or more years old.

If the headlights have something similar then this coating may be removed by polishing. The polishing of the headlights may improve the looks of the headlights, may even increase the amount of light the headlights emit, but enough to make anything more than a cosmetic difference? (In the case of my sunglasses while if I take the glasses off and look at the lenses I can see the bit of fogging on the right lens but with the glasses on I can notice any difference between the two lenses and the amount of light they pass through.

Furthermore that coating was there for a purpose. Remove it and this may make the plastic more likely to be pitted or even scratched when washed or the light may come out with a bit more glare or harshness.

So can polishing the headlights save them? Well, it is up to you but my opinion is no.

If nighttime visibility is not signficantly affected by the condition of the headlights and the headlights are otherwise functional, I'd leave them alone.

OTOH, if the headlight performance is not acceptable and the only alternative is replace them or try to salvage/resurrect them by polishing, well, what have you got to lose but some time and elbow grease. Lots of time and elbow grease. Years ago I made optical flats by hand, once. Weeks of work. The blanks were pyrex and just a few inches across. But to get the flatness I needed I had to grind/surface and then polish all 3 blanks. I finally got the blanks polished sufficiently to get fringes but oh what a lot of work. And let's not talk about telescope mirror making...

Anyhow, there are companies offering products and guidance on how to go about this headlight polishing business if you want to look into it more or even try it.

Here's one link:

http://www.autogeek.net/headlight-lens.html

I have not read the info at the link nor used the products from this company or any company offering headlight polishing products so you're on your own.

Good luck!

Sincerely,

Macster.

CincyScott

I just paid the same thing for a 31k mile version. Had the options that I wanted and was the right color. Maybe could've gotten it for a grand or two less, but certainly not 5 to 7k less.